CZ 82 Question

[bubba04]

I am thinking about picking up a CZ 82 chambered in 9x18 for a cheap truck gun. Has anyone had any first hand experience with these surplus pistols?

I hear they are nice little shooters that are built like a tank. Thanks.

[Combat_Diver]

Well I don't have a CZ82 but have a CZ83 in .380 ACP that I bought in Germany in 89' because ATF at the time won't allow importation of the 82 (nor my 1939 P08 Luger)! They use the same mag and very minor differences between the two. For your stated purpose the gun will serve your role very well. Never had any issues with mine in 20 yrs.

CD

[John_Wayne777]

They are interesting little firearms. The grips are way too fat for my tastes which makes using the mag release somewhat difficult. They have polygonal rifling in the barrel which is done oddly enough to look as though there is no rifling in the barrel. Because of their size their weight is rather oddly distributed and they recoil a bit more than you would expect from a 9x18.

They also don't seem to like Wolf ammo very much. Mine will not run reliably on Wolf.

They aren't bad little handguns for 200 bucks. I have my C&R so I picked one up from AIM Surplus for that price a couple of years ago.

[JonInWA]

I had one of the first CZ-83s in 9 X 18 imported by CZ-USA in the late 90's. It was a superb little (well, not really so little) gun-far better than the Makarov, and equal to or superior to the Beretta .380s.

Accuracy with the polygonal barrel (and ease of cleaning) was superlative, as was triggerpull. Aiding things were a set of "real gun" sights-I believe the same as on the full-size CZ-75. I ordered mine with nightsights from CZ; the rear was a bit loose in its dovetail, rectified by a gunsmith later. The factory grips were adequate, albeit a bit cheesy looking. I also had a set of the factory wood grips, which were fragile junk-there are now far superior aftermarket options.

The CZ-82s all (to the best of my knowledge) have the rounded triggerguard, which is superior to the recurved one currently provided on the CZ-83.

I can't recall mine having any ammunition issues, with any US, Wolf or Silver Bear/Brown Bear ammunition.

I had Kramer make up a #3 IWB holster for mine, which I'd highly recommend-it was excellent for positioning, comfort, and drawability.

I was very pleased with CZ-USA's after-market support, via Mike Eagleshield. I hope he's still there.

About the only two caveats that I had were that 1), it's a fairly complex gun, with a fairly large number of parts (although I had zero reliability/durability issues with mine), and 2), while perhaps not of any significance to you, when it's compared to a Glock 19 in the more powerful 9 X 19, it's about the same size, somewhat marginalizing the need/desirability of the gun (but that's my perspective, and not meant to diminish the intrinsic quality of the CZ-82/83).

Recoil is a bit stout, but easily managable, especially given the all-steel construction/weight, and the comfortable/wide-girth grips. Interestingly, I find that a blowback 9 X 18/.380 will almost always generate more recoil force than virtually any 9mm, due to the differences required in actions to handle the 9mm' cartridge's recoil forces.

Stephen Camp in his www.hipowersandhandguns.com site has an excellent review of his CZ-83 in the "Other Guns" portion.

Best, Jon

[RogerinTPA]

I have one as well. I like it but as JW777 stated, it does recoil more than one might expect. I have only fired Wolf and Remington HPs, (500 rounds) without issue, but it is a neat, well built pistol.

[ralph]

I still have mine...Bought it awhile back when I had my C&R license, As has been said, the bore looks like it's a smoothbore, but it's not and it's fairly accurate. It is a DA/SA pistol, and like a 1911 you can carry it cocked and locked. I haven't shot mine all that much, and all I've ran through it was some Wolf 9mm Mak, 3-4 boxes of some older 105gr 9mm Mak, and 3-4 boxes of 95 gr Mak, I had NO problems with any of it..The mag release is supposed to be ambi,, but on many of these, using the left side of the release usually works easier than the right.For sombody who is on a budget,and needs "something" for self/home defense these are worth a look..12+1 rnds, reliable, accurate, well made, affordable, what's not to like??

[Ned Christiansen]

One that I looked at closely looked as if the rifling had been honed out. I mean I know about polygon rifling and all but this still had crosshatch marks and i thought great, during some supposed arsenal refurb somebody ruined the barrel trying to get the rust out of it...... then I measured it and found it was the right diameter and was indeed polygonal. Then I shot it. No pistol with a screwed-up barrel shoots this good! I don't remember exactly but it was 3" or less at 28 yards.

The ergos on the thing are great. I reckon I'll have one one day.

[SpinRC]

The harsher than expected recoil can sometimes be attributed to a worn out or weakened recoil spring. Putting the 18.5lb Wolff spring in mine helped to tame the recoil. http://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto%20Pistols/CZ/82%20%26%2083/cID1/mID16/dID92

Some guys also recommend using the 19lb Wolff recoil spring for the Makarov. It fits and works but it makes taking the slide off and putting it back on a chore. http://www.gunsprings.com/index.cfm?page=items&cID=1&mID=39

As far as feeding problems I have not had any since I polished the feed ramp.

All in all CZ82's are great pistols for the money and I really like mine.