CZ Shadow 2 - here we go....

[Artemas2]

I don't disagree with this. Though, I have not come to the conclusion that The CZ is not for me yet. It's not a fair comparison for me to drop it just yet, after a couple of years exclusively shooting Glocks. I'm quite confident I would have shot better with my Glocks at this match, so the myth of CZ being an instant upgrade is all but shattered. I think there are benefits to both pistols. It remains to be seen which platforms benefits I find more attractive. Only time with the gun will teach me what is more important.

I am in a similar moat, picked up a S2 coming from a g34 last January and other than a brief IDPA interlude the S2 has been the sole gun I have shot. Not going to lie, early on I lost several dry fire mags over the berm after rage quitting a practice session

I am just now seeing myself get closer to where I was with the Glock in the overall standings. But when I have an off stage it has seldom been recoverable.
I think the CZ does certain things better than the glock in specific situations, but the glock is much more a jack of all trades.
For me the S2 just feels much more...substantial, and I really like that about it.

I hope that before this season is over I can find something that is tangibly better or at the least equal for me, worse case scenario I enjoyed some quality time with learning the DA/SA.

[Clobbersaurus]

I am in a similar moat, picked up a S2 coming from a g34 last January and other than a brief IDPA interlude the S2 has been the sole gun I have shot. Not going to lie, early on I lost several dry fire mags over the berm after rage quitting a practice session

I am just now seeing myself get closer to where I was with the Glock in the overall standings. But when I have an off stage it has seldom been recoverable.
I think the CZ does certain things better than the glock in specific situations, but the glock is much more a jack of all trades.
For me the S2 just feels much more...substantial, and I really like that about it.

I hope that before this season is over I can find something that is tangibly better or at the least equal for me, worse case scenario I enjoyed some quality time with learning the DA/SA.

I’m going to reserve final judgement until after this season is over, but your post mirrors much of my experience.

[cheby]

I switched to cz in 2015 after shooting a glock for a while. A buddy of mine, a very strong shooter, told me that it took 6 months to get used to it. He was also a glock guy before and was still issued one at work. I was skeptical about the 6 months but he was right. I think it's actually about glock because I feel it is so different from pretty much everything else. I feel I could switch between sig, 2011, cz and so on much easier than between glock and everything else. Perhaps it is the grip angle, not sure about it.

[Bucky]

After years of messing around with Glock and CZ pistols, I have come to the conclusion that the CZ is an especially good pistol for someone that has not learned trigger control with the Glock. For someone who has, there is no special advantage and it comes down to which pistol gels with your style better.

The triggers are certainly a big part of it, however I see another advantage - the weight / recoil control. It probably benefits some more than others. Someone who has big gorilla mitts might not benefit at all. However, someone with a weaker grip due to smaller hands / arthritis / doesn’t eat their Wheaties, the recoil damping of the added weight is a noticeable advantage IMO.

[rca90gsx]

Which baseoads are you running on the CZ mags (are they the 18round mags?)?

I attended my first match with my Shadow 2 last Sunday. It did not go well.

221 rounds 124g AE through gun.

Total rounds through the gun 1,121.
Malfunctions 2

I had a bunch of errors associated core gun handling and more specifically, with shooting too many rounds on B-Zone steel/mini poppers and hitting slide lock. With my Glock, slide lock reloads were a strength, and I could time the slide to drop with the insertion of the mag. I can't do this with the Shadow 2 and ended up dropping the slide prematurely. It messed be up three times during the match. Subsequent pracitce shows a very high success with auto-forwarding on the Shadow 2 so I may train this exclusively and see if I can get that to 100%. Regular reloads were bad too.

Accuracy was also not where I wanted it. I believe hand tension crept in due to my errors and also lack of match exposure with the Shadow. It will get better.

I can't wait to get rid of the CZ mags! On the first stage a CZ mag momentarily hung up the slide making me think I had a malfunction. It dropped when I pulled the gun in, saving me another malfunction, but cost me time. I have more Mec-Gar mags on the way. The CZ mags are barely even useful for practice.

Video below, you can hear my frustration.

[Clobbersaurus]

Which baseoads are you running on the CZ mags (are they the 18round mags?)?

