quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I don’t understand what I’m looking at. The front sight departed the gun but the roll pin stayed in place? How does that happen? The slot is dovetailed and my experience is it takes a lot of force to seat them. I’ve installed Truglo’s, Dawson’s, and factory blades. I have 10 CZ’s with that roll pin/slot setup. Never lost a blade or even have one move. At all. Something else is going on here. How much blade material did you remove to install these?

Not much at all. I have to use a rubber mallet to seat the blade and I use fresh pins. First, the sights become loose, I've wanted to make a video of them rattling in the dovetail but procrastinated, and then they depart while pins remain in place. I only use sight blade to keep pressure on that bushing, these are optics guns so no big deal but it is a consistent behavior. Each of them looses a sight a season.

I shoot about 15 - 20 thou a year through them, about equal share. Upwards of 80% of that shot at 0.20 +/- 0.03 splits, and they just don't hold at that fast/that much. It is possible that lightened slides contributes to that but it happens to my friends with similar practice patterns on unmodified slides too. Ben Stoeger lost a sight on his Tanfoglio, similar sight design as CZ, during a stage at the Nationals in St. George a few years back. I still think it is not a smart design.

@P220 Smudge: CZ dovetail is milled along the slide, not across. You have to drive a sight blade from muzzle end, then drill it through a cross pin channel and then drive a cross roll pin through channel and sight to retain it. Sight and pin also provide some retaining pressure on barrel bushing.
Don't let that deter you, Shadow 2 is still a cool gat. It has its own quirks but what gun doesn’t. Hard to find a better plinker or purpose-built game gun.

quote:

Originally posted by huskerlrrp:


Interesting, I own 15 CZ75 based pistols and never have had a failure like that. However, I have never milled a slot in the top of the slide in them. Perhaps the top rib provides more stiffness than perceived?

I would be more suspicious of faster slide velocity but I have no way of measuring. I went to 14-15 lbs hammer springs recently and that should slow things down but I am too lazy to intall sights again. I think my practice speeds and volumes are main reasons.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Buy a XDM Elite…

I appreciate your input, but if I was going to do something like that, I’d just do it with a Glock, which I already own a pile of magazines for. There’s not one thing about the XD that appeals to me. Your reasoning and logic is sound, but this is nothing to do with sound logic, and the reasoning is purely “I want something really nice, and different from the plastic striker-fired guns I already own.”


I think I’m going to have to pass on that Shadow 2 I found for sale. Forgot that with our shitty new gun laws, there’s a mandatory ten day wait even if you have your permit, and having a permit no longer bypasses a NICS check. I’m not driving two hours each way twice, two weeks apart. Good God, I’m sick of this state.

What does this sight stuff have to do with the original poster's subject? Can you take somewhere else?

Shop for a Desert Eagle.

You'll have more fun with it.

quote:

Originally posted by ACP1:
What does this sight stuff have to do with the original poster's subject? Can you take somewhere else?

Thanks, but I’m not worried about it.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Shop for a Desert Eagle.

You'll have more fun with it.

If you’re being serious, I actually wouldn’t mind one in .357. Iconic gun.

Yes, if you shop around, a used Desert Eagle is well within your price range.

I was able to find one in 50AE ($800) as well as the .357 ($705).

Once found, it allows for use with six available calibers in three barrel lengths.

There is also is good support from aftermarket vendors for grips, sights, optics, etc...

quote:

Originally posted by ACP1:
What does this sight stuff have to do with the original poster's subject?

A repeated recommendation for a specific gun was annotated with a minimally negative user's experience with said gun. Side discussion ensued. No harm, and at this point irrelevant since by the time you posted the original poster has discarded that gun as an option.

My vote is a Beretta 92 tricked out by Ernest Langdon. Wait as long as you have to and you won't be disappointed.

quote:

Originally posted by YVK:
...the original poster has discarded that gun as an option.

I wouldn't say I've totally discarded it as an option, just that the one for sale I saw probably wasn't the right one, what with travel and all that. I think it's definitely still an option and I appreciate hearing about a potential issue with the gun.

Get several guns, depending on local prices...

CZ 75 SAO
S&W 5906
Beretta/Stoeger Cougar
BHP
Ruger P Series

The more the merrier.

Good.
Since we talking potential issues, CZs are known to break slide stops. No biggy, replace at 10,000 rounds. Early Shadow 2s broke frames, happened to mine, replaced by CZ. Design rectified by introducing relief cuts, so just dont buy a used one.
Ive never had any problems with Berettas.

