CZ P-09, pushing past what a duty pistol is.

CZ –P09, pushing past what a duty pistol is.

Ceska Zbrojovka is a firearms manufacture from the Czech Republic started in 1936. The plant was formed during the rise of the Third Reich so Czechoslovakia would have the means for production of defensive weapons. In 1991 CZ entered into the free market and in 1997 we got CZ-USA, based in Kansas City, Kansas, responsible for the importation and distribution of CZ products in the United States.

I will admit, I was not totally in the loop on what CZ had to offer until SHOT show 2014. I stopped in the booth with the intent to educate myself. After talking to a few of the guys and looking over their guns I was able to get a new CZ 75 B Omega sent to me as a test sample. After really wringing that pistol out and truthfully falling in love with it, CZ had another fan. You can read the review of the 75B Omega by following this link.

This year at SHOT I got by the CZ booth to see my friends and what they had brought this year. I really wanted to do another review for CZ  and they were good enough to let me choose, and though that was a hard choice I really wanted to try the P-09. While still a hammer gun, not striker fired, it has a glass fiber reinforced polymer receiver. What really caught my eye was it held nineteen rounds in a flush fit magazine and had an optional threaded barrel. CZ put my name on the list and it was not long before the P09 shipped.

I had a chance to look the pistol over just before we took it to the range.

Left and right sides

Close up of the right side of the ambidextrous de-cocker (or safety depending on how you choose to configured it)

The Omega trigger broke clean at 4 pounds single action with some take up and little overtravel and at 12 pounds double action. Here you can also see texture on the receiver where a left handed shooter could index their thumbs.

Full length Picatinny rail and forward cocking serrations.

The grip area is also well textured. One thing I liked an awful lot was this duty pistol has a lanyard loop. I choose the largest grip insert of the 3 included for a custom fit.

Left side ambidextrous de-cocker (or safety), the slide stop, textured area for a right handed shooter to index his thumbs, and the magazine release is pronounced and worked well.

A defining characteristic of the CZ line of pistols where the slide is machined to fit inside of the receiver. This lowers the bore axis and helps reduce perceived recoil and adds controlability.

The 3 dot sights. They are not night sights but photo-luminescent. A few seconds under light and they glow bright for quite a while

The P-09 field strips easily by lining up the take down notches on the rear of the slide and receiver and pressing out the slide stop. The magazine base pad corner makes pushing out the slide stop easy.

The other 2 backstraps that ship with the pistol as well as 2 magazines.

The safety that ships with the pistol, to convert the de-cocker to a safety.

Initial and second range trip

Accuracy as shot from 25 yards from a rest. Reload 1 is a cast lead bullet from Lyman mold at 19 Brinnell loaded with IMR 700X. Reload 4 is a 124gr JHP loaded with IMR 800X

Conclusions

This pistol has a lot going for it, light weight but controlable, large standard magazine capacity, accurate, full length Picatinny rail, and CZ reliability. I could see how it would appeal as a duty pistol, match gun, range gun, and/or home defense. It would serve well as all of those but with the Picatinny rail for a weapon mounted light and/or laser and large capacity standard magazine it really shines for home defense for me. It also works well if you have an over abundance of 9mm Luger ammunition and need to be rid of it in a hurry. Polymer receivers have gotten very popular over the past several years, and with good reason. Keeping weight down without sacrificing strength or reliability and I am glad to see CZ is doing it right.

Specifications

MSRP: $577 as tested, $530 without the threaded barrel

Acknowledgments

CZ-USA

Hornady