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The CZ 40B started out life as a joint venture between Colt and CZ. The Colt Z-40 was to be a DAO .40 geared to the LEO community, based upon the 1911 geometry and CZ internals. IIRC, less than 1,000 were made when Colt dropped the idea. I've seen Colt Z-40s marked up and over 1K at shows. CZ, on the other hand, had the tooling and parts, so they developed the CZ 40B as SA/DA gun. Both have a larger grip due to the double-stack .40 mag. CZ is no longer making the CZ 40B, but I don't think it will be a collectors item any time soon. The Z-40 / CZ 40B slide has now found it's way on to the P-01 receiver in the form of the CZ 40P. The CZ 40P that I have is a very accurate handgun. -- Mike |
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IIRC, Colt was trying to come up with a "Smart/Safe" gun, wherein the shooter had to wear a watch with a transmitter inside it and a computer chip in the gun would not allow it to be fired unless the watch was in close proximity. The idea was to sell it to the LEO community because a large percentage of LEOs are killed with their own gun. According to a book on handguns that I have, Colt never mastered DA semiauto designs, and they didn't want to go to their domestic competitor, S&W, so they went to CZ to make it for them, and it was supposedly based on the CZ75 mechanism. The story was on the History Channel. Reliability was probably the big issue which resulted in the demise of the project. |
| My CZ40B is way reliable and is just as accurate as my 1911 is. The only thing I have done to it is replace the recoil spring and put some wood grips on it. They are selling now for under $300 in some places so as far as I am concerned it is one great deal. The reason from what I have read about the deal going south had to do with Colt having financial problems. I like my 40B so much that if I was at a gun show and had money to spend and saw one I would have two. Just my two cents. |
Good point. Colt just hasn't been able to get its act together for many years now. Little wonder they lost out to FN for M16 production. When I was shopping for a 1911, my local dealer dissuaded me from getting a Colt, advising that if I had any issues with it, he was concerned that Colt's Customer Service was likely not up to providing satisfaction. Got an SA MilSpec instead. |
Watch this! Here comes the Colt clan to flame me. HHEHEHEHEHEHE. Good choice on the pistol in my opinion. Colt is OVER PRICED when I see them in stores. My SA shoots great and is accurate and the canons look way cooler than a dorky prancing pony. Hehhehehehehe.  |