Colby_Bedell Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 I am looking at tanfoglio's open guns and the czechmates. Tanfoglio's brand new open gun that is going to be coming to the us in 2020, the tanfoglio team has been using that for some time now, and they seem to be good. I saw that MBX has mags now for the Tanfoglios to so that is a plus. czechmates I was just recently told that they have a reversible mag release, and they seem to have some aftermarket support. Does anyone have thoughts and feelings on either one? Looking for feed back, not sure which one is better or is more reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTP_Shooting_Sports Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 I shot a Czechmate for a few years and it was not reliable. The barrels would break where the slide stop goes through at random intervals and parts took forever to order in as no one stocked them. I also had a frame crack where the slide stop goes through. They needs to be beefed up in these areas and CZ did not seem interested in doing so. There is a reason you don't see many of these being shot in competition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colby_Bedell Posted January 9, 2020 Author Share Posted January 9, 2020 13 minutes ago, FTP_Shooting_Sports said: I shot a Czechmate for a few years and it was not reliable. The barrels would break where the slide stop goes through at random intervals and parts took forever to order in as no one stocked them. I also had a frame crack where the slide stop goes through. They needs to be beefed up in these areas and CZ did not seem interested in doing so. There is a reason you don't see many of these being shot in competition! Great to know! I was looking at your guys optics not that long ago! Seem like good optics, I got to try one at some point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regor Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 2 hours ago, FTP_Shooting_Sports said: I shot a Czechmate for a few years and it was not reliable. The barrels would break where the slide stop goes through at random intervals and parts took forever to order in as no one stocked them. I also had a frame crack where the slide stop goes through. They needs to be beefed up in these areas and CZ did not seem interested in doing so. There is a reason you don't see many of these being shot in competition! How long ago were you shooting one? At some point they beefed up the front of the "peanut" in the barrel where it was breaking and I think those issues have largely gone away. I do know of one person who had a frame crack on a more recent production Czechmate (after ~50k rounds) but CZ replaced it (not sure on timeline). There are a handful of parts for the CM specifically that can be hard to track down (reverse plug, guide rod, OEM optic mount, comp), but none of them are wear parts and almost everything else is interchangeable with other CZ75 models. The slide stop/pins are the only thing that is a major wear item (5-10k rounds seems to be the norm), but new guns come with 3-4 spares and a spare barrel that is already fitted, and both of those are regularly in stock at CZ USA. Parts availability might have been an issue a few years ago, but I don't think it is anymore (and I doubt Tanfo parts availability is any better). The one strike I have against the CM is that getting a 29 round mag requires some tuning, which is annoying. Not sure how much of an issue that is with Tanfos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTP_Shooting_Sports Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 I shot them with the new and old barrel designs. The frame cracked with the new barrel design. The hole slide stop mechanism on the Czechmate puts too much stress on the frame, barrel and slide stops for competition use. The slide cyclic speed is also much faster than a 1911/2011. The gun would be fine for people that don't shoot that much but I put 20-30K rounds a year down the barrel of my competition guns and it just didn't hold up. I had two of them BTW. I even went so far to try the DPMS system and increase the stroke to try and make the gun live longer. I am predicting that with Eric Grauffel on the team, you are going to see a completely new Czechmate design in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abb1 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 (edited) The Czechmates that were produced in 2016 have beefed up barrels that have fixed the issue with the lug cracking. The older models have had many issues, but they are now all fixed. I have had my Czechmate since January 2017 (with the newer barrel) ,where the only thing that broke since was a slide stop pin. Not a big deal as they are readily available, plus I have had four that came with the czechmate. To date, I have shot over 25K rounds through it and the only jams I had, were due to dirty mags, and they were very few. I now clean my mags whenever they are dropped in dirt, and the gun just runs flawlessly. One thing to note though is that I have been running the DPM system in it since day one which really saves the frame. Edited January 10, 2020 by abb1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan4147 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 No knowledge the czechmate, but mbx has NO mags for tanfo in stock or in process. I do know that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandabooks Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 I've had both over the past couple of years. The Czechmate is what I am currently shooting. The Tanfo was a problem for the 170mm mag. Never could get a MBX mag to run in the gun and finally gave up. The gun with 12 poppel holes was incredibly loud but not hugely noticeable when actually behind the gun. The Tanfo needs trigger work right away. Patriot Defense is good for the trigger work. The Czechmate is more forgiving when it comes to the mags. CZCustom has everything except the Grams spring and followers. If you go with a Czechmate pickup a multi-optic mount as soon as you see one come