I recently got the urge for an O/U shotgun for field and clays work. As my beautiful better half has clamped down on my gun spending, keeping it under the $1K radar so I can maintain her good graces was important. After a lot of investigation, I decided on the 28" 12ga CZ Redhead.
That's when the fun started; I wasn't alone in wanting this gun. Finally I found one on Gunbroker that hadn't been priced out of reason ($950 bid for a $800 gun?) or wasn't backordered until next sumer (maybe); it arrived at my club today.
My first impression was the wood is gorgeous. If you walk into a furniture store and see an overgrown bozo wearing a stupid grin and rubbing a nicely formed chunk of wood, well, that's probably me. Norm Abrams is a hero. This gun's wood gave me...well you get the idea....
Fit and finish were far beyond one would expect from the less-than $650 price I paid. Lockup was tight, bluing was deep and flawless (black chrome?), metal to wood fit (oh my...) was perfect, and the trigger was crisp with no creep (more later). Single brass front with no midship bead--good stuff! And no auto safety. if I want to engage the safety, I'll do it myself, thank you.
Now that I got mine, so I'll let the secret out: these guns are WAY underpriced! Buy one now before CZ's marketing department figures it out. This is the shotgun equivalent of the Valtro 1911 (yeah, I have a Valtro too, and no, its not for sale.
).
As the Friday Night Trap, BBQ and BS league was gathering at my club when the new toy arrived, some of the Beretta, Browning and Perazzi owners had a chance to fondle the gun. None believed the price. All wanted to shoot it. Yeah, right...
Due to other comittments and a late-arriving Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS) driver, I didn't have the time to really run the gun through the paces, only shooting a box of AA reloads through it to verify function before the 4473 dance begins tomorrow. Trigger is outstanding; I won't guess at the weight, but it is nowhere near the 7.5 lbs I read about from the "experts". Break is very crisp with no (ZERO!) creep and the reset between shots is like a perfectly tuned 1911 ('tis a beautiful thing). Gun ejects empties into a tidy pile.
I had read about some problems with one barrel or the other (by the same 7.5# trigger pull experts), so my shooting today consisted of quick doubles --bang -bang. When the gun arrived, it was set for the top barrel to fire first. As soon as I saw that, I switched it over to bottom first. Load two, point in a safe direction, pull the trigger and KABOOM!
My first thought was that I had shot a double charged reload...oh no...a quick inspection showed no damage, the action opened just fine, and out ejected two (!!) spent shells. The gun doubled.
My next thought as a recoil junkie was, "that was fun, let's do it again!"
Lesson: when you switch the barrel selector, first pull the trigger before you load and shoot the thing. In all fairness, it may say that in the manual, but as a red-blooded American Male, I don't need no stinkin' manual. Directions? What, you think we're lost? Ha!
I am very pleased with the gun and consider it money well spent. I'll make sure to post an update if any of this changes.
That's when the fun started; I wasn't alone in wanting this gun. Finally I found one on Gunbroker that hadn't been priced out of reason ($950 bid for a $800 gun?) or wasn't backordered until next sumer (maybe); it arrived at my club today.
My first impression was the wood is gorgeous. If you walk into a furniture store and see an overgrown bozo wearing a stupid grin and rubbing a nicely formed chunk of wood, well, that's probably me. Norm Abrams is a hero. This gun's wood gave me...well you get the idea....
Fit and finish were far beyond one would expect from the less-than $650 price I paid. Lockup was tight, bluing was deep and flawless (black chrome?), metal to wood fit (oh my...) was perfect, and the trigger was crisp with no creep (more later). Single brass front with no midship bead--good stuff! And no auto safety. if I want to engage the safety, I'll do it myself, thank you.
Now that I got mine, so I'll let the secret out: these guns are WAY underpriced! Buy one now before CZ's marketing department figures it out. This is the shotgun equivalent of the Valtro 1911 (yeah, I have a Valtro too, and no, its not for sale.
).As the Friday Night Trap, BBQ and BS league was gathering at my club when the new toy arrived, some of the Beretta, Browning and Perazzi owners had a chance to fondle the gun. None believed the price. All wanted to shoot it. Yeah, right...
Due to other comittments and a late-arriving Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS) driver, I didn't have the time to really run the gun through the paces, only shooting a box of AA reloads through it to verify function before the 4473 dance begins tomorrow. Trigger is outstanding; I won't guess at the weight, but it is nowhere near the 7.5 lbs I read about from the "experts". Break is very crisp with no (ZERO!) creep and the reset between shots is like a perfectly tuned 1911 ('tis a beautiful thing). Gun ejects empties into a tidy pile.
I had read about some problems with one barrel or the other (by the same 7.5# trigger pull experts), so my shooting today consisted of quick doubles --bang -bang. When the gun arrived, it was set for the top barrel to fire first. As soon as I saw that, I switched it over to bottom first. Load two, point in a safe direction, pull the trigger and KABOOM!
My first thought was that I had shot a double charged reload...oh no...a quick inspection showed no damage, the action opened just fine, and out ejected two (!!) spent shells. The gun doubled.
My next thought as a recoil junkie was, "that was fun, let's do it again!"
Lesson: when you switch the barrel selector, first pull the trigger before you load and shoot the thing. In all fairness, it may say that in the manual, but as a red-blooded American Male, I don't need no stinkin' manual. Directions? What, you think we're lost? Ha!
I am very pleased with the gun and consider it money well spent. I'll make sure to post an update if any of this changes.
