knightsofnee said:
It's still a pre-B, they're not making those anymore. And it looks to be in nice shape. It's a nice find and a bit of history. There are plenty of 75B's out there to mod till your hearts content.
I disagree. It's NOT a religious icon. It's a tool -- intended to do what you want it to do. It's probably a late ore-B, at that. (You can generally find the date in a little oval in the corner of the ejection port.)
If it were mine, I found the trigger awkward, and I could make it shoot better with modest changes, I'd do it. Nothing mentioned so far can't be undone. A pre-B is unlikely to have any significant "collector" value in our lifetime.
[A much-older "short-rail" model, might appreciate more rapidly, but that gun wouldn't be one the shooter -- if he knew what he had -- would be shooting a lot. (That would be like letting your kids use a Mantle-signed baseball for their afternoon games of catch...) I wouldn't mess with one of those truly "collectible" models.
The BEAUTY of the (pre-B) 75 is their great triggers;many also like the older "OVAL" trigger guards and spur hammers. The older (waffle-like) grips are NOT a thing of beauty. Several years back CZ did a short-run of "RETRO" 75Bs that looked just like the pre-Bs, but were "B" models internally -- that may have been the best of both worlds: good looks, great warranty.
Any of the B models can be tuned to run as nicely as the pre-Bs, and the 85 Combat comes from the factory without the firing pin block which, practically speaking, makes it a "pre-B", too.
More importantly, some of the pre-B parts are getting a bit rare. (The internal springs in the oldest 75 safeties [you can see a pinhole on the top] are unavailable in the U.S. -- you have to be really careful when disassembling those old spring-loaded safeties. I don't think newer safeties can be made to work... Some other parts changed a little over time, but newer ones generally can be made to work. That WIDE hammer I mentioned in an earlier response is another example of a difference.
I don't do pre-Bs any more, because of these subtle changes, although I'd never turn one down if offered at a good price -- as the NEED to repair something is not something that happens a lot.