CZ 75B P01 Omega, silencer ready, blurring the carry/duty gun line

CZ 75B P01 Omega, silencer ready, blurring the carry/duty gun line

It is no secret CZ-USA has a proven track record with handguns but up until now my experience has been with their full size handguns. This time I am working with something a little different, and different from the original different, if that makes sense. I will be less vague, I have a 75B P01 Omega in urban grey that is silencer ready which is much different.

It is not just the finish, but this new P01 has an increased capacity from fourteen to sixteen rounds in the magazine, factory threaded barrel, and silencer night sights. With some of these changes the new P01 is blurring the line between the compact carry gun and duty pistol. Though smaller than what you think of a duty pistol, it has the capacity and sights of a more traditional duty gun with the weight being somewhere in between. As we all know handguns are all a compromise: with carry guns you sacrifice size and capacity to be easier to conceal, while the duty gun gives you the size, capacity, and sights not conducive to easy concealment. As I have gotten acquainted with the new P01 I see this pistol as solid middle ground between the smaller handguns and a full on duty rig. It would take a bit more to conceal than the smaller handguns but you have so much more firepower and excellent sights to direct that firepower, I believe it would be well worth the effort.

With all that said, pretty or not, this gun or any gun is useless if unreliable or inaccurate. That is why I am really going to hammer on this gun and see how well it shoots, if it is reliable with several types of defensive ammunition as well as range fodder. Disclaimer, if you have been watching any of my silencer reviews I am not a fan of silencer sights, I think they are goofy looking as hell and you can train yourself to “shoot though” the silencer with standard sights. This is how the gun ships, so I am going to “run what I brung”. The pistol does ship in a black clam shell case with the extra magazine, an Allen wrench to adjust the rear sight, and cleaning tools.

Here you can see the accessory rail, factory threaded barrel that ships with a thread protector. The magazine catch is serrated for great traction to get that pesky empty magazine out of the receiver.

The right side of the ambidextrous safety or de-cocker, whichever one you decide to go with as this is an Omega model so it is convertible.  The double action trigger had a margin of take up and over travel, breaking at fourteen pounds. Still, not bad at all for a double action trigger. In single action, the trigger had a bit of take up, and over travel, breaking at four pounds. It was a nice single action trigger. Converting the pistol from a safety to double action via supplied parts is a simple change over.

You can see the front strap serrations as well as the front serrations on the trigger guard. Though I am not a fan of using the front of the trigger guard as support some are so that is an option if you choose to use it.

The rear strap serrations with the nicely checkered rubber stocks. With all that considered, it was pretty easy to hang onto the pistol during operation.

You can see the rear silencer sight which is adjustable for windage. They also have three dot tritium night sights. The identifying characteristic of the CZ, with the slide machined into the receiver. Slide to receiver fit was snug but not impeding. With this design, it does get the bore axis lower into the gun, helping with “muzzle flip” but you do loose a bit of real estate on the slide, giving less area for racking the slide. CZ did machine plenty of cocking serrations into the slide to aid with that.

This pistol field strips as the same with other CZ pistols, lining up the take down marks at the rear of the slide and pushing the slide stop out.

Initial Range Trip 

I started right off running a few magazines through the CZ to get used to the goofy silencer sights then adding the AAC Illusion and Liberty Suppressors Cosmic just to see if the gun would run with the cans. So, the CZ ran just fine with both cans, and I am beginning to not detest silencer sights. I said beginning like the very early stages. So next is the accuracy test from twenty five yards on a rest.

Second Range Trip

Conclusions

This is my third CZ pistol and I will be damned if I’m not really starting to like these handguns. So to all those who think I am a close minded fanboy, well I kind of am, but I have added another to my list. I will have to eat a little crow on this review… I have always ran down silencer sights, primarily because I did not like the look but I thought the “shooting through the silencer” technique was just fine. Now that the review is over and I have shot this pistol with the Liberty Suppressors Cosmic and AAC Illusion silencers I have come to see the benefit of these sights. There is something else, since the rear sight is so large it is a bit easier to acquire the sight, especially during rapid fire. Look at me being all open minded on so many fronts in one gun review. You all have to be proud of me for that. The new Urban Gray finish is a nice touch and the black accents really make the pistol attractive. This is an Omega model with interchangeable safety to de-cocker, but I strongly prefer  the double action on this set up. As for a carry gun, it is about as large as a pistol can be and be  to be considered a carry gun, but I carried it for a week or so and it does work. For me this handgun would make an excellent carry gun that would serve as a home defense pistol, with the night sights, accessory rail, large sixteen plus one round capacity, and silencer ready. I am a firm believer in having a silencer on a home defense gun. A firearm report outside is bad enough, add that to an enclosed space and a silencer makes good sense especially without hearing protection (which will be the last thing on your mind if you are defending your family in the middle of the night). Night sights and rail are just a nice bonus. After about 400 trouble free rounds I would call this review a success.

Specifications 

CZ 75B P01 Omega Urban Grey Silencer Ready

Chambering: 9mm Luger

Magazine Capacity/Type: 16/Double Stack Single Feed

Receiver: 7075 T6 Aluminum

Stocks: Rubber

Trigger: DA/SA Omega

Barrel: Cold Hammer Forged

Sights: High Tritium 3 dot

Barrel Length: 4.5 inches

Weight 1.88 lbs

Overall Length: 8 inches

Height: 5.7 inches

Weight 1.38 inches

MSRP $653.00

Acknowledgments

CZ-USA

Hornady 

Defender Ammunition 

Winchester Ammunition 

Ruger Ammunition