I think it might be helpful if you yourself narrowed the field conceptually. Two leading offers being Shadow 2 vs a high end Beretta, you're choosing between a purpose built game gun vs jack of all trades. Better sights (referring to rear sight), better trigger, possibly softer shooting vs something you can shoot any match or class and carry if needed to. If you don't care, just look for a better deal.

Yeah, not a bad piece of advice. I think when you put it that way, it narrows it down a bit further.

I'm really not looking for another carry gun. For classes, I think it would be one of my Glocks. I haven't done any competition shooting, but would like to some day, but I can cross that bridge when I get to it.

I'll put it this way: I learned to shoot a pistol on a few different handguns, but the one I had free run of the 4 acres in the woods we lived on was a Smith & Wesson Model 41 with a seven inch barrel and a compensator. I still have it. I've put a lot of rounds through it, and I enjoy how it shoots. I think what I'm looking for is sort of the spiritual big brother to it, if you will. I'm sure that can be many things, but something heavy and accurate with a very nice trigger. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that a CZ is more that than a Beretta is.

So maybe a CZ Shadow 2... and a Beretta 92 some day.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
What do you think? What's a pistol you really like that you'd put in someone's hand at the range and know they'd enjoy shooting? Something that's fun to shoot?

FN Five seveN, for sure (I have one and everyone grins after shooting it) and/or maybe the Ruger 57 (haven't shot it but it is so similar I would bet the same fun-factor applies.)

P30L is a hoot also. Mine is V1 trigger (Light LEM) which is just what I wanted but it comes in more traditional trigger versions as well.

I have been a model 41 shooter for decades and the only center fire pistol that I have shot that reminds me of the smooth and wonderful 41 is a P210. Just above your budget but well worth it.

Perhaps smooth and wonderful are silly terms to describe a pistol but these two pistols are simply that.

quote:

Originally posted by ACP1:
Perhaps smooth and wonderful are silly terms to describe a pistol...

I don't think so. That's exactly what the 41 is.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
FN Five seveN, for sure (I have one and everyone grins after shooting it) and/or maybe the Ruger 57 (haven't shot it but it is so similar I would bet the same fun-factor applies.)

Oh, I'll be getting a FiveSeven at some point. I have a PS90 that is begging to be SBR'ed, again, at some point. It's just hard to justify right now with ammo prices being what they are. I haven't bought any 5.7x28 since before the panic, and I surely haven't shot any of it. I bought 500 rounds of SS198LF for, I think, right around 300 bucks, and I simply can't replace it right now. I bought a hundred rounds of American Eagle about a year ago. Same story there.

What you need is a LTT 92 w/ the trigger job and/or an HK USP Expert. I have both. Both will not leave me.

For me its a new in the box beretta 92FS compact acquired last week off gunbroker. I love the sig classics and the P225 is my favorite Carry pistol, but I have a couple of Cheetahs and this 92C will fit nicely next to them in the safe.

quote:

HK USP Expert

Yes. This would do very nicely.

But these days a new one would be north of the target budget, even without any pandemic surcharge.

Don’t be so sure. I bought an Expert in 45 for under a grand brand new during the pandemic. I think 9mm ones are more sought after and priced accordingly.

All that being said, the HK trigger on the Expert is about as good a trigger as you will buy from HK. It is nowhere near as good as my LTT worked over 92 Elites or even my own 92’s that I installed the trigger job in a bag (TJIAB).

If you are a connoisseur of fine triggers the Expert trigger will leave you slightly disappointed while the LTT trigger job and the Shadow 2 out of the box won’t.

I have tomorrow off, and besides a phone interview for a job before noon, I'm pretty well free. I might try to cruise down to a nice shop I bought a couple rifles from a few years back and see what they have. They're a CZ, HK, and Beretta dealer, and they've always had a good selection in stock. The owner is not a bullshit artist, and very easy to work with. Federal Way Discount Guns, if you're local.

Oh, and that reminds me. I'm probably going to have to limit my purchases to within Washington state if I buy used. Washington charges a "usage free" tax on used guns from out of state. 10% of the value, not what you bought it for. How that's determined, I don't know. It has kept me from buying all kinds of used guns for the last 11 years. I gotta get out of this fucking state.

Hey monoblok, you work a shop around here somewhere, don't you? Shoot me an email, I'll stop over and see what you guys have.