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Checking out the CZECH CZ's Rami .40: compact and Capable, this tiny terror delivered some surprises

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2004 by Massad Ayoob

The CZ75 pistol became an icon among many handgunners when it was introduced some thirty years ago. In the three decades since, it's been cloned by multiple manufacturers, been enlarged and made smaller, been produced in polymer and steel and in varying calibers, and been built by free people and minions of the communist bloc alike. Depending on who you talk to, it's either the finest double action semiauto ever designed, or one of the most overrated. Most Yank handgunners speak of it as the "see-zee," while Europeans and South Africans tend to use the British pronunciation, "see-zed." Some just call it the Czech.

Picking Up the Czech

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In the hand, it showed CZ75 style all the way I but small. Very small. It's about the same length overall as a baby Glock, a similar height and weight package to a five-shot J-frame, but blockier front and back. The slide is narrower than a Glock, but since the CZ uses the Petter principle of the slide framing inside instead of outside the frame rails, the frame is proportionally thicker, and in the end, the baby Glock and this CZ are equal in width. There's eight .40 S&W rounds in the magazine and one ill the chamber, ten-plus-one if you buy it in 9mm, and two short, double stack magazines are provided. The pistol on the cover of the three-language owner's manual (Czechoslovakian, English, and German) appears to be beautifully polished and blued, but the gun that came out of the plastic box had a dull, businesslike flat black finish.

Two-Party Czech

The pistol (technically the CZ2075) is made by Ceska Zbrojovka in the Czech Republic, and imported by CZ USA of Kansas City, Kansas. The one entity is responsible for producing the gun, the other, for getting it to your dealer and organizing service. CZ-USA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ceska Zbrojovka, lest there be any confusion on the issue. Word in the industry is that, particularly with their famous sporting rifles, CZ is back up to their once-lofty levels of workmanship. I've heard no gripes about service or warranty on the Kansas City end, the only complaint being from dealers who can't get enough guns as quickly as they'd like.

Personalized Czech

Boldly dominating the slide are the letters "RAMI." My first thought was, "What the hell is a Rami?" A call to Jason Morton at CZ-USA brought forth the answer. The name of the gun is derived from the first two letters of the first names of the two designers at Ceska Zbrojovka who came up with this subcompact. They are Radek Hauerland (rhymes with "Morland") and Milan Trakulja (pronounced "Truh-KOOL-ya"). Name the gun after the people who actually designed it? There's a concept! Congratulations on that idea, CZ. I sincerely hope it catches on.

Post-Dated Czech

Designed by the Koucky brothers in the year of its nomenclature, 1975, the CZ75 has changed little in the intervening three decades. Despite the optimistic new model name, "2075," there hasn't been a century of maturity reflected in the design update. About all that has been visibly modernized is the shrunken size envelope, in keeping with a trend that has accelerated since the high capacity magazine ban of 1994.

Passing the Czech

Seven testers participated in shooting the RAMI. Five were males with hands ranging from small to large, and two were females, one with average hands and one with tiny ones. The crew included four firearms instructors: Steve Denny, Herman Gunter, Bill Pfeil and myself; two award winning competitive shooters, Jon and Tern Strayer; and a more casual shooter, Caroline Denney. All were pretty much uniform in their assessments of the new pistol.

The short grip-frame of this compact pistol allows space for only two fingers of the average size male hand, but tucking the pinkie under the butt was no problem for the guys on the firing line. The manual safety is right hand only, quickly losing the love of the southpaw shooter on the test team* The rest found the thumb safety lever, flatter and lower in profile for concealment than 1 remember on the CZ75 and CZ85 service pistols, was adequate, but two complaints surfaced. Those with smaller thumbs noted a much higher reach to the lever than they were accustomed to with Colt and Browning designs, and the upper edge of the soft rubbery grip panels (a rubber Czech?) interfered slightly with on-sating (but not off sating) the pistol.

In keeping with its parent design, the double action trigger reach on this gun is lo-o-ong. Those with the shortest fingers found it unmanageable, and those of us with average length fingers found it an irritation. I couldn't get anywhere close to a distal joint finger placement in DA mode, and this combined with a heavy, rough, "stagy" double action stroke caused it to lose a lot of points in the assessment of each of the seven testers*

Single action wasn't quite as bad. I was able to achieve distal-joint placement, which was useful for leverage since the SA pull was long and creepy, with .15" or more of take-up before resistance was met, and a good .40" of travel from "at rest" position to sear-release and the discharge of the shot.

Checking out the CZECH CZ's Rami .40: compact and Capable, this tiny terror delivered some surprises

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2004 by Massad Ayoob

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