Friday, February 26, 2010

CZ-82


I picked up a CZ-82 from AIM a while back, and was pleasantly surprised when it showed up. For being a "surplus" gun, the finish was immaculate, and the import stamp is easily the best I've ever seen on a surplus piece. It's tucked up under the frame on the bottom of the slide.



It also came with a spare mag and a pretty nice leather holster and magazine pouch, and unlike the normal issue holster that most of them shipped with, this one is quite a bit more usable.



Recoil is a bit sharp, even with the little 9x18Mak cartridge, but there's not much muzzle flip with the low bore and beaver tail. Speaking of bores, the CZ-82 features polygonal rifling, so it's a bit alarming looking through it if you're not expecting it. It'll eat FMJ all day long, and I picked up some 94gr. hollow points from Silver Bear a while ago and they went through without a hitch. The grip is a bit wide for the overall size, a trade off for having a double stack 12 round magazine. The CZ-82 wasone of the first service pistols around with a double stack magazine and the first to feature ambidextrous magazine release and safety levers.

Take down is quite simple, simply drop the mag, pull down on the trigger guard, and pull the slide back and up to unlock the slide and allow it to slide off the barrel, which is pinned to the frame. Operation is conventional blowback with the recoil spring surrounding the barrel, allowing for the low bore axis.