A handicapped shooter's first impressions of the CZ P-09F Nocturne

While I may not make my whole life about guns, I do enjoy shooting them quite a bit. Target shooting is a sport that I personally can enjoy despite my disability (and I've even created a shooting challenge for handicapped shooters in case you forgot), and I am fairly accomplished with my 22 rifle at long-range.

With my patch sales having done well enough to make some spending money (obligatory link to my leftist morale patch shop here), I decided my birthday gift to myself would be a new pistol. I was on the fence: Do I go 380 and get a Beretta 80x Cheetah, or do I go 9mm and get the new CZ P09F (or C) "Nocturne"? As it turns out, I went with the 9mm (obviously, because it'd be a fuck-off-level-bait-and-switch to have it pictured and in the title and not actually own it).

The first thing I did after picking it up from the local gun store? Cleaned & lubed the shit out of it. You see, CZ seems to put some sort of goop on this thing that - while I'm sure it keeps things well-preserved while on the shelf - make it's manual of arms fucking stiff as hell to operate. Keep that in mind should you be able to handle this at the local gun store new: It will be much easier to operate after you clean it up and put some proper oil in it (I used CLP in this case).

This isn't the only thing CZ did from the factory that may have some folks.. Frustrated. We'll talk about the second thing I did - or attempted to - before shooting it later, just because.. suspense.

Anyway, I took this thing out to the range with a bunch of 9mm ammo (seemed to handle everything fine, but we're still in the break-in period FYI) and some zombie targets I had gotten for free to write a review of (you'll see those in a later review/video of this thing when I have more rounds down range) to see how it performs.

The TL:DR; portion? I liked it, with caveats.

First off: Shooting this pistol is fantastic. It really feels good to fire. The DA/SA trigger is pretty reasonable given the price, but we're gonna talk more about that later, too. The accuracy? Really good, especially considering I was having a bad pain day, and my heart was.. Not doing what it's supposed to, so I was pretty wobbly. My first group was really tight for a first time out with this thing and shooting irons, covering a fist-sized area pretty well at 10-12 yards with a steady firing rhythm.

The recoil? Not bad at all. I actually haven't shot a 9mm in years, so I was obviously wondering what it'd feel like. Well, given this is a full-size 9mm pistol with a tilting barrel, felt recoil is really manageable. It's obviously more than my 22LR TX22 Compact (even with hot ammo), but I had no problems with it. I did start to feel some fatigue at the 100 round mark, but given all the other issues I was dealing with and the fact that I suffer from pretty severe arthritis in my hands, it wasn't bad at all.

Even 1-handed, it was manageable for me (I actually shot a pretty damned good group 1-handed with it, too). The weight of the thing obviously can be a problem for some, especially for longer range trips, but overall it's a worthwhile trade-off for me (plus it keeps me from blowing too much money on ammo at the range).

Loading magazines, I will say, was torture. If you're like me, you'll want to grab an assistive device to help you load the mags. I don't know if CZ is specifically punishing those of us stuck with the 10 round magazines, or if all of their mags are stiffer than a teenager in a strip club, but.. Yeah. It's rough.

Anyway, let's talk about a few final important considerations with the CZ P-09F Nocturne.

First off: Remember how I talked about a second thing I did when I brought the pistol home? Here's where I share what that thing was.

Are you ready?

Gird yourself, folks..

I attempted to install my Holosun 407k optic on it.

I say attempted because.. Well, CZ used some sort of Evlish Loctite on the screws for the optics cut cover, and I completely stripped one trying to get it removed.

I tried so many different techniques, but had zero success removing it, and my pistol is now at CZ's US shop thanks to a fairly gentle RMA process. Apparently I'm not the only one who had this issue, because Reddit is littered with folks bitching about it and all the strategies they tried to remove the screws.

Here's hoping I'm not waiting too long for it, because that leads me to one other important consideration that's especially relevant to handicapped folks: CZ pistols can be modified pretty easily.

CZ is an exceptionally popular manufacturer of firearms, and despite being relatively new, the CZ P-09F Nocturne has plenty of replacement parts available so you can tweak your pistol to meet your needs.

Me? I'm going with Cajun Gun Works' complete upgrade spring kit once I get the pistol back and have a few hundred more rounds through it. While the double-action trigger isn't bad, I think I'd like to have it a touch lighter.

Of course, this also means you've got to be comfortable working on your own firearm. You can have someone else do it, but if you don't have a friend who can (or an affordable gunsmith), you may find yourself better off with a different firearm all together.

Anyway, this went a lot longer than I expected; I do plan on doing a full review (both video & written) after I get more rounds down-range, but that'll be a while considering CZ currently has my new goth-named pew pew.