The CZ 75B is an old firearm, in fact this year CZ will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary with an exclusive limited edition CZ 75B pistol. In 1975, when the CZ 75 was produced as a duty sized handgun, it could truly claim to be one of the first wonder nine semi-automatic handguns. The wonder nine’s were characterized by being full sized duty weapons, featuring a higher than average capacity for the time, and of course being in 9mm.
Due to American import laws and the lack of Czech intellectual property protection, this high-capacity 15-shot “Wondernine” handguns was not only unavailable here, they were also copied by other countries without penalty.
In 1949, SIG SAUER created the P210 semi-automatic pistol for the Swiss Army. Apart from production innovations, the P210 earned an enviable reputation for excellent recoil control. In terms of precision and reliability, the gun was the Glock of its day. In 1975, Ceska Zbrojovka released the CZ75. If you were feeling charitable, you could say the CZ’s slide-in-frame design echoes the SIG’s.