They are the standard crappy CZ 10 rounders. Basically only useful as a paperweight.

[rca90gsx]

Seating mags firmly at slidelock comes with two potential issues on Cz's a lot of basepads will allow the mags to over insert. The largest problem are the mags springs, going to a +5 or I prefer the +10% spring will resolve a lot of those issues. If you never go to slidelock, you probably won't realize the issues. I have only done IDPA, so ran into both issues quickly. Hope this helps.

They are the standard crappy CZ 10 rounders. Basically only useful as a paperweight.

[Clusterfrack]

As @cheby said, it takes a long time to switch guns--especially from a polymer striker gun to a heavy TDA like a S2 or Tanfo. Cut yourself some slack, and enjoy the process. Almost everyone I know who has switched guns has had a significant jump in performance--after a frustrating dip. Getting used to new ergos and controls takes time. But the difference in weight was the biggest change for me. This took a long time to get used to, but I strongly prefer it now.

Have you discussed your transition with Ben or Hwansik on PSTG?

Slidelock reloads: I've never been a fan of "autoforwarding" because it encourages slamming the mag in, which can cause overinsertion malfunctions in some guns, may make it more difficult to return the gun to target, and is not needed on a standard mag change. I'd recommend practicing a slide lock reload using the slide stop until you can make it work.

Myth of an "instant upgrade" by switching to a Shadow2? I've never heard that myth before. More like a long hard slog toward incremental improvement...

Good luck dude--keep working and you'll be happy you made the switch.

I attended my first match with my Shadow 2 last Sunday. It did not go well.

221 rounds 124g AE through gun.

Total rounds through the gun 1,121.
Malfunctions 2

I had a bunch of errors associated core gun handling and more specifically, with shooting too many rounds on B-Zone steel/mini poppers and hitting slide lock. With my Glock, slide lock reloads were a strength, and I could time the slide to drop with the insertion of the mag. I can't do this with the Shadow 2 and ended up dropping the slide prematurely. It messed be up three times during the match. Subsequent pracitce shows a very high success with auto-forwarding on the Shadow 2 so I may train this exclusively and see if I can get that to 100%. Regular reloads were bad too.

Accuracy was also not where I wanted it. I believe hand tension crept in due to my errors and also lack of match exposure with the Shadow. It will get better.

I can't wait to get rid of the CZ mags! On the first stage a CZ mag momentarily hung up the slide making me think I had a malfunction. It dropped when I pulled the gun in, saving me another malfunction, but cost me time. I have more Mec-Gar mags on the way. The CZ mags are barely even useful for practice.

I switched to cz in 2015 after shooting a glock for a while. A buddy of mine, a very strong shooter, told me that it took 6 months to get used to it. He was also a glock guy before and was still issued one at work. I was skeptical about the 6 months but he was right. I think it's actually about glock because I feel it is so different from pretty much everything else. I feel I could switch between sig, 2011, cz and so on much easier than between glock and everything else. Perhaps it is the grip angle, not sure about it.

[Clobbersaurus]

As @cheby

Have you discussed your transition with Ben or Hwansik on PSTG?

Myth of an "instant upgrade" by switching to a Shadow2? I've never heard that myth before. More like a long hard slog toward incremental improvement...

I had some video review from Ben that mirrors much of what you wrote.

Regarding the Shadow being an instant upgrade, I’ve had top level shooters in my country repeatedly ask me when I was going to switch to a real gun, saying “you’ll shoot it way better”. My guess is they never really tried to learn to shoot a Glock.

[Clobbersaurus]

I put 300 rounds of 124g AE through the S2 today.

The new Mec-Gar mags worked perfectly.

Total rounds through the gun: 1,421
Malfunctions: 2

Things went decently today.

Shot a 93-1X at 25 yards, first 10 rounds out of the gun.



I then shot MXAD at 7 and 15 yards. I had a 2.62 clean run, which is my personal best on this drill. I had a bunch more clean runs in the 1.7’s. The gun tracks really well under recoil, and this drill is simply amazing for working out core fundamentals.

Rest of the time was doubles and go-stop.

5 yard doubles target; .16-.19 splits, 60 rounds.