I’m a cautious person when it comes to buying guns, or at least first generation guns. Something happens when a good gun concept reaches mass production, somehow little fairies come in and ruin things. I usually wait a minute and see what is what. This has kept me from buying IO AKs, the R51, and the CZ P10 C. Until now anyway.
I love CZ firearms and own several and constantly suggest CZs to my friends and family who are looking for something new. I was cautious with the P10 C for a few reasons. Outside of just being a new gun the P10 C was a striker fired gun that is coming from a company known for hammer fired guns. I waited until this year to finally purchase one after ready nothing but good reviews.
I found the CZ P10 C Suppressor Ready Model for a screaming good deal at my local gun store. The gun features a sand colored frame CZ Calls Urban Grey, an extended and threaded barrel, 17 round extended magazines and suppressor height night sights.
The P10 C isn’t the first striker fired CZ. I’m sure some of us remember the CZ 100, but many do not. It failed with very few people wanting a true DAO striker fired design. It’s certainly their most successful.
The P10 C Specs
The CZ P10 C is basically the Glock 19 of CZ firearms. The C stands for compact and as we’ve seen the there is now a Full sized and Subcompact model. The gun has the following specs:
- 4.61-inch barrel
- Overall Length 8 inches
- Weighs 26 ounces
- 17 round capacity
- MSRP 559.00
It’s very Glock 19 in size, but the threaded barrel adds a little more to the gun. It will fit the majority of Glock 19 holsters and I found this true with my NSR Appendix holster.
P10 C Ergonomics
If CZ is renowned for one thing its ergonomics. Their guns are ergonomic powerhouses and the P10 C is no different. The P10 C has an excellent grip angle and a well-rounded grip overall. The P10 C is an incredibly comfortable gun and CZ has always been a master of making great grips.
The grip itself is aggressively stippled and you will start to feel it after a short period of shooting. The stippling is not painful, but present.
It’s almost like CZ saw all those bubba’s defacing Glock grips with stippling and said, “We don’t want any part of that.” So they gave us aggressive stippling from the get go.
The rear beaver tail is more of a shelf. Kinda like Glock, but extended like the 80 percent lower Glocks from Polymer 80.
CZ Also went and made all the control ambidextrous. This is truly ambidextrous and not just a magazine release that can be switched back and forth. Both your magazine release and slide lock are ambidextrous.
Both the magazine release and the slide lock are very small. The magazine release is also very stiff and requires some force to activate. Hopefully it will smooth out over time. I personally wished they went with the same slide lock on the P09/07 series.
This model is placed more rearward and my thumbs sit on top of it, this results in the slide failing to lock after the last shot is fired due to my thumb placement. The slide lock is super skinny and hard to press downward overall.
The slide features aggressive serrations on both the front and rear of the slide. They are nice and easy to grip and the slide itself is much larger than previous CZ’s. CZ abandoned the slide in frame design with the P10 C which is an interesting decision.
The gun also includes two extra back straps to customize the gun’s size to your hand.
The Trigger
The trigger is a semi-flat design and is placed pretty far rearward. This makes it easy to reach for people with small hands. The design incorporates a trigger safety that is pinch-free so far.
The trigger pull is short, concise, and light. The trigger breaks very crisply and has an ultra short reset. This is one of the finer stock trigger on the market, surpassing other plastic fantastics from Glock and SIG. It’s nearly on par with the Walther PPQ, a gun which i consider to have the finest trigger of all polymer striker fired guns.
The trigger is excellent and very comfortable. The short reset makes it easy to fall into a fast pattern of fire, regain sight picture, fire, etc. It’s easy to dump a magazine into one ragged hole. The trigger pull comes in at about 4.5 pounds and it’s consistent.
Range Time
As you’d expect this 9mm has very little recoil and is quite controllable. On my first outing, I found myself surprised how quickly I adapted myself to the gun. Before the first magazine was empty I was backing up further and further to see how far I could consistently ring steel.
My small popper was the perfect target. I got back to 60 yards and was still ringing steel more than I was missing in a standard standing position. The sights are excellent and the front sight is very thin and makes it possible to still see a small target at this range.
The gun is very enjoyable to shoot and from round 1 I was hitting exactly where I was aiming. It’s a well put together design that incorporates a number of design features that meshes together very well.
The trigger, the sights, and the cold hammer forged barrel make this a very accurate gun. The grip helps with recoil control and you can easily make one ragged hole very quickly with little practice.
I was able to shoot the iHack drill clean with the 3 second par time on my first day with this gun. If you don’t know that drill requires you to shoot 3 shots, on 3 targets, in 3 seconds. The iHack is a modified drill of the Hackathorn head shot standards. This uses 2 inch circles as targets and can be quite challenging.
Admittedly I didn’t get the par time down until the third time I ran the drill. Still, for my first day with the gun I was quite pleased with it.
Final Thoughts
The CZ P10 C is a fantastic little gun and one that I am admittedly impressed by. CZ has found a way to go against their typical grain with a successful striker fired design that isn’t just good compared to similar guns, but surpasses them in many ways. Right now these guns seem to be selling at a low price to make room for Optic’s ready models so I’d jump on one if you can.
