CZ P07 Review

The CZ 07 is made by a worldwide famous company called CZ. CZ is primarily known for its CZ 75 series of handguns that was introduced in 1975. Besides Colt 1911 the CZ 75 is the most copied series of handguns in the entire world. Our CZ P07 Review covers CZ’s attempt to modernize its lineup beyond its iconic CZ 75 series of handguns.

The CZ P07 like the CZ 75 is a double-action single-action hammer-fired handgun.

But the major departure from the CZ 75 series is its polymer frame and omega trigger system.

CZ introduced the CZ SP01 phantom which is a polymer-framed version of a CZ 75 variant of the CZ 75 lineup.

The CZ SP01 Phantom was essentially a polymer frame on a classic pistol design.

Whereas the CZ P07 was designed up from the base to be a modern double action single action polymer framed firearm.

Features

The CZ P07 has a 15 round magazine and some versions of the gun have shipped with a 16-round magazine.

The 16 round magazines are hard to get.

The magazines themselves are made by Mec Gar but unlike the CZ 75 series you cannot buy these magazines directly through Mec Gar, so, unfortunately, they cost close to $45.

The gun also accepts CZ P09 magazines which are offered in 19 and 21 round capacities. You can also add a plus two extension to the CZ P07 magazine bringing it to 17 plus one capacity.

There are a variety of aftermarket extensions as well that offer even greater capacity increases.

The CZ P07 featured a barely beveled mag well that does aid you in inserting the magazine.

As long as you have a good technique you don’t need the bevel, but it’s a nice feature to have.

Unfortunately, this gun does not have a large magwell when compared to other guns like the Glock 19 MOS gen 5.

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The grip of the gun is almost the same size as a Glock 19, so you’ll be able to fit all of your fingers including your pinky on the grip if you can fit those fingers on a Glock 19.

This gun is just small enough to conceal while being just large enough to be used as a duty firearm if you so wish.

CZ P07 Review Grip/Ergonomics

The CZ P07 features removable back straps that allow you to tailor the size of the gun to your hand.

The backstraps themselves have two dots with a line and then two more dots on the other side of the grip.

This texturing isn’t incredibly effective although it does do just enough to keep the gun in your hand under recoil.

The front strap has slightly more aggressive lines with the two dots on each side of the center line and those horizontal texturing marks are slightly more aggressive and do help to hold the gun in place.

The sides of the grips are very flat and feature stippling like texturing that has the feel of very coarse yet non-aggressive sandpaper.

It’s kind of hard to describe how they feel.

If your hands are wet and sweaty don’t count on the texturing of CZ P07 to help you keep the gun from slipping around in your hands.

There’s a beaver tail on the CZ P07 that sets it apart from most other polymer offerings.

Grip

The grip itself has a slight grade going into the frame making the gun very comfortable for users with small hands and large hands alike.

Overall, the gun feels good in your hand, but not fantastic.

It’s just lacking some refinement and frankly feels a little bit slick and like it can move around if your hands got wet.

There is absolutely no texturing in the area that your support hand palm contacts the gun, not doing anything to aid in recoil control from that spot.

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Overall, I would describe the ergonomics of this double-action single-action pistol somewhat like a Glock 19.

The gun does not feel like it has the ergonomics of a Glock 19 but it isn’t anything special. But when you compare it to the CZ 75(which is special) which had absolutely stellar ergonomics the CZ P07 seems to fall short.

Sights

The CZ P07 comes with a variety of sight options including night sights and three-dot standard metal sights.

The three-dot metal sights are acceptable and that would be the term I would use, acceptable.

They aren’t great but they aren’t horrible. If this gun is just a plinking gun or you’re just going to use the CZ P07 the range you likely won’t feel a necessity to replace them.

But if you plan on carrying this gun, you’ll likely want to upgrade the sights.

There are a variety of aftermarket options which we will discuss later.

But unfortunately, there aren’t as many as other brands of pistols because CZ has a unique site cut for almost every model of the handgun it offers.

