My CZ82 pistol has arrived. I was rather disturbed to come home to find it between my security door and storm door. The Nagant came 21+ signature required, so I had to go to the UPS depot and pick it up. I’m glad I don’t have to drive anywhere to get it, but I would gladly do that to minimize the risk of it being stolen.
It arrived tucked away inside its holster. Like my Makarov holster, this one is designed to be collected. I find it hard to believe anyone would actually carry this. It would seem it’s designed to make it as difficult as possible to draw and fire the weapon.
It’s a good looking pistol. It fits nicely in my hand, and has a very nice trigger pull. I also like that the magazine is drop free, and can be released with the shooting hand. It also comes with a cord. I noticed in Paris the police having what looked like a phone cord attached to their pistols and then to their body. This seems to me to be ideas politicians come up with who don’t have much regard for the lives of their officers.
I’m a little disappointed that the importer’s markings chipped the paint up so bad. I think I can probably correct this though.
If this pistol is used, whoever it was issued to hardly ever fired it. The feed ramp, bore, and chamber are all bright and shiny, and there’s no sign of mechanical wear anywhere on the pistol. The rifling in the bore is very difficult to see, which is because the CZ82 uses polygonal rifling. To a casual observer, the bore would appear to be totally smooth.
The sights on the CZ82 are a marked improvement over typical Makarov sights. You can actually see the front sight post without having to twist your wrist around searching for it. The sites are a little yellowed, but a fresh dab of paint should fix that right up.
The only drawback to this pistol the fact that it employs a non-metallic biological decocker (your trigger finger and thumb). While the hammer is blocked if the trigger isn’t pulled all the way back, a slip up at the moment of truth and you have an accidental discharge on your hands. The pistol does have a safety for carrying it cocked and locked, but the hammer isn’t blocked when the safety is on. I wouldn’t carry it in this mode. Given it’s very smooth and gentle double action trigger pull, carrying with the hammer down would definitely be recommended. The firing pin is held back with a spring, so it won’t have the Makarov’s relatively scary sound of the firing pin moving back and forth.
Overall I’d say it’s a better carry gun than the Makarov, but the true test will be once I get it to the range.
UPDATE: Sailorcurt asks about ambidextrousness. I didn’t even consider that, but on that subject:
The pistol is completely ambidextrous. The contours of the grip are the same on both sides. Holding it in my left hand feels pretty good as well. Both the safety and mag release are ambidextrous.
I’m seriously considering picking one of these up as a BUG. The only thing I’m concerned about is that I’m a lefty. The pics I’ve seen seem to show that the grip is contoured. If the contours are made for a right handed grip, it can make the firearm very unfriendly to us lefties. Your pics, however, seem to indicate that it may be more ambidextrous than I originally thought.
Since you already have yours I can conveniently just ask you instead of trying to analyze pictures in depth. How does it feel in your left hand? Is it uncomfortable to grip? How about the safety and magazine release, how difficult are they to operate left handed?
Thanks in advance.
By the way, do you mind mentioning which vendor you bought it from?
Thanks x2.
And I’m jealous.
Thanks for the update my friend.
You’re not the only one that doesn’t always think about us lefties. Many manufacturers eliminate 13% of their potential market out of hand (no pun intended) by making their firearms and accessories right hand-centric.
Can you speak to whether the CZ-82 is concealable? I’ve just applied for my CPL and am looking…
It is. It’s heavy though.
Thanks. If you’ve handled a Hi-Point C-9, can you say whether the CZ-82 feels/is smaller or easier to conceal? I’ve got the C-9 right now, and I’d like something with better quality (and cheap) and C&R is always a plus. And for me the C-9 is at the absolute top limit of size as far as concealing.
It’s definitely smaller than a HiPoint 9mm. I would imagine lighter as well. It’s easy to conceal. Only drawback is it has no manual decock lever. If you carry cocked and locked, you need to be in good solid walled holster. No Uncle Mike’s crap. Also be advised that the ambidextrous safety on the CZ-82 can get flipped off by something rubbing the pistol on it’s exposed side. I tend to carry with the hammer down, but be careful dropping the hammer on your own.
Well these suckers are looking more and more attractive. The only thing holding me back is price/availability of ammo (and waiting for my C&R approval).
I’m sure that’s how I’d carry a DA/SA, too. Can you recommend a good IWB holster for this gun?
Thanks.
Birchwood Casey BPPF Super Black Touch-Up Pen (Flat). Did a fine job of hiding the import stamp damage on mine.
Yeah… that’s what I ended up doing eventually. Worked great!