CZ Shadow finish wearing quickly

[twodelta]

I bought a brand new CZ Shadow a couple of weeks ago, and the finish is already completely gone on the front left corner of the slide. The right side probably won't last much longer. I've only had it through a USPSA and 3 gun match along with maybe 50 draws during dry fire. I'm using a Comptac holster, and the inside is very slick. My wife's SP01 Shadow doesn't have this problem, but I got it used. So I'm not sure if it's the stock finish.

I had heard the stock finish on CZ's weren't as durable, but is this normal?

[bigfish]

I might have a 1000 rounds through my shadow and there is a fair amount of wear on the front edges of the dust cover from holster wear. But to be fair, I have dryfired it enough already to break my 1st tigger return spring

[magpulled]

I bought a new shadow around the 1st of March and mine is doing the same thing, but I dry fire for 15-30 minutes 5 times a month. Kinda sux when you pay so much for it. I ran a xdm 5.25 all last year and it has no holster wear.

[hiker88]

Yup, the finish on Shadows is not its strongest point. Just keep on shooting the pistol and have fun with it.

[twodelta]

I bought a new shadow around the 1st of March and mine is doing the same thing, but I dry fire for 15-30 minutes 5 times a month. Kinda sux when you pay so much for it. I ran a xdm 5.25 all last year and it has no holster wear.

I have an M&P Pro with 20k rounds through it with no holster wear. It just has some scratches from throwing it in 3 gun dump buckets. The Shadow is more accurate than the M&P, so I guess I'll just run it and get it refinished later. Just aggravating to spend that much on a pistol, and the finish wear off after 60 or 70 draws from a holster.

[thompsoncustom]

Indeed the finish is very poor. I have 100 rds through mine and the front of the slide is wore already. Gonna have the get it refinished later down the road with a better finish.

[bigfish]

I don't mind having a little wear on the gun, makes it look like us actually use it enough to know what you are doing.

[twodelta]

I don't mind a little wear either, but it should last more than two matches before the finish completely disappears on the front of the slide. At this rate the entire slide will be down to the white by the end of summer.

Edited April 30, 2014 by twodelta

[blind bat]

Maybe CZ is trying to compete with STI? It really does seem like finish durability is inversely proportionate to cost. (Unless hard chromed.)

The recent finish wear issues could be a byproduct of improved casting. The older frames were very hard but quite course. Doug Kimball warned me prior to sand blasting my Shadow that the polycote hides tiny frame pits. Less pits to hide could mean a thinner finish is required and a surface that is more difficult to adhere to.

Side note, CZ stopped offering the Duotone finish (silver speckled) because it wore off extremely fast.

[alma]

Has anyone tried ionbond? How does Cerakote ware compare to the stock finish?

[twodelta]

One of my friends has all of his CZs Cerakoted, and they hold up great. The problem is that's about another $150 on top of the gun, and you have to completely disassemble the gun.