Red Dot Optics

Now if you want to mount a red dot to your CZ P07 there is, unfortunately, no factory option.

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But there are a variety of custom shops that will do the work for you and we’ll discuss that more later.

Controls

Safeties

One unique thing about the CZ P07 is the Omega trigger system which means you can run the gun with a decocker or thumb safety.

So, if you want to run the gun cocked and locked like 1911 using the thumb safety you have that option.

The decocker or thumb safety sits at the rear of the frame right under where your thumb sits just like a colt 1911.

So, it’s very easy to access those with your shooting hand thumb. When using the decocker it’s very easy to come down, swipe it and drop the hammer, the thumb safety if you install it instead of the decocker sits in the exact same place as the decocker.

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So, it’s easy to run the safety like you would the safety on a 1911 pistol. It’s not quite as large or ergonomic as a 1911 but it’s similar in placement and just as easy to run.

The CZ P07 safety and decocker options are both Ambi so no issues there for right or left-handed users.

Magazine Release

The magazine release on the CZ P07 is reversible so if you’re a left-handed shooter you can’t switch it around to the other side but from the factory, it comes installed on the left-hand side of the gun so a right-handed shooter can drop the magazine using their right-hand thumb.

The mag release itself is easy to reach for my medium to large size hands.

I have average-sized hands for a six-foot-tall male.

The magazine release itself is fairly well rounded. So, you don’t have to worry about cutting your thumb when pressing into the mag release.

It is slightly sharp, but considering this gun comes in at around $450 you really can’t complain and that’s being overly picky, to be honest.

CZ P07 Review Slide Stop

The CZ P07 uses a slide stop that also acts as a takedown lever.

The slide stop is quite large and one of the biggest downsides of it is that it sits so far forward. You most likely will not be able to drop it using your thumb. If you plan on dropping the slide using your thumb, you will likely have to break your grip.

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Not only does the CZ P07 slide stop forward position hinder your ability to reach it, but also the decocker or the thumb safety will sit in front of the slide stop obstructing access using your primary hand thumb.

The best way to use the slide stop on the CZ P07 as a right-handed shooter is to come up and use your support hand thumb after you’ve inserted a fresh magazine into the CZ P07.

If you’re a left-handed shooter you will most likely not be able to access it using your trigger finger as you can with some guns.

It sits just slightly far back for that and it’s too hard to release using that gun without majorly compromising your grip on the gun.

You’ll have to run the slide with your support hand as you would on most other guns as a left-handed shooter.

Overall Ergonomics

Overall, the ergonomics on the CZ P07 aren’t bad, but they aren’t great either.

One thing to mention about the CZ P07 is it uses internal slide rails to mount the slide just like the CZ 75 series.

A major downside of this is the gun has very little real estate on the slide that you can grab with your hands. The CZ P07 does have decent serrations.

It has forward serrations mounted at an angle on a chamfer which is frankly the easiest to access since the rear serrations are so short and hard to access.

This slide with many will say will give you a lower bore axis, but that frankly isn’t true because you’re going to measure the bore axis of a gun from the top of the web of your hand to the center of the bore.

And if you do that on the CZ P07 you actually have a taller bore axis than say a gun like a Glock. And that is due a lot in part to the design.

The bore axis does affect muzzle flip but only if all other factors such as recoil spring, lock time, and slide mass are equal which never happens.

CZ P07 Review Trigger

Now to discuss the trigger on the CZ P07 we’ll discuss it as a double-action single-action trigger and as a single action only trigger meaning using the gun with the safety cocked and locked.

You could also decock the hammer manually and then run the thumb safety if you so wish.

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But most people are going to run the gun using the decocker or cocked and locked with thumb safety.

Double Action Trigger

So, starting out with the double-action single-action trigger, the double-action has a very light bit of take-up since the trigger is set on a half-cocked position initially.

Then it goes into a heavy double-action pull that is somewhat creepy towards the second half of the pull. The trigger break surprises you.

There is no wall in that rear of the break.

