Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns CZ Upland Ultralight?

Anyone handled/used a CZ Upland Ultralight?

https://cz-usa.com/product/cz-upland-ultralight/

I've not handled any CZ shotguns but would like to pick up a light OU for occasional use. I'm not a shotgun guy but would like to have an O/U to play with.

I have a CZ Sportsman and it is a great gun for the money. I would grab it if the price is good.

I have one in 20 ga. It carries nice and feels pretty good but I don’t shoot it all that well. Have only shot 7.5 & 8 shot dove loads. Stout duck or pheasant loads would get your attention.

What is your budget?

Not really set on a budget.

While many people will tout the reliability of the lower tiers of O/U's, I've found that the risk of poor barrel alignment goes way up w/ the cheaper guns. I say this after patterning nearly all of mine and several of my friends' shotguns over the last 20 years. By "poor barrel alignment" I mean different points of impact btwn the two barrels. Ideally, the POI difference btwn the two bbls should be within ~1", but I've seen POI's be off by 12" or more at 40 yards on some guns. Unfortunately, the only way to determine this is on the patterning board, after you've purchased the gun.

Have you patterned one of the CZ Upland Ultralights...or any of the CZ O/U's?

I have not. As far as O/U's, I've patterned Fabarm, Beretta, Browning, Remington, Baikal, Yildiz... maybe one or two others, but I don't remember any CZ's in that mix. Browning and Fabarm patterned the best out of all of that mess. Some of the Berettas were good; some left a lot to be desired, unfortunately. None of the others I listed were guns I'd keep, based on the patterning board.

Thanks. I don't really have a budget, but honestly it will be an occasional use gun so I don't have a desire to drop a lot of $ on it. Still I'd rather put a bit more $ in if that results in better performance. I'm open to suggestions.

It doesn't have to be an O/U as a SxS would likely work for me...but I assume a SxS of would be susceptible to the same problems.

I guess I could consider a single barrel trap gun but it would get used less in the field.....suggestions are open there as well. Thanks again.

Suggestions can turn into opinions pretty quick, lol, so I'll try to avoid pushing you in any specific direction...

Conventional wisdom says that real quality starts w/ Beretta and Browning, which I've found to be mostly true from a patterning standpoint. However, you can buy two CZ's for the price of a new Beretta Silver Pigeon or Browning Cynergy. To be fair, I know lots of people who've killed lots of birds with lower-priced guns. My advice would be to find a local shotgun club that offers loaner guns and/or used guns and shoot as many as you can to see what fits, what you like, etc. I would rather have a nice used Beretta than a brand new CZ, but that's just me. Even a used Beretta is going to cost more than a new CZ... the last two Silver Pigeon 20ga's I've sold have both brought ~$1500.

It's hard to beat a Browning BT-99 for a single-bbl Trap gun. I've seen used models as cheap as $800-$900. However, I wouldn't take one hunting.

Is your intended use hunting, clays, or both? If hunting, what kind? The problem with an ultra-light gun is that while they're a joy to carry, they can be punishing to shoot. That's OK when you're hunting sharptails in the Sandhills, where you're 98% walking and 2% shooting... not so good for rounds of clays where you shoot a lot. If I'm looking for a bird hunting O/U, I'm usually looking at a light-to-midweight 20ga w/ 28" bbls. If I'm looking for a dedicated clays gun, I want a heavier, longer 12 ga.

My current O/U stable consists of Berettas and Fabarms. Any future purchases will likely be Fabarm. However, I don't consider my O/U's as "occasional use guns," as I hunt as many days during the season as I possibly can.

Both hunting and clays. Hunting use would be occasional quail, dove, rabbit, squirrel, called crows...doubt I'd ever use it for turkey, might possibly use it while calling coyotes. I have M2's in 20 and 12 that I use now and I'm happy with.

The desire to try an over/under was really just something new to try and learn a little from. Losing that desire as it sounