Since I'm no longer an active crime fighter and living on the sidelines, so to speak, more and more of my shooting decisions seem to be based on nostalgia and recreation rather than hardcore training. As such, I decided to make todays range session a retro affair and broke out a 1911. My participation in the current "1911 vs. 92" thread undoubtedly inspired the choice. I haven't had a nice workout session with a 1911 in quite some time and I decided to go full on retro with a basic plain vanilla model.
I picked up this CZ1911A1 right before I hung up God's Gun as a carry piece. I wasn't looking for another 1911, but the build quality impressed me and at the price, compared to the competition, I couldn't pass it up. Most are probably familiar, but CZ put out a 1000 piece run of this "GI" style pistol five years ago. Being built by Dan Wesson (owned by CZ) the overall quality far exceeds the asking price. I paid just over $700 at the time and even now the quality exceeds anything else you'll find in that price range. I include the Colt Series 70 in that statement, which retails closer to a grand. Other than the cache of being the real deal, the Colt has nothing over this CZ.
I haven't shot the pistol much. After acquiring it I put around a thousand rounds through it and it's sat in the safe ever since, a victim of my changing life choices. The only changes I made were a set of Hogue diamond grips and a new plunger spring. Out of the box the thumb safety was very hard to manipulate, something that seemed to be a common occurrence throughout the production run. I replaced the plunger spring with one from a rebuild kit and that solved the problem. The safety now works with a nice secure snap, but without the need of a chain fall to operate it. Comparing the CZ with my Valor (both produced by DW) I determined the same spring had been used in both pistols. However, the extended thumb safety on the Valor allows for far greater leverage on the safety, when compared with the small tab on the GI safety. Other than that I've made no further modifications, it's pretty good as is. My oldest son and I put another two hundred rounds through it today in a casual range session. I shot the first magazine one-handed at twenty five yards, bullseye style. After seven rounds my arthritic right shoulder convinced me it's time to be done with that and I stuck to a two-handed hold thereafter. My oldest son isn't a gun enthusiast or a firearms owner, but he enjoys shooting well enough to tag along with the old man. He's decided the 1911 is his favored handgun, so I can see my Valor moving onto him sometime in the future. No issues were encountered regarding reliability and accuracy was easy to achieve with the higher profile non-GI type sights and a clean five pound trigger. The old style paddle shaped hammer CZ chose to use has a nice side benefit: it doesn't bite the hell out of my hand like a spur hammer will, when combined with a GI style grip safety.
Sadly, these pistols were a pretty short run that doesn't seem to have any intention of returning, but they're out there on the used market. If a clean plain vanilla style 1911 is what you're after, I don't think you could do much better than one of these. With the exception of a cast grip safety and mag catch, the pistol is entirely made from machine forged parts, so it would also make a great base gun for a custom build. When I moved away from the 1911 as my go to gun I divested myself of all but two. Today has reminded me why the CZ1911A1 is one of them.
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Originally Posted by wvincent
