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Czechmate Parrot Unboxing & Overview


tacomandood

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So I decided to do a sort of unboxing/overview of what comes with a Czechmate Parrot if you were to buy one this year. It's pretty well-known, at least on these forums, that CZ has been changing or cutting out some of the stuff that's included with their guns, and I took the opportunity to highlight everything that came in with my Parrot this week. It seems, aside from the last month or so, that there wasn't a lot of recent info on what's included with the gun, so I ended up making this purchase without fully knowing what to expect. My hope is that this will help some people that may be looking at buying either a Czechmate or a Czechmate Parrot in the future. With what seems to be a much larger amount of Parrots being offered this year than in the past, I figured more people might be having questions about these right now.

 

There are a couple notable features, including the factory thumbrest as well as the lack of a second barrel. Still, the gun looks, feels, and shoots great, and I'm glad to have purchased this as my first Open gun. There's a list of parts in the video description, but here it is as well:

 

- Custom anodized grips, optic mount, magwell, trigger, magazine basepads, & slide racker
- C-More Slideride Optic Mount with Factory Adjustable Thumbrest Installed
- C-More Slideride, polymer body (8 MOA dot)
- 3x 20-round TS Magazines (9mm)
- 1x 26-round TS Magazine (9mm)
- Set of allen keys for assembly/disassembly
- Magazine Loader
- Extra Extractor
- 2x Slidestops 
- 4x Disassembly/Slidestop Pins (pins only)
- Front Sight Tracker
- Rear Fixed Sight
- TSO Thumbrest
- C-More windage/elevation lock screw allen keys
- 2x Spare Thumbrest Screws
- Zinc-plated Guide Rod Disassembly Key (?)
- Gun lock (AKA paperweight)

 

Let me know if you guys have any questions that I can try to answer, or if there's anything I missed that you want to see covered or were wondering about.

 

 

Edited by tacomandood
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I use an AlexIPSC thumb rest on mine. Also my trigger weight was 1lb 14oz out of the box but i got a flat trigger from Armory Craft and when i dropped it in with no modifications, i went down to 1lb 4oz. My buddies regular CM did the same with the same trigger. I also added the sidewinder slide racker and the S2 thumb rest. I have the czcustom extended thumb rest safety at home and will be putting that one as well. 

 

My only grip was the lack of blended mag well. There is a lip inside that can get the mags caught so i blended it and smoothed it out myself. 

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1 hour ago, eerw said:

Parrot also has a different hammer than standard Czechmate.

 

Yup, just realized this morning after uploading that I forgot to mention that. 🤦‍♂️ 

 

Still, it doesn’t seem to make a difference in trigger pull as far as I can tell compared to my TSO. I’ll definitely have to go in and polish up some parts because it feels a little bit grittier than the TSO out of the box though.

4 minutes ago, Bravo_Victor said:


i got a flat trigger from Armory Craft and when i dropped it in with no modifications, i went down to 1lb 4oz. My buddies regular CM did the same with the same trigger.

 Interesting. I may have to look into one of those too.. I do like where it’s at now, aside from the above mentioned need for a polishing, but a 1# trigger pull always sounds nice too lol. Still, I don’t feel like it’s a detriment with it still being <2# from the factory.

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51 minutes ago, MoRivera said:

You should fire Federal Syntech out of it.  Seems only fitting.

 

😉

I actually got a handful of these to try out from a friend and will definitely be getting a few pictures of that, for the aesthetics. 

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 Interesting. I may have to look into one of those too.. I do like where it’s at now, aside from the above mentioned need for a polishing, but a 1# trigger pull always sounds nice too lol. Still, I don’t feel like it’s a detriment with it still being


Tacomandood,

What is your trigger pull weight presently?

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

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Also my trigger weight was 1lb 14oz out of the box but i got a flat trigger from Armory Craft and when i dropped it in with no modifications, i went down to 1lb 4oz. My buddies regular CM did the same with the same trigger.


How can this be explained?
Any thoughts?
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1 hour ago, robert.a.brewer. said:


 

 


How can this be explained?
Any thoughts?

 

The only thing I can think of is, the flat trigger moves the ‘fulcrum’ or pivot point since the trigger shoe essentially works like a lever. Just like my Hiperfire Eclipse trigger in my  MPX, the directions states that placing the finger pad at the lowest notch further lowers the trigger pull weight. 

Edited by George16
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The only thing I can think of is, the flat trigger moves the ‘fulcrum’ or pivot point since the trigger shoe essentially works like a lever. Just like my Hiperfire Eclipse trigger in my  MPX, the directions states that placing the finger pad at the lowest notch further lowers the trigger pull weight. 
It's an impressive 33% reduction. I know many change to a flat trigger. Wonder how many have noted this much reduction in trigger pull.
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It may have to do with the design of the trigger and it’s fulcrum point as well. There are quite a few “drop in” triggers by Apex that go into common guns like the P320s and M&Ps that reduce the trigger weight just by this principle alone. It’s not hard to imagine considering they’re able to lower weights by about 1# just by changing the geometry of the trigger, so I could see how the Armory Craft ones do that.

