A Farewell To Zbraně
CZ is discontinuing production of the CZ 75, CZ 75BD and the CZ 75 Compact. At first, you would think I would be sad about this. After all, the first pistol I bought with my money was a pre-B CZ 75, and I used it to shoot USPSA matches in the Production Division. I bought a P07 for a carry gun, and then I bought another pre-B and had it as a backup to my primary race gun. I sorta gained a bit of a reputation as being a “CZ guy,” and to a certain extent, that was true.
But I’ll let you in on a little secret: I haven’t shot USPSA in years, and I can’t remember the last time I took ANY of my CZ’s to the range. They just don’t hold an appeal to me. The P07 is a great gun and terrific for concealed carry, and the new Nocturne series are a worthy successor to that gun, but I’m just not into DA/SA guns that much anymore.
A big part of my falling out with CZ is that shooting matches isn’t as important to me as it was a dozen years ago. I get the importance of competition as part of preparing your psyche, I just hate all the gamer stuff that goes along with it. Testing yourself against a course of fire and a timer is great. Having people get in your face because your holster isn’t in the right place or you’re drawing from concealment is not so great.
Which brings me to the biggest problem with CZ right now: They do not understand the U.S. concealed carry market (something they share with Beretta). S&W hit a home run with the Bodyguard 2.0, Springfield is going full-throttle with the Hellcat, and SIG’s P365 is probably their best-selling gun right now.
And CZ has absolutely nothing in the micro-compact market. Zero. Zip. Nula. They had the Rami, which was kind of the same size as some of those guns, but it was too thick and too heavy to be a decent concealed carry pistol. Add in the fact that the standard CZ 75 action isn’t all that conducive to red dots because of what’s going on under the slide, and all of a sudden the small niche market for the CZ 75 becomes even smaller, doubly so now that Carry Optics has replaced Production as the most-popular USPSA division.
Am I sorry to see CZ end the production of the CZ 75? Yes. Will I miss that pistol?
Not really.