CZ Yearbook 2019 /eng

For the CZ 100, a laser sight in the same design was made, only a few were produced. 22 | | 23 The very beginnings In Uherský Brod, the concept of a modern polymer pistol with a linear striker first came up on the agenda as early as the mid- 1990s, when f irst work on the future CZ 100model began. But it was not the only direction that was considered. At that time, CZ The journey to the CZ P-10 When it comes to linear striker-fired polymer pistols, one might get the impression that Česká zbrojovka has long stayed on the sidelines. To the contrary! One cannot overlook that pistols of this concept have been in demand for a while. At times, they are for the sake of simplicity (and not quite exactly), called striker fired pis- tols. Every company dealing with the manufacture of handguns has reacted to this de- mand in some way. Unfortunately, it is often forgotten that in the arms industry, great and promising ideas are not thought up on the spot. The more so when the aim is not just to come up with another Glock-type variation, as seems to have become the norm over the past two decades in this field of business. During this time, serial produc- tion of the already mentioned CZ 100 was launched and the company expectations were high. This model used the DAO trigger mechanism which was the preferred choice of many experts who were ready to overlook its negative effect on accuracy in favour of simplicity, safety, constant trigger travel and readiness to fire. But customers thought differ- ently. Česká zbrojovka first re- sponded to their feedback by improving the trigger and in 2000, the company launched the CZ 110 SA/DA version, orig- inally started in 1997 as a pos- sible candidate for the Czech Police tender. Nevertheless, another idea was in the picture. It was a design by Jiří Indruch f rom Valašské Meziříčí, a keen shooter, who got a licence for the develop- ment of arms as early as Janu- ary 1993. CZ first began cooper- ating with him in 1992, on the design of barrel adapters for an over and under 12-gauge shot- gun, which eventually entered small-scale production. Anoth- er quite intensive collaboration took place between 1998-1999 when the company and Jiří Indruch worked on a modifica- tion of the CZ 100 pistol. Al though in the end , In- druch’s solution wasn’t used due to fundamental changes in the design which would have needed further consid- erable investments in serial production, another project followed in the spring of 1998. It was called A pistol concept according to Mr Indruch, but two years later, that too was stopped due to unsatisfac- tory test results. Still, it was obvious that there was a de- signer who def ini tely had something going in the field of modern handguns. The Indruch concept on the scene again With the coming of the new millennium, in the pistol sector, Česká zbrojovka focused on the expansion and upgrading of its flagship CZ 75 model series. Yes, we are talking about the groundbreaking police com- pact whose success propelled the company toa considera- bly higher l e ve l de - spite some g r o w i n g pains. A bit later, there took serious interest in, for ex- ample, an idea by the Austrian shooter and occasional design- er, Wilhelm Bubits. In the mid- 90s, he offered European fire- arm manufacturers his series of service and defence pistols, the Dragon, which had poly- mer frames and original grips, in 9 mm Luger, .40 S&W and .45 Auto calibres. In Moravia, Bubits’ model made it to the functional sample phase, how- ever, it did not function well. So, CZ withdrew from the contract and the opportunity then went to Steyr Mannlicher. configure parameters accord- ing to their own requirements. To the basic frame for the trig- ger and striking mechanism, they could attach pistol grips in various lengths and several variants of the front part (with accessory rails, opt for no rail, etc.). Apart from other things, this solution was meant to cre- ate significant savings on injec- followed the phenomenal CZ 75 SP-01 family, the CZ 2075 RAMI subcompact and the new generation of the CZ 75 Tactical Sports specials. The CZ 100/110 pistols were on offer until 2007. In the end, more than 35 000 of themwere made. They gradually found their loyal fans who swear by them, especially in the USA. In the meantime, specif ically in 2004, work started on a new striker fired pistol, once again based on Jiří Indruch’s design. Originally, the project was called the Indruch pistol but in 2005, it was changed to the new series of pistols, the CZ 010, 020, 030. The calibres considered were the 9 mm Luger, .40 S&W and .357 SIG, whose brief popularity was fading, the 45 Autowas also possibly on the cards. Going by information at the time, there were several inter- esting features of the design that had not been used any- where before, which really stood out. Thecrucial innovationcame in the three-part polymer frame that allowed the customer to tion moulds. The bore axis in Indruch’s pistol was very low, which was achieved by using a new trigger and striker mechanism with a linear striker. In the company ’s produc- tion programme, this series of pistols was to replace the CZ 100/110 models. At the time when these models disap- peared f rom the scene, the new project wasn’t ready to be put into serial production yet and the company suddenly offered only hammer models. Omega first After the new general direc- tor Lubomír Kovařík took of- fice in summer 2006, CZ con- sidered its priorities and where pistols were concerned, it first put its full focus on the design of a “tender” hammer model with a polymer frame. The de- sign was based around the sig- nificantly modernized Omega trigger mechanism which still rested on the principles of the timeless CZ 75 but employed in