It could also be that everyone who’s buying them has a confirmation bias to justify their purchase and are measuring at the very bottom of the trigger instead of the usual pull spot on the stock trigger, just to make it seem lighter. 🤷‍♂️

Edited by tacomandood
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20 hours ago, tacomandood said:

It may have to do with the design of the trigger and it’s fulcrum point as well. There are quite a few “drop in” triggers by Apex that go into common guns like the P320s and M&Ps that reduce the trigger weight just by this principle alone. It’s not hard to imagine considering they’re able to lower weights by about 1# just by changing the geometry of the trigger, so I could see how the Armory Craft ones do that.

It could also be that everyone who’s buying them has a confirmation bias to justify their purchase and are measuring at the very bottom of the trigger instead of the usual pull spot on the stock trigger, just to make it seem lighter. emoji2369.png

 

I put my gauge right in the center of the trigger and thats what it read. I know alot of people like to measure towards the bottom to make it seem lighter but thats.not realistic imo. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well folks, as of today I’ve been able to get the trigger down to a consistent 1# pull. With the prior noted grittiness, I was getting a 2# pull consistently. After pulling apart the sear cage and cleaning up some spots on the hammer and sear, it’s infinitely smoother and a whole pound lighter!

I compared it to parts of my TSO, and was surprised to see a few parts that were polished up there that weren’t polished on the Czechmate. Specific parts of that low-profile hammer were definitely untouched where the TSO hammer had been. This also could have just been the wear from the TSO going through about 5-6k rounds now, but there were definitely a few rough spots that needed smoothing either way. A simple few strokes with some high-grit sandpaper, and the pull weight dropped a whole pound!

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Well folks, as of today I’ve been able to get the trigger down to a consistent 1# pull...A simple few strokes with some high-grit sandpaper, and the pull weight dropped a whole pound!

 

That's a nice improvement from polishing. Bravo.

 

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It was hardly much work at all. The total time spent polishing and cleaning up parts was probably less than 5 minutes total. Most of the time I spent was figuring out how to disassemble and reassemble the gun since it was my first time doing a complete strip on the lower. I'd recommend it if you've got the time to take apart your gun and hit those spots.

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14 hours ago, tacomandood said:

It was hardly much work at all. The total time spent polishing and cleaning up parts was probably less than 5 minutes total. Most of the time I spent was figuring out how to disassemble and reassemble the gun since it was my first time doing a complete strip on the lower. I'd recommend it if you've got the time to take apart your gun and hit those spots.

You’re lucky the CM doesnt have staked pins like cheaper CZ’s bc that s#!t is a pain in the ass sometimes. Everything comes apart so smooth on the higher end ones. My only grip with the CM is how the magwell isnt blended with the frame. Theres an obvious lip that sticks out and id often get snagged when doing fast reloads. So i ended up doing it carefully by myself and now everything is super smooth. 

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Yeah, even with blending the magwell, it's still nowhere near as smooth as something you'd see on a well-fitted 2011 magwell. Really, they're some of the worst I've ever seen on the TS/Czechmates and a huge oversight that they still haven't fixed for years. I've trained to load the magazine toward the front of the magwell to prevent catching on the rear lip, but it still happens from time to time. I can't quite take off much more material from the frame without worrying about it cracking or digging into the mainspring plug. I've heard the CZC ones are a little better, but I don't know how willing I am to spend another $100+ on something I've been able to work around for now. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and just swap it though.

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27 minutes ago, tacomandood said:

I've heard the CZC ones are a little better, but I don't know how willing I am to spend another $100+ on something I've been able to work around for now. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and just swap it though.

 

I haven't blended mine to the factory magwell yet, but was considering the CZC larger version also...I wasn't sure if going that route at a later time the "blending" would match up from factory to czc.  However, like you, I don't really feel like dropping another hundo on parts.  I also have Henning grips that are designed for the factory magwell, so I'd have to either replace those, or figure out how to cut them.

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29 minutes ago, tacomandood said:

Yeah, even with blending the magwell, it's still nowhere near as smooth as something you'd see on a well-fitted 2011 magwell. Really, they're some of the worst I've ever seen on the TS/Czechmates and a huge oversight that they still haven't fixed for years. I've trained to load the magazine toward the front of the magwell to prevent catching on the rear lip, but it still happens from time to time. I can't quite take off much more material from the frame without worrying about it cracking or digging into the mainspring plug. I've heard the CZC ones are a little better, but I don't know how willing I am to spend another $100+ on something I've been able to work around for now. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and just swap it though.

I didn’t have any problems blending the magwell on the my TSO. I’ll be doing the same to the CM sometime. There’s plenty of material left on the plug after I was done.

 

4-CD975-F5-7-E17-4694-855-F-E6-EB74-DBCE

 

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On 5/2/2019 at 4:27 PM, George16 said:

I didn’t have any problems blending the magwell on the my TSO. I’ll be doing the same to the CM sometime. There’s plenty of material left on the plug after I was done.

 

4-CD975-F5-7-E17-4694-855-F-E6-EB74-DBCE

 

Good work. I did my CM and it made a huge difference 

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