And then resetting the trigger it has a fairly long reset. At least it feels long and it resets well in front of where the wall will be on the single-action trigger.

When you pull back, you’re going to fill a wall and then you’re going to feel a creep that builds up until you hit a rolling break.

And then you’ll reset the trigger again.

Single Action Trigger

Now discussing the trigger from the single action, it pretty much resets the same.

You’re going to come in and you’re going to find the trigger and you’re going to have a lot of light, spongy take up before you feel what kind of feels like a wall and then you start feeling creep before you hit that rolling unpredictable break.

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Personally, I’m a big fan of a rolling brake on a self-defense gun.

So, I like the single-action trigger on the CZ P07 in its stock format. But there are lots of aftermarket options which we’ll discuss later if you’d like to change it up.

CZ P07 Review Maintenance

One thing I don’t like about maintenance on the CZ P07 is it uses a takedown lever; this really isn’t a big deal, but it’s slightly harder to take this gun down than other guns that use a Glock style takedown system.

To take this gun down you’ll want to check that it’s clear and then leave the hammer cocked and then you’ll find an index point on the back-left side of the frame that sticks out and it matches up with an index point in the last rear serration of the slide itself.

You’ll want to pull the gun back and then press the takedown pin out from the right-hand side using a ballpoint pen or a punch to press that lever out. Once that lever is out the slide will slide forward and you can take the recoil spring and the barrel out of the slide and clean the gun as you so wish.

Aesthetics

The overall aesthetics of the CZ P07 are something I can’t quite make my mind up.

The gun is honestly quite attractive and a very utilitarian manner. But when you really start breaking the gun down, some of the parts look pretty cheap. The plastic in the frame of the CZ P07 doesn’t necessarily scream quality.

But the metal trigger, metal mag release and the very well machined slide and hammer do scream quality.

So, the gun is a bit of a contradiction.

The outline of it is fairly attractive but it’s not a beauty queen by any standard. It’s a good solid reliable look but not elegant by any means. The slide in my opinion is absolutely beautiful with the chamfers and the forward and rear serrations.

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My one complaint would be that the gun doesn’t have enough slide on it for manipulations but from a visual standpoint, it looks pretty good.

My favorite visual feature of the frame is actually the texturing that it has just above the front of the trigger guard in front of the takedown pin.

That texturing matches the forward serrations on the slide with the same slant and it just looks good. That is probably my favorite feature and I can’t say enough good things about that.

The trigger guard is also quite small in dimension while being large enough to get gloved hands in.

CZ P07 Review Shooting

Shooting the CZ P07 was somewhat of a disappointment for me, the gun has slightly more recoil than a Glock 19 which I was not expecting.

I was expecting the hammer-fired action to be slightly softer shooting, since the gun not only has to fight the recoil spring but also the hammer spring as well when cocking the gun back to single-action as the slide is cycling.

Overall, the gun shoots pretty well and the single-action trigger is actually excellent for the style of shooting I enjoy; although others might want more of a hard wall on that trigger.

Having a better pair of sights, I do think would make shooting the CZ P07 a lot more enjoyable, but hey we can’t win them all, can we?

Final Thoughts

The CZ P07 in my opinion is the Glock 19 of the double-action single action world.

‘It’s affordable, there’s a decent aftermarket and it’s overrated by a lot of people with numerous fanboys.

The gun is undoubtedly a good gun. That said it may not exactly live up to the hype and personally, I think if you’re going to get a CZ, you’ll probably be most impressed with their metal-framed offerings.

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The CZ P01 comes in at the same weight as the CZP07 and it’s just a more elegant firearm.

The only downside I can see of that gun is the finish just isn’t as good as the CZP07. But it feels a lot better in the hand and in my opinion has a better trigger.

Your mileage will vary and the CZ P07 does come in at a minimum of $100 cheaper than the CZ P01 during normal times, so at that price, it’s kind of hard to beat the gun.

That said if it were me, I’d spend the extra hundred bucks and get a CZ P01. Let us know what you think about the CZ P07 by commenting below.

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