Libercontrarian

Crushed between the wheels of capitalism and big government.

As Promised, Range Report With CZ-52

After work on Tuesday, I couldn’t wait to haul the new Old Bold Cold Warrior, my CZ-52, out to the range to take an evaluation shoot. I have promised a few readers that I’d give them the low-down on this pistol’s shooting performance, and was eager to see what all the hubub was about. I jammed the seventy-round box of Russkie 7.62 x 25 ball ammo into my range bag, grabbed the CZ and a Kel-Tec .32 that’s a pocket-sized playtoy and I stormed off from my house, leaving a confused and angry wife standing in a cloud of dust and swirling bobby pins.

I met my friends Steve and Brendon at the range, and warned them that the first shot I would take with this old gun should be done with them standing well away from me [snigger], because God knows how the frightening combo of 50 year-old guns and 50 year-old ammo would mix. I cranked the target out, a B-29 Reduced Silhouette, to 25 feet and fired off the first round – BOOM! The muzzle flip is rather wild, and the report… it’s pretty darned severe. I was right; you could roast a chicken off the muzzle flash.

I would not like to be standing on the other side of this handgun.

I discovered as I shot the CZ that I was shooting the handgun to the left of center of the target – this was some sort of weird anticipatory behavior I was applying to the gun, but I quickly learned to avoid moving the gun around while squeezing. The sights are the typical military affair, too skinny and black to be of any use in a gunfight. It took a long time to line them up on a black target in an indoor shooting range.

Somewhere in the fourth magazine (they only hold eight rounds, how quaint!) I got a Failure to Fire. I re-struck the cartridge by drawing the hammer back ( felt no need to go through the “Tap Rack Bang” drill taught by Gunsite, since I wouldn’t expect to get failures like this from ammo made after my parents were married), and got function again on the handgun. Old hard Russian military Berdan primed brass made reloading a non-starter, so after determining the brass was a throw-away, I just enjoyed propelling rounds downrange at staggering velocities and scaring the bejeesus out of the kiddies in the Hunter’s Safety Course behind us.

The handgun is damnned accurate, as you can see. The first target was slow-fired offhand @ 25 feet while I was still learning how the gun shot, and the second shows some slow-fire headshots and two magazines + four spare rounds that were shot as quickly as I could reasonably pull the trigger. You will notice that the groups are all well placed. I did not shoot as accurately with my DAO Kel-Tec at a far shorter range (15 feet) later in the evening.

This is easily the most accurate pistol I have ever owned. My Glock 23 is a fine handgun that I have shot exceeding well, but I’m a better shot with the CZ on the first magazine than I am with either of my two other handguns, but then again, since I really started shooting rifles again, my handgun skills have degraded immensely.

I can’t wait to shoot this thing again at Bloggershoot #4 this Saturday!

posted by: underwhelmed at August 18, 2005 21:06 | link | comments (2) |

Comments:

#1  19 August 2005 - 03:57

 

They are surprisingly accurate; probably partly because of the way the barrel & slide lock up. The trigger on mine has eased up a bit, but still needs to be taken down and polished a bit.

And try one on an indoor range. That tends to attract a bit of attention.

Anonymous

#2  19 August 2005 - 09:56

 

Also, you can get a drop-in barrel for it and shoot 9mm Luger in it; same mags.

Anonymous

Comments: