About me:

I have been shooting since I was 10 on all different types of platforms. I started shooting Steel Challenge competitions when I was 18. Then IDPA a few months later, I loved doing it as scary as it was. I have bought and sold many many guns, ranging from $100 to $6000 for a single piece. With each one of those pieces, I can honestly say my experience with them was night and day from the ZEV OZ9c.

My gun:

ZEV OZ9c in black with a bronze threaded barrel. Brand new picked it up this morning and drove to the range. The first thing I did was install a Trijicon RMR 07 Type 2 6.5 MOA. Then lightly oiled the rails, trigger, and barrel.

The range:

Now, I am not going to force you through a round by round review. On my range trip, I brought 100rds of 115gr, 50rds of 124gr, 50rds of 147gr.

First 5 rounds:

Bang. Click, the gun would not return to battery.
Bang. Click, the gun would not return to battery.
The next round would not go into the chamber.
Bang. Click, the gun would not return to battery.
The next round would not go into the chamber.

Next 50 rounds:

The same thing, I had to tap/push the back of the slide to force the gun back into action for every single round.

The trigger would not reset, making the gun and trigger feel clunky.

I attempted to disassemble the gun so I could lube it up. The slide would not come off the frame. I ended up needing to use a poly hammer to force the slide off and then back on. I removed the RMR figuring maybe it was causing something to "rub" and slow down the slide. None of this helped at all.

Next 50 rounds:

The gun started to loosen up as I continued shooting. I was able to fire a 5 round string before the gun locked up. This lasted off and on for the entire 50 rounds.

Final 45 rounds:

Finally was able to fire three 15 round magazines with no malfunctions.

Conclusion:

This has to have the tightest tolerance of any gun I have ever shot. The trigger and grip feel phenomenal. The OZ9c is so accurate at 15 yards I put five on top of each other. My five Les Baer's slides are tighter and more difficult to operate but have never failed to fire. As good as the gun feels can I honestly keep this? I would have continued to shoot more but I only brought the two hundred rounds.

Short answer, NO.
Give them a call. They will tell you its your ammo, that you are limp wristing it, that can not be the gun, as ZEV is all knowing and all pompous.
Send it back at least once to let them dick with you.

Then, as I did, sell it at a whopping loss and learn never again to spend over 600 on a glock.

Sorry, but they suck, the customer service sucks and the guns suck.

I entertained the idea of getting one of these as I have a Gen2 that gets most of the modifications. Couldn't go with the OZ9 as I got distracted by another P220.

Thinking it would be more cost effective to put a few more boxes of ammo through it before making a decision. Can you remember which ammo gave which issues? If it runs on the 147gr ammo best it may have too tight of a recoil spring to run the 115gr stuff properly. Custom guns can be choosy and vary between the same production. I didn't have anything like this with my Salient BLU, but who's to say the one built next to it worked better with a different load than mine? It may need to be tuned or work better with a custom load.

I bought a box of 2011 parts for 800 bucks. There were enough parts to put together a 2011 that runs on .38 Super. Got to firing it and it wouldn't do much. Bought a variety pack of springs and it works best with a 5 1/2 pound progressive spring. The slide is a lot heavier as if it were for a 10mm and the Schumann HybriComp barrel works best with 38 Supercomp.

Never been a fan of zev. I have 63 glocks and they all work. I’ve seen many “custom” glocks fail miserably. When you start clipping springs and cutting hunks of metal out of the slide for aesthetics, bad things start to happen.

^^^ The man has 63 Glocks. I had three and sold one because I thought I had too many.
About a year ago I shot a Zev and thought it was a good shooter, but not enough to justify the price.

The shop I work at part time had a few Zev Glocks two years ago. $2K for a Glock? Really?

Anyways, they all got sold and every one of them came back - in a short period of time - to be traded for other guns. Owners took a bath on the trades too. We just re-sold the last one. And NO, we won't be carrying them ever again.

Those things make Kimbers seem reliable. Regards 18DAI

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by ruger357:

I have 63 glocks

Haha. I’d lose track if I tried to count that many guns.

He is my hero.

Were you using the Magpul PMags or Glock OEM mags? In most of my reading, a lot of the malfunctions went away using the OEM magazines.

I feel it is necessary to post this,

I ordered the gun on December 24th

They shipped it on February 10th

I picked it up on February 14th

Returned it to them on February 20th

Was told a refund was processed on March 11th

Guess what I am still waiting for? If you said my refund then you are correct.

Sorry for your troubles.If it helps you're not the only one with bad experiences with Zev.

I guy I shoot USPSA with bought one of their full size monstrosities last summer. Every Sunday he'd show up with that stupid looking thing and he never got a whole mag to run through it no matter what he did.
It seems like the only thing Zev is good at is turning a $500 pistol into a gaudy $1800 paperweight.

My Zev OZ9 story is almost the same. I think I tried shooting around 500 rounds and it never functioned more than 15-20 rounds without have some sort of trouble. It went back to the factory twice and the problems never stopped I finally cut bait and sent it down the road. I loved the way the darn thing felt and I wanted to love it.

I never understood how one can buy a 2K gun that was once perfectly made for $500 . The only thing that it might need based on preference is a 3.5 Ghost Connector. A $12 part and 3 minutes to install it.

quote:

Originally posted by GroundedCLK:
As good as the gun feels can I honestly keep this?

Sure. Don't shoot it, though. Just sit on your couch and dry-fire the pistol to feel that goooooooood trigger.

About me: I'm a useless smartass who has been shooting since Lyndon Johnson was in office.

About my guns: I don't tolerate crap and I would never own one of these Zev thingies, not even if you gave it to me.

quote:

Originally posted by SIP2000GLO:
I never understood how one can buy a 2K gun that was once perfectly made for $500 . The only thing that it might need based on preference is a 3.5 Ghost Connector. A $12 part and 3 minutes to install it.

Because if Glocks were perfect, then nobody would use anything else because they’re perfect. You will never get a Glock to be as comfortable as the ZEV grip without a serious amount of cutting and stippling. And even if you do screw up a ZEV grip reshaping it, it’s a $60 part that can be mailed to your house instead of $150+ and a trip to an FFL for a new frame.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by ruger357:

I have 63 glocks

Me and my two Glock buddies can’t even get to that number between us. Congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:

quote:

Originally posted by SIP2000GLO:
I never understood how one can buy a 2K gun that was once perfectly made for $500 . The only thing that it might need based on preference is a 3.5 Ghost Connector. A $12 part and 3 minutes to install it.

Because if Glocks were perfect, then nobody would use anything else because they’re perfect.

That's a silly (and wrong) argument, Dan.

It’s oversimplified, but not entirely. I really really like the “Glock 2011” concept that the Zev OZ9 is. I like how I can swap Gen 3 parts and slides with the steel chassis and go from a 17 to a 19 grips and back again for a low cost and no trip to the dealer.

The problem is something in the design/build doesn’t work. I haven’t seen or heard anything bad about people who buy chassis kits to customize and put their own triggers and slides on (I haven’t found much info on that period), but the everything Zev built guns are about 50:50 with shitty customer service.

If they can fix the issues, this platform has a lot of potential (like 320), but making expensive crap and blaming your customers is not a great start.

Gucci Glocks always make me think of the teenager with the old Dodge Neon or 10 year old Civic who adds the primer colored spoiler kits and the coffee can exhaust tips.
Lot of work and money spent on making a perfectly practical item into an unreliable mess.

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Gucci Glocks always make me think of the teenager with the old Dodge Neon or 10 year old Civic who adds the primer colored spoiler kits and the coffee can exhaust tips.
Lot of work and money spent on making a perfectly practical item into an unreliable mess.

Normally, I’d agree, but the OZ9 is almost its own handgun that uses Glock parts.

Apologies if this comes across as condescending, but this is the gun in question:

https://www.recoilweb.com/wp-c.../2018/12/Zev-OZ9.jpg

I’m just going to leave the link. I don’t have time to find a smaller picture right now.