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My personal factory two-tone CZ-75B with a handful of customizations. |
Thanks to watching anime like
Gunsmith Cats and its predecessor
Riding Bean (and reading the accompanying manga), the CZ-75 has been at the forefront of my firearms interest in the same way that video games like
Max Payne and movies like
Die Hard got me to buy a Beretta 92FS. Out of all the CZ-75 variants, the classic "short rail" model is probably the holy grail for many a CZ collector, or so I thought. For the longest time I had largely assumed that the only form the original gun existed in was its most base model, and that the wide range of variants, ranging from multi-colored finishes to factory installed adjustable sights and competition triggers, didn't come around until the second generation of CZ-75 pistols.
But, wouldn't you know, the original model, within its five years of commercial production between 1975 to 1980, did apparently have a splattering of factory variants, most of which can be randomly spotted on auction sites and in the occasional blog article. Although this may never be a complete or even accurate list, the purpose of this article is too compile the variety of variants that I have seen over the years while trying to buy one of these "short rails" myself. In truth, the base model is no longer my holy grail, and I'd argue that even for others, it's the variants that may command the most attention.
Read on after the break.