M. Hall

I've been thinking real hard about one of these guys......please let us know what you think.

schmeky

Hey Guys,

I'm new to this forum, but I'm active on some others. I have probably done more CZ-97 mods than most. The pics attached are of my main shooter, a modified 97 with just over 6,000 rounds down range. I have "accurized" by boring and slotting the slide for a match 1911 barrel bushing. The improvement in accuracy was a tremendous surprise, expecially since it is already accurate out of the box. The finish on mine wears very well, I was skeptical of the polycoat, but the only way to remove it is to seriously abrade, burn, or bead blast it off.

Anyone that says a CZ (97) is not great pistol should not be taken seriously.

Mine has the CZ competition hammer, tactical sights, and some other mods. It is simply an outstanding pistol. Outstanding. And I'm a diehard 1911 nut.


Here's a pic from over a year ago right after boring, slotting, and ID fitting to the CZ slide.

Wild Bill Caldwell

Your work looks good....any reason You didn't use the Briley Spherical Bushin'....I run them in every 1911 I shoot , one of the few boutique parts I'm a fan of....Where You from in Louisiana ? Quite a few Hands on here from the central area , I'm up north

Wild Bill

schmeky

I'm just down the road from you, in West Monroe. We've talked on the phone before, but it's been a while. I have done, and do a lot of CZ pistol work.

AHolland

Hi Schmeky. Myself and others would probably kill to see a step by step guide on how you worked the new bushing into the gun. Do you have any series of pictures that shows what work you had to do and what parts of the gun needed machining?

Was there anything you learned "not" to do after the fact?

I have bought a new 97B and will put a couple hundred bullets down it before I do any modifications. Get it worked in a bit first. I wonder if we could get a pinned forum post listing the modifications everyone did to their guns and what worked or did not work. I am finding there is a lot of leg work to finding all the different manufacturers that provide parts for CZ guns. I am up here in the cold north (Canada) and there are much less shops for handgun parts and ordering them in from the US can be a hassle with all the gun laws up here. It is often easier to find something already stocked up here.

My intents are not to rebuild the gun, but to improve on the little features which make a good gun better.

Stage 1: for most people willing to modify,

Replace the forward barrel bushing,
Bring in another 2 witness gun magazines,
replace the full length plastic guide rod for a steel/stainless one,
replace the 13# recoil spring with something stronger: 16# probably
Install some brand of adjustable sights, or at least more visable,
install polyurethane recoil buffer washer.

Stage 2
Replace the trigger system,
Rear barrel support tightened up,
Different and in my case slightly thinner grips,
Competition hammer replacement
Polish feed ramp for wider use of different ammunition

I realise that many people will want to swap different parts for each stage. For myself the machining of the bushing will not be difficult but for others will be horrible. I may not really need to adjust the hand grip size and will only really know that after a couple hundred shots. Others may find they need to change it right away as the grips are obviously too large or small. They are close for me.

Being new to handguns I find that I will probably be like I am with rifles and will want to extract as much accuracy and reliability from the gun as I can and these all seemed places to start.

Does anyone have a good picture of how they polished or reshaped the feed ramps on their 97B or even 75?

Alabaster

I like 97's, but have heard EVERY owner say finding aftermarket parts for mods AND FINDING MAGAZINES are far too hard. That being said, I'm out. I'll take a Springer any day(They also work, IME), as long as I can find magazines. Who cares what profit margin he's making? Find the ups and downs to BOTH guns. See what fits you better, and as long as you don't have a problem with hard to find magazines, buy what you want!

cohee

Can EAA .45 mags be used in the CZ? They seem to be available at most times.