available. They are the hardest accessory to find when you want one. I run a John Durso comp and guide rod. Excellent setup and the gun is flat. Czechmate won't need trigger work out of the box. I did put a metal trigger in mine but that was personal preference and not required. I'm not sure what Tanfo is coming out with this year for an improvement on the open gun. If you are buying right now I would go with the Czechmate. If what is coming from Tanfo is an improvement over the Gold Team that is currently on the market it might be worth waiting to see the improvements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoRecon Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 I have the 2019 version of the Czechmate as STI would not accept my order for a DVC Open 9mm...runs 100% out of the box...seems to be 4 sources of parts...already did a test order on springs from Cz Usa...received them via Fedex and those that were back ordered showed up not long after that and Fedex'd to me with free shipping...plan to try ordering from Cz Custom and Cajun to. The manual does recommend changing the slidestop every 3,000 rounds. I'll follow the directions and see how it goes. It came with a recoil spring that tested at 10lbs but Cz recommends a 13lb so I changed it to keep everything OEM for now. All I can say is I love shooting it. If it cracks like a STI so be it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colby_Bedell Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, PhotoRecon said: I have the 2019 version of the Czechmate as STI would not accept my order for a DVC Open 9mm...runs 100% out of the box...seems to be 4 sources of parts...already did a test order on springs from Cz Usa...received them via Fedex and those that were back ordered showed up not long after that and Fedex'd to me with free shipping...plan to try ordering from Cz Custom and Cajun to. The manual does recommend changing the slidestop every 3,000 rounds. I'll follow the directions and see how it goes. It came with a recoil spring that tested at 10lbs but Cz recommends a 13lb so I changed it to keep everything OEM for now. All I can say is I love shooting it. If it cracks like a STI so be it... STI stopped making open guns for 2020, thanks for the information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colby_Bedell Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 6 minutes ago, aandabooks said: I've had both over the past couple of years. The Czechmate is what I am currently shooting. The Tanfo was a problem for the 170mm mag. Never could get a MBX mag to run in the gun and finally gave up. The gun with 12 poppel holes was incredibly loud but not hugely noticeable when actually behind the gun. The Tanfo needs trigger work right away. Patriot Defense is good for the trigger work. The Czechmate is more forgiving when it comes to the mags. CZCustom has everything except the Grams spring and followers. If you go with a Czechmate pickup a multi-optic mount as soon as you see one come available. They are the hardest accessory to find when you want one. I run a John Durso comp and guide rod. Excellent setup and the gun is flat. Czechmate won't need trigger work out of the box. I did put a metal trigger in mine but that was personal preference and not required. I'm not sure what Tanfo is coming out with this year for an improvement on the open gun. If you are buying right now I would go with the Czechmate. If what is coming from Tanfo is an improvement over the Gold Team that is currently on the market it might be worth waiting to see the improvements. I'm not quite ready yet, so I think that I can wait for tanfoglio to see what they come out with. I'm a lefty and I did some digging around do see what thumbrest was for the czechmate but could not find anything as the czechmate doesn't have the other side holes. It sucks that 170 mags are an issue so I'm torn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandabooks Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 14 minutes ago, Colby_Bedell said: I'm not quite ready yet, so I think that I can wait for tanfoglio to see what they come out with. I'm a lefty and I did some digging around do see what thumbrest was for the czechmate but could not find anything as the czechmate doesn't have the other side holes. It sucks that 170 mags are an issue so I'm torn. You would have to have the right side of the Czechmate drilled/tapped for your thumbrest so if you have to go that route have it done on a STI pattern then you can buy any STI pattern thumbrest for a lefty. Not like you'll need to run a 2 sided optic mount so do what makes life easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colby_Bedell Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 thats not a bad idea, and then after that it still doesn't even match up to the cost of the tanfoglio. it seems like I am seeing more good things on the cz. depending on how soon I can get the money for it, it might make more sense to wait, beacuse eric graffel is with cz, so I think that there is going to be a big revamp but we will see! Thanks for the info again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDAHOAASHOOTER Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Save up buy a 2011 used, you'll thank me later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yigal Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 CM is good gun and will hold like TAN. when they will stop using recycled Skodas for their frames and slides . and will use more better metals like Tan. (free advise for cz) CM is the only open gun that scope mount seats with 3 m4 screws that placed very close one to each other(14.5 mm) ,and if u will not fix them with another 2 drilled pins the mount will always move .even when gun shoot minor loads. if u want to know the truth about CM ask few pros. why they stop using their CM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan4147 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 14 hours ago, Colby_Bedell said: I am looking at tanfoglio's open guns and the czechmates. Tanfoglio's