CZ P09 vs Glock 17

We’re comparing the CZ P09 vs Glock 17 today — both are duty-sized handguns, but one is double-/single-action and the other is striker-fired. Besides that, you’ll notice that they’re relatively similar.

Size

Metrics	CZ P09	Glock 17
Weight w/ no mag (Oz)	26.9	22.2
Weight w/ empty mag (Oz)	30.3	25
Weight w/ a full mag (Oz)	38.6	32.4
Height (top of slide to bottom of magazine baseplate) (Inches)	5.68	5.31
Length (Inches)	8.00	7.44
Width of grip (Inches)	1.15	1.18
Width of slide (Inches)	1.07	1.01
Width across controls (Inches)	1.47	1.33

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Concealed Carry

If you’re looking at either the CZ P09 or the Glock 17 to fill a concealed-carry role, then you should know that both of these guns are large. They may be better suited for a duty, competition, or range role instead.

It is definitely possible to concealed carry either firearm, however. I know plenty of people who have concealed carried one or the other without any issue. If you’re comparing the guns to see which one would be better for concealed carry, though, it’s hands-down the Glock 17. 

The Glock 17 weighs almost six ounces less, but those six ounces do come at the cost of two extra rounds’ worth of capacity. It’s also three-eighths of an inch shorter than the Glock 17, which does play a role in how well it’ll work for concealment.

A Glock 17 is slightly wider than the CZ P09 (just 0.03 inches), but that’s not enough to really matter. Both of these guns conceal similarly. 

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There is a slight advantage to the Glock 17, but the CZ P09 conceals easier than you’d think. This is especially true if you have a good holster, and you’re carrying the gun at the appendix position. However, if you want to carry it on your person at three to five o’clock, you’re going to want to make sure that the holster you’re using has a lot of adjustable cant.

This will allow you to put a very steep cant on the holster and keep the grip of the gun close to your body as opposed to sticking out due to its length.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Ergonomics

Frame

There are multiple generations of the Glock 17 currently in production: the Gen 3, Gen 4, and Gen 5.

The Gen 3 and Gen 4 variants have finger groups while the Gen5 does not. In my opinion, finger grooves are not a great feature to have on a firearm grip as they work really well for a few people but don’t work at all for many others. In comparison, the CZ P09 does not have finger grooves at all.

The Glock 17 Gen 3 does not have any modularity while the Gen 4 and Gen 5 have small grips, but they have back straps that you can add to make the firearm larger. A CZ P09 comes with three different inserts to adjust the hump on the back of the grip, but those inserts do not do anything to change trigger reach. The Glock backstraps, on the other hand, impact the trigger reach. 

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There is no doubt that the CZ P09 feels more ergonomic in the hand than the Glock 17.

That said, the ergonomics alone don’t seem as stable as the ergonomics on the Glock 17. The Glock 17 feels like a two-by-four, but that two-by-four has a lot of grippable surface area that allows you to get a lot of leverage on the handgun.

Unfortunately, the CZ P09 does not have that kind of leverage for somebody with larger hands.

Texture/Grip

Again, the Glock 17 is going to have a lot of different texture options depending on the generation you go with. By far the Gen 5 has the best and most aggressive texture of any of the Glocks. The Gen 3 has little to no texture at all, while the Gen 4 is a hybrid of the two generations. 

On the other hand, the CZ P09 does have texture on the front and back straps as well as the sides, but all of that texturing is quite slick.  Even when you grip the gun really hard like if you were to grab the muzzle and try to shake it from your hand, it will allow your hand to move slightly. There just isn’t a lot of aggressive traction on the gun.

Unfortunately, the only way to add traction to the CZ P09 is with some sort of grip tape or by having the gun stippled, which is a permanent (and expensive) alteration. When comparing texturing, CZ P09 falls short vs. the Glock 17, which just has a much better texture when you’re looking at the Gen 4 or Gen 5 variations.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Slide

When we’re talking about the slide, we’re mostly talking about how easy it is to manipulate the slide on the firearm.

One thing about the CZ P09 that makes it unique is that the P09 has internal frame rails. This, unfortunately, makes the slide incredibly short without a lot of room to grab it. The serrations on the CZ P09 slide are quite attractive — I would characterize them as deep and aggressive. But the problem is that there’s not that much serration to grab.

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Alternatively, the Glock 17 serrations aren’t deep, and they aren’t really all that aggressive. But they’re very tall and extend along the whole length of the slide, making them easier to grab and manipulate. Because of this, I’m going to have to say that the loser is the CZ P09 vs the Glock 17.

