I understand the preference for partially cocked striker-fired guns. I get how one fairly light trigger pull that’s consistently good reigns supreme. Still, I like the DA/SA design. I like having a little extra weight for that first trigger pull just in case something gets in the trigger guard that’s not my finger. I like DA/SA guns; as you’d expect, I’m a CZ fan. CZ recently unveiled the new CZ PO9 Nocturne, and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a modern-duty pistol.
What I Love About the P09 is the combination of new and old. I’ve owned a PO9 for what has to be close to a decade now. These combine the benefits of a polymer frame with a hammer-fired DA/SA action. My PO9 hasn’t gotten a lot of love lately as I’ve transitioned to optically enhanced handguns. However, the Nocturne solves that problem.
The CZ PO9 Nocturne
Yep! Dots have made their way to the PO9 series. Honestly, I thought CZ had forgotten about the PO9 and its little brother, the PO7. The intro of the striker-fired P10 had put the polymer frame hammer-fired guns on the back burner in my mind. I’m genuinely surprised they revisited the PO9 and PO7 series.
CZ has eliminated the PO7 model number. Instead, they call both compact and full-sized guns the CZ PO9. The PO9C replaces the PO7, and the full-sized model is called the PO9F. It’s odd that they eliminated the model number, but oh well. We got a red dot!
Specifically, the guns have a Shield RMSc/Holosun K cut. There is no plate system. I honestly dislike plate systems and hate tolerance stacking. I’d also imagine that due to the CZ slide design, there isn’t a ton of room to cut for optics. The slides are very small compared to modern guns. A firing pin block has to be in there somewhere, so they can’t mill super deep. Smaller optics make sense.
Enhancing the Nocturne Ergonomics
The Nocturne series isn’t just optically enhanced guns. They’ve updated the grip texture to make it way more aggressive. It’s quite a bit different from the older P09 series. They also redesigned the slide lock, but it’s still a class leader compared to the micro slide stops on other guns.
The user can still choose between a safety and decocker design—not just choose, but swap on demand. One of the neat features of the old P series was the ability to swap from safety to decocker. The safety and decoder have been slightly modified to be more user-friendly. It’s still ambidextrous, but a slight shelf has been added to enhance these controls.
Finally, the slide has been adorned with deeper cuts. These deeper cuts allow for a better grip, which is needed on the ultra-small slides of the PO9 series guns. This makes it much easier to use and rack.
Keeping the Spirit of the PO9
The new CZ P09 Nocturne keeps everything I like about the PO9/PO7 series of guns. These guns mix modularity, DA/SA actions, and polymer frames to be a very modern DA/SA pistol. The 9mm chambering, 15 to 19-round magazines, and excellent ergonomics make it a very solid and modern handgun.
The Nocturne series has upgraded everything that made the PO9 a good gun. They leaned into its beneficial features without neutering the gun for mass appeal. I’m super excited about these guns, and as a PO9 fan, it’s been a long time coming.
The Nocturne series is coming soon, and the MSRP is only $549. According to CZ, you can also drop the slides on older models and have a fair bit of interchangeability between the old guns and the Nocturne models. I’m not sure if these guns will be huge sellers for CZ, but they’ve already sold me one.
For more information, please visit CZ-USA.com.
