Info on limited production CZ 75 P-01 OD Green with NSN?

4

40CalGuy

New member
Anyone have any additional info on these, aside from what I've been able to dig up (follows)? My first CZ was a 75 SP-01 Tactical that I picked up last year, and I love it. Decided that a smaller version 75B Compact / PCR or the P-01 is what I wanted, and had never seen one in green before (it's NIB) so I watched the listing and then bought a few days later. It'll be home sometime next week.

Here's what I've found/garnered/gathered:

The P-01 in OD was a limited production run by request from a distributor on the east coast (have not been able to find out which one). They originally ordered or requested 200 in 2010, and then did so again in 2011 and 2012. 200 guns per year for 3 years, 600 in total. Of those, the ones from 2010 and 2011 had a NATO submitted and (subsequently) certified NSN designation on the right hand side of the frame. In 2012 CZ changed a slide safety feature and the design lost it's NATO approved designation (until it is resubmitted and reapproved). That makes 600 total in OD Green and only 400 of which carry the NSN marking on the frame. Additionally, CZ has not, to my knowledge, produced other colored or painted pistols, nor do they plan to do any more (at this time).

Any help or additional info or confirmation appreciated. I love knowing the stories behind these things. Thanks!

This is the only pic I have, for now, of the actual pistol:
WaoMWeF.jpg
 
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Oo looks like you dug out a lot of info on these. I saw a couple of these green ones a year ago but didn't occur to me these were this rare :cool:
 
There's not much else to know. I'd argue that you are seeing a distributor's attempt to make a little money.

A P-01 is a P-01. If you like Olive Drab, it's nice. The presence or absence of a Nato Serial Number/approval doesn't mean much; it's more a marketing gimmick than anything. That's because few if any NATO military personnel have NATO-approved weapons; SIG, Glock, H&K and various other arms makers haven't gone to the trouble of getting their gun similarly approved. (That's because the individual nations control what they use and control the approval process.) NATO's biggest concern, I suspect, is trying to keep to keep calibers aligned for logistical reasons, but I doubt that is a big concern; when they go into battle, they generally take their own supply system with them. As for the color: darned few (if any) of existing NATO weapons come in olive drab.

That said, the NATO/green color does have a practical downside: a scratched or blemished standard black polycoat is easily touched up with matte-black auto-body touchup paint; I don't know what works with the olive-drab models.

CZ has, over the years, produced a lot of unusual models and limited runs. They seem to just sneak out of the factory. There was
  • a small number of CZ-97s done in satin nickel a few years back, for one distributor, and
  • a few alloy-framed Compacts (capital C denoting a safety-equipped rather than decocker-equipped compact.) There was also
  • a RETRO model, which was a true 75B, but looked like a pre-B (different slide stop, hammer, grips.) and
  • a Commemorative model, which offered the 75B with a red star on the slide, and hammer and sickle on the frame. That one was came at a lower price, and a lot of folks snapped them up. (The Communist Bloc NEVER used the 75B or 9x19 in their standard military weapons.)
  • Then there was the 40P, which used a specially-modified P-01 frame and the 40B slide. Folks loved them, and the price was right.
There were probably others that I can't recall. You've got a relatively rare gun, but it's unlikely to be a collectible gun or to command a special price on down the road. That said, most folks LOVE their P-01s, and I doubt that your experience with this one will be any different. Shoot it and enjoy it.

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