Sights

Stock

This CZ P09 comes with two sight options: you can get the gun with suppressor height night sights if you order the package that includes a threaded barrel or you can get the gun with standard three-dot metal sights. Both sights have roughly the same sight picture, and it’s not great. The sights are coarse.

They don’t inspire a lot of confidence in your view on the target. Frankly, it’s an outdated design that should have been done away with a decade ago. They are however made of durable steel, which is a major upside.

When it comes to the Glock 17, you can get anything from plastic sights (which I would consider slot fillers) to other factory options, such as Ameriglo sights.

The Ameriglo sights are by far the best factory sights that come on a Glock 17. If you want to spend a little less money, you can also sometimes find a Glock 17 that comes with standard Glock night sights.

They are a slight improvement over those that come on the CZ P09.

Aftermarket

There really aren’t a lot of aftermarket options for the CZ P09. You can find sights from the CZ Custom Shop, a company called Night Vision, and Dawson Precision. Those are going to be the only companies that really provide support for the CZ P09 when it comes to aftermarket sights.

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On the other hand, the Glock 17 has a ton of options; too many to list in this article. The Glock 17 uses the same cut as the Glock 19, which means you’re going to have a wide variety of sights to choose from, including from all the manufacturers I just listed with the exception of CZ Custom. Other available aftermarket manufacturers here include Trijicon, Heinie Ameriglo, and Warren Tactical.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Controls

Safety

Glock handguns are famous for not having an external thumb safety of any sort.

If you’re looking for a gun with a safety, the Glock 17 is automatically going to lose this category for you. The CZ P09 on the other hand comes with CZ’s Omega trigger system, which features the ability to add a thumb safety to the gun. CZ’s Omega system gives you the option of running either a decocker or a thumb safety, both options being ambidextrous.

This gives you a lot of options with the CZ P09, which are nice to have, but when you look at this segment, you’re really going to have to decide whether you want a striker-fired handgun like the Glock 17 or a double-/single-action hammer-fired option like the CZ P09.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Trigger

We’re going to cover the trigger here in multiple stages since the Glock 17 trigger is going to vary a lot depending on what generation of Glock you get. The trigger itself is going to have very similar characteristics, but it’s going to differ when it comes to its break.

A Glock 17 trigger will generally have light take-up before you reach a wall, and then from that wall you’re going to have your break. From there, you’re going to have a very short reset back at the wall again, then you’ll have your break. Since the break is what changes between the different generations of Glock, that’s what we’ll go over below.

Glock 17 Gen 3 Trigger

The break on the Glock 17 Gen3 is what I would call a very hard wall. It then breaks very heavy. If you love a hard wall with a heavy break, the Glock 17 Gen3 is going to be the trigger you choose. 

G17 Gen 4 Trigger

When you get to the break on the Glock 17 Gen4, you’ll realize it’s not quite a rolling break, but it’s not a hard wall either. This trigger resides somewhere between the feel of the Glock 17 Gen3 and Gen5. 

Glock 17 Gen 5 Trigger 

Pulling the trigger on the Glock 17 Gen5, you get out the light take-up and then immediately start to feel some creep. That creep continues until you hit a rolling break that surprises you just slightly.

It’s a predictable trigger in that you will not be surprised when the gun goes off. Assuming you’re firing a decent pace of fire, but if you want to take it really slow, the trigger will definitely surprise you whereas a Glock Gen3 trigger would not.

CZ P09 Trigger

The trigger on the CZ P-09 has a flatter trigger shoe with less curve in it than most DA/SA triggers you’ve likely handled and shot. Some love it while others prefer a more curved trigger shoe. I myself am apathetic to the shape of the trigger shoe, but this is just personal preference.

P09 Double Action Trigger

When pulling the trigger, you’ll feel the light short takeup before you hit the double-action portion. The DA pull is heavy and a little stagey, but for a DA trigger it doesn’t feel too heavy. There is no wall or hang point before it breaks.

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CZ P09 Single Action Trigger

You’re going to feel light takeup that extends to a portion of the trigger pull where you begin to feel a little bit of creep before a rolling break. You then have a fairly long and mushy reset. The trigger resets fairly far forward and you can hear and barely feel it.

Slide Lock

The slide lock on the CZ P-09 is mounted on the left side of the gun and most shooters will not be able to reach it with their shooting hand thumb unless they break their grip. It is much easier to drop the slide using your support hand thumb to hit the slide stop. 

On the Glock 17’s third and fourth generations, a right-handed shooter will find it easy to access the slide stop using their thumb on their primary hand. It can also be accessed using the support hand thumb as well. The Glock Gen5 is nice in that it has an ambidextrous option so even left-handed shooters can appreciate that.

Magazine Release

The magazine release on the CZ P09 is just a little bit easier to reach than the Glock and frankly, I find that I like it a lot better than the Glock magazine release. Part of that is due to the fact the CZ P09 uses metal magazines, which makes the magazines come out a lot easier than the plastic-coated mags that Glock uses in their 17s.

The magazine releases on both the CZ P09 and the Glock 17 are both reversible, so you won’t find any issues there.

Magazine Well

The magazine well on the CZ P09 is nothing to brag about. There’s a slight bevel on the bottom of the magazine well, which helps slightly when inserting a new magazine, and the Glock 17 Gen 3 and Gen 4 guns have a similar feature.

However, the Glock 17 Gen 5 wins this competition hands-down as it has an absolutely massive magwell for an all-polymer frame and is very quick and forgiving when reloading the firearm.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Quality

I’m going to have to say the quality is a tie on the CZ P09 vs Glock 17. The CZ P09 has a better-quality feeling and looking slide, while the frame on the Glock 17 appears to be a little higher-quality. The texturing on the CZ P09 appears cheap and slick, but its backstraps do give it a couple of points because they look like they’re made for the gun while the Glock 17 backstraps look like an afterthought. 

That being said, I’m still going to give this gun a tie, but I think Glock fans will find the Glock to be higher quality and CZ fans will find the CZ P09 to be higher quality respectively.

Aftermarket

It’s probably a waste to even write about this section. There are tons of aftermarket parts for the Glock 17 and you could build a Glock 17 without using a single Glock factory part, while the CZ P09 doesn’t give you as many options besides some trigger replacement kits as well as some sight options that we discussed above, but you’re not going to find much else.

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Aesthetics

In my opinion, the CZ P09 is a much better-looking firearm than the Glock 17. The CZ has a lot of nice little details but somehow still avoids looking busy. The Glock 17 just looks a little bit thin in the nose, a little bit fat in the grip, and doesn’t seem as proportional as the CZ P-09. Your mileage may vary, but I definitely think the CZ P09 is a more attractive-looking firearm, especially with the detail on the slide and the frame.

Shooting

This is where I was quite surprised. I really thought the CZ P09 would be an extremely soft and flat shooting gun, but what I found was that while it tracks very well, there’s still a decent amount of muzzle flip with this firearm.

It doesn’t shoot as soft as I was expecting and is a little more to handle than I thought it would be. The CZ P07, for me, shoots a bit better than the P-09.

The Glock 17, on the other hand, does shoot slightly better than the Glock 19 for me, and I found myself really liking the overall format of the firearm. It tracks nice and flat and shoots much flatter for me than the CZ P09. I know plenty of fans will disagree with that vehemently, but I know a lot of guys who have put these guns on the clock side-by-side with no brand allegiance and they come out just slightly ahead with the Glock despite not wanting to.

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Look, Glocks are boring. Everybody’s got one whereas the CZ has a bit of class to it. You naturally kind of want the CZ P09 to perform better than the Glock 17. Unfortunately, in this case, it didn’t do it for me. Your mileage may vary, and the CZ comes in at a great price. It might be worth picking it up just to try it out.

CZ P09 vs Glock 17 Price/Value

You can find the CZ P09s for $470 with an MSRP of $530 while the Glock ranges from $500 to $620 in stores. The lower-end options on the Glock 17 scale come with plastic sights, so when you compare those options, the CZ P09 is clearly the better value.

However, if you want to upgrade the sights on the P09, it’s going to run roughly $100 with the install. You can get a Glock with Ameriglo sights in the $570 range and at that point, it becomes a tie. 

If you’re getting a Gen5 Glock, it comes with three magazines as opposed to the two that come with the CZ P09. Magazines for the P09 are also twice the price of OEM Glock magazines and 3-4 times the price of aftermarket Glock mags, so if you plan to buy a bunch of magazines you’ll want to take that into consideration as well.

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Related Articles

• CZ P09 Review
• CZ P07 vs P09
• CZ P09 Holster
• CZ P09 vs P10
• CZ 75 vs Glock 19

Pros/Cons

CZ P09 Pros

• Cost
• Capacity
• Availability

Glock 17 Pros

• Size
• Magazine costs
• Sight options
• Aftermarket

CZ P09 Cons

• Capacity 
• Sight options
• Aftermarket

Glock 17 Cons

• Cost
• Looks