I love the little CZ 82/83 pistols and was able to pick up a somewhat hard to find variant about a year ago. Got a very gently used CZ-83 in 7.65 Browning or .32 acp. It had languished in the safe until today when work took me out to near Redbrush Rifle Range. So of course, after inspecting some land, I hit the range for a quick session.
The CZ-83 is a steel frame/slide, fixed barrel, blowback operated design (a’ la Walther) and is a traditional double action/single action pistol. It is not the smallest nor the lightest pistol but the overall size and weight is somewhere between a compact and sub-compact. Commonly found in 9x18 Makarov and .380 acp, the .32 acp variant is a little harder to come by, especially now that CZ-USA no longer is importing the CZ-83 model. I replaced the factory grips with a set of Marschal fingergroove walnut grips.
The trigger on this example had the expected longish but smooth take up but had a surprisingly crisp breaking point, different from other CZ 82/83 pistols I have shot. Reliability was perfect, about 50 rounds of Fiocchi 73 gr FMJ and 20 rounds of Federal 65 gr Hydroshok HP were fired.
I first loaded two mags to their full 15 round capacity and stepped up to the plate rack. This is an array of six 9" steel plates set out about 50' or so. Happily my 30 rounds dropped the six plates 5X with no misses. I was not rushing it but was probably going about a shot a second. The minimal recoil from the .32 acp round in this steel pistol made that pretty easy.
Accuracy was decent as can be seen in the pic below. That is a reduced silhouette roughly 15" wide. Shooting was done offhand at 10 yards. My first 3-4 groups with the Fiocchi were actually tighter than this (no, really!), but I am more than happy with the results. Not only was it consistent but the Fiocchi FMJ shot roughly the same point of aim as the Federal HP.
I plan to shoot some Gold Dot, Cor-Bon and Winchester Silver Tip as well to find the most consistent HP round. Overall I like this pistol very much. I already liked the model and the chambering in .32 acp gives a high capacity, low recoil alternative.
The CZ-83 is a steel frame/slide, fixed barrel, blowback operated design (a’ la Walther) and is a traditional double action/single action pistol. It is not the smallest nor the lightest pistol but the overall size and weight is somewhere between a compact and sub-compact. Commonly found in 9x18 Makarov and .380 acp, the .32 acp variant is a little harder to come by, especially now that CZ-USA no longer is importing the CZ-83 model. I replaced the factory grips with a set of Marschal fingergroove walnut grips.
The trigger on this example had the expected longish but smooth take up but had a surprisingly crisp breaking point, different from other CZ 82/83 pistols I have shot. Reliability was perfect, about 50 rounds of Fiocchi 73 gr FMJ and 20 rounds of Federal 65 gr Hydroshok HP were fired.
I first loaded two mags to their full 15 round capacity and stepped up to the plate rack. This is an array of six 9" steel plates set out about 50' or so. Happily my 30 rounds dropped the six plates 5X with no misses. I was not rushing it but was probably going about a shot a second. The minimal recoil from the .32 acp round in this steel pistol made that pretty easy.
Accuracy was decent as can be seen in the pic below. That is a reduced silhouette roughly 15" wide. Shooting was done offhand at 10 yards. My first 3-4 groups with the Fiocchi were actually tighter than this (no, really!), but I am more than happy with the results. Not only was it consistent but the Fiocchi FMJ shot roughly the same point of aim as the Federal HP.
I plan to shoot some Gold Dot, Cor-Bon and Winchester Silver Tip as well to find the most consistent HP round. Overall I like this pistol very much. I already liked the model and the chambering in .32 acp gives a high capacity, low recoil alternative.
