I’m in the same boat as you three!!!
I also recently shot one that was not mine. It was brand new, first time out. The the guy said he would let me shoot it but only after he shot a few mags first, because he’d never fired it before. He did ok with it. Baseball sized groups at 10 yards on a paper silhouette target.
When it was my turn I picked it up and started admiring it, as I had never heard of it before. I didn’t know what it was or what it was supposed to be other than a CZ.
The first thing I said was “This thing is a tank!” admiring the all steel construction. I quickly realized that this was a really well built, very smooth, nicely fit, and high quality firearm.
I liked that it has the ability to be cocked and locked. I didn’t realize it is also a double action first pull if you want, but I guess I should have known being that it is a CZ.
He loaded up a full magazine for me and told me to go ahead and shoot the head on his silhouette target. I protested a bit suggesting that I leave the head for him to shoot at and that I would just shoot a corner of the target. However, he insisted. So, for my first shot, I took my time, standing unsupported at 10 yards, I placed my finger on the nice feeling trigger and gently applied pressure straight back until it broke. The shot felt so nice and it punched a clean hole in the exact center of the head. Perfect bullseye. I followed up with at least 14 more shots, the first few of which went through practically the same hole, opening the group up to no more than a dime at 10 yards.
When it was all over, my group was maybe a little bigger than a half dollar. First time shooting it for me., probably only the 4-5th mag though it since brand new. And to be honest, I wasn’t trying as hard as I could have, I mean, I didn’t want to sit there and hang on to the guys new gun for a few minutes to really take my time with each shot. So I took each shot about as soon as I had the gun settled in back on target.
I understand that this is a really nice handgun, and that it is geared towards competition shooting, but I would love it if they made a CZ like this (a shadow 2) that didn’t weigh so much. It’s my understanding that in addition to a slightly longer barrel and slide, they intentionally added extra weight to this gun, specifically to make it a softer shooter. There is hardly any recoil on this gun because all that weight soaks it up, which is awesome for super speed competition shooting, but I’d like to see the same design trimmed down a little, maybe even loose the accessory rail too, although I like the barrel length.
All in all, I can’t say anything bad about this gun. It’s a tank and tanks are cool.
You could use this for whatever purpose you choose. Competition, target shooting, home defense, open carry, concealed carry. . . and it will obviously do better at some of those things than others. But when it’s all said and done, I think it’s a really fine shooter that is very well made and interesting. And I guess it’s pretty reasonably priced considering what it is and you can pick one up for around $1000.
I look forward to anyone else’s comments on the Shadow 2.