brand new open gun that is going to be coming to the us in 2020, the tanfoglio team has been using that for some time now, and they seem to be good. I saw that MBX has mags now for the Tanfoglios to so that is a plus. czechmates I was just recently told that they have a reversible mag release, and they seem to have some aftermarket support. Does anyone have thoughts and feelings on either one? Looking for feed back, not sure which one is better or is more reliable. Colby, I got a Gold Team just because it fit my hand better than any other open gun out there. Seems to me the cz would grip very much the same. 2nd reason was the chrome. I’m a sucker for shiny things, and I knew it would wear well. 3rd I already had a witness so making the trigger outstanding was already in my bag. The GT is a short stroke gun (unlike the 2011/1911) which seems to make cycling in general including ejection (9mm) wild. I think somewhere I saw that the cz had a little more stroke from the factory. Magazines and aftermarket base pads are readily available but take some effort to make run 100%. NOTE the mecgar eaa mags limit bullet oal to about 1.140 max and I tried all profiles. Making major was no problem but it’s not the flattest shooter which is in line with my skill anyway. Scope mounts are obtainable but I had to use a single side due to ejection clearance. And I went through a couple of ejector/sear cages and extractors getting that solved. So, I don’t know if the czechmate is ready out of the box but the GT takes dialing in for sure. I enjoy tinkering and tweeking, and spent about 500 on mags springs trigger parts etc. Good luck. Get what you like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glk21C Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 8 hours ago, IDAHOAASHOOTER said: Save up buy a 2011 used, you'll thank me later. When all is said and done I agree with Idahoaashooter. I had an older Tang (witness) open gun that I loved but parts are harder to come by. Not impossible by any means but when you compare it to a 2011 there is no comparison in availability. What FTP_Shooting_Sports mentioned about how the CZ/Tang design works is correct, which correlates to the barrel/link, slide stop pin and fit to the frame and barrel is so critical if not fit perfectly, while using it as a competition gun, will most likely cause the problems he mentioned. To be fair there is a friend of mine who's been shooting his Checkmate for a few years now regularly and as far as I know it's been reliable for him. I switched to a 2011 open gun a few years ago and could not be happier. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yigal Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 15 minutes ago, Glk21C said: I switched to a 2011 open gun a few years ago and could not be happier. That's what most of our club members did and only one use shadow 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colby_Bedell Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 9 hours ago, IDAHOAASHOOTER said: Save up buy a 2011 used, you'll thank me later. Thanks for the info. I am a lefty to finding a lefty gun used would be hard thats why I am looking at a production gun. and JJ has an interesting mindset ATM. He wants to prove that you can use a production gun and win. Hes with Beretta right now, and their open gun is going to be available this year he said. But I know that 2011's are in fact the way to go for open, but I cant see myself spending that much on my FIRST open gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regor Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 19 hours ago, aandabooks said: I run a John Durso comp and guide rod. Excellent setup and the gun is flat. What’s the John Durso comp? Nothing pops up on google for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandabooks Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 16 minutes ago, regor said: What’s the John Durso comp? Nothing pops up on google for that. kneelingatlas here on Benos or John Durso over on the CZ Open Gun shooters sight at Facebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDAHOAASHOOTER Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Lonestar is building l/h steel grips now. Gonna be a game changer for you southpaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fo0 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Tanfoglio has 38 super / comp option if that is your likening It doesn't have the small safety detent and springs like CZ when taking the gun apart It is possible to limit all pre travel in a Tanfoglio - I never seen a Czechmate hammer with a disconnector hole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandabooks Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 48 minutes ago, Fo0 said: Tanfoglio has 38 super / comp option if that is your likening It doesn't have the small safety detent and springs like CZ when taking the gun apart It is possible to limit all pre travel in a Tanfoglio - I never seen a Czechmate hammer with a disconnector hole Pre-travel on a CZ is controlled with small set screws on the trigger. It is possible to adjust the pre-travel and post-travel out of the trigger. Go too far or change of temperature with the gun frame can keep the gun from firing with the post-travel screw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clw42 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 On 1/10/2020 at 9:18 AM, Colby_Bedell said: Thanks for the info. I am a lefty to finding a lefty gun used would be hard thats why I am looking at a production gun. and JJ has an interesting mindset ATM. He wants to prove that you can use a production gun and win. Hes with Beretta right now, and their open gun is going to be available this year he said. But I know that 2011's are in fact the way to go for open, but I cant see myself spending that much on my FIRST open gun. Maybe not that much after all?? https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/281810-lone-star-innovation-2011-open-gun-9mm/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now