New side X side

[jeff100]

I stopped to buy ammo yesterday, and of course I had to browse the gun rack to see if anything caught my eye.  I need another gun like I need another wife.  OK, guess I can always use another gun.   Wives on the other hand....

Anyway, after looking at a couple of handguns, and eying over the hunting rifles and not seeing anything interesting, I moved over to the shotgun rack.  I spied a couple of CZ SxS in 20 gauge, which just happens to be my ticket.  I have a hell of a lot of shotguns, but not one side by side.  Jeff I says to myself, that's a big hole in your collection.  That's just plain wrong.

So I ask the clerk to hand me one of the CZ doubles.  I was handed a CZ Bobwhite SxS in 20 gauge.  This shotgun had double triggers with a tang safety on top of the English straight grip stock. a splinter forend with Schnabel tip.  First off I noticed this shotgun had very nice Turkish walnut stock with hand cut checkering.  Very nice indeed.  It's getting harder and harder to find nice wood on reasonably prices guns, and at $700 for this copy, that qualifies as reasonable in my world.  The 28" barrels with screw in chokes (comes with 5 chokes!) were a deep glossy black with a very nice highly polished luster.  CZ calls this finish a hard black chrome finish.  This is something else I find rare these days, decent high polished finish bluing (or black).  The action is based on the classic Anson & Deeley boxlock with a Greener cross bolt and is finished with a beautiful case colored finish.  What a pretty gun.  Listed weight on CZ's website is 6.2 pounds with the 28" barrels.  Light but not too light.  It seemed to be a very nimble handling shotgun that flowed nicely up to my cheek and shoulder.  I was in love.  Unfortunately, I also have a new dog in training and owe my dog trainer his fee, so I'm watching my penny's too.  After looking at this shotgun for an hour, I left empty handed and went home.  Twenty minutes after I got home, I was back in my rig headed back to buy that shotgun.  After a bit of haggling, the deal got done.  My wallet lightened, I'm a proud new owner.  In a couple of days I'll be down at the trap range to see if I can hit anything with a side by side.  We'll see what happens...

I wonder if my dog trainer takes payments....

[bowhunterforever]

Congrats getting a new feather buster! Let us know how she shoots?

[addicted]

CZ has been putting out some great products. congrats on the new addition.

[Gutpile]

I have one in twelve. I took a turkey with mine this year. I've been happy with it.

[Dakota Dogman]

Congrats on the gun...

Some guys find the switch to sxs's to be a real challenge, so don't be to hard on it if the learning curve catches you at first.  The wide sight plain takes some adjusting for some... personally I love em.

God Bless,

[deaddog]

Sounds like a purrty shotgun for sure, would like to see pics if you have any.

[jeff100]

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

I did some research on this gun AFTER I bought it.  On a different forum some folks were bashing this shotgun quite a bit.  They claimed the firing pins would break as soon as I tried to shoot the gun.  I don't pay too much attention though.  Years ago, I bought a Baikal 12 gage O/U shotgun.  I learned then that there's a group of snob gunners out there that think if you don't pay thousands of dollars (and for some, 10's of thousands) for a shotgun, you've got junk.  I'm telling you, that Russian tank wasn't sleek, nor was it light.  But I busted a heck of a lot of clays with it and took my share of birds with it too.  I didn't worry about it when the rain and sleet came down either.  When it was all said and done I sold it for a couple of dollars MORE than I paid for it new.  Remington is/was selling this O/U shotgun in it's Spartan line.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the money, I'd collect high end shotguns.  On the other hand, nothing makes my day like good value for my money.  I have quite a collection of CZ handguns, so I'm very familiar with the company and their standards.  I know that CZ doesn't manufacture this shotgun, but they put their name on it.  I'm hearing that Turkey has made a significant investment in their shotgun industry.  Looking at the fit and finish on this shotgun, I'd say that's true.  The proof will be in the shooting, but so far I think this CZ is a home run.

I'll give an update after I put some shells through this gun...as for pics, I'll take some pics this weekend and post them.  I'm supposed to be working my day job right now, yikes...

[ecnclan]

That's a nice gun!  Enjoy.

[Gutpile]

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

I did some research on this gun AFTER I bought it.  On a different forum some folks were bashing this shotgun quite a bit.  They claimed the firing pins would break as soon as I tried to shoot the gun.  I don't pay too much attention though.  Years ago, I bought a Baikal 12 gage O/U shotgun.  I learned then that there's a group of snob gunners out there that think if you don't pay thousands of dollars (and for some, 10's of thousands) for a shotgun, you've got junk.  I'm telling you, that Russian tank wasn't sleek, nor was it light.  But I busted a heck of a lot of clays with it and took my share of birds with it too.  I didn't worry about it when the rain and sleet came down either.  When it was all said and done I sold it for a couple of dollars MORE than I paid for it new.  Remington is/was selling this O/U shotgun in it's Spartan line.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the money, I'd collect high end shotguns.  On the other hand, nothing makes my day like good value for my money.  I have quite a collection of CZ handguns, so I'm very familiar with the company and their standards.  I know that CZ doesn't manufacture this shotgun, but they put their name on it.  I'm hearing that Turkey has made a significant investment in their shotgun industry.  Looking at the fit and finish on this shotgun, I'd say that's true.  The proof will be in the shooting, but so far I think this CZ is a home run.

I'll give an update after I put some shells through this gun...as for pics, I'll take some pics this weekend and post them.  I'm supposed to be working my day job right now, yikes...

I heard all of that stuff when I bought mine too. I've used it shooting trap, sporting clays, dove hunting, pheasant/hun hunting, and turkey hunting. I've shot hundreds of rounds through it. It's not the best there is but it's certainly not junk either. I really like mine, but it does get a little uncomfortable on the clays range. Another thing I like is that it's not all "pimped out" either. I really like the way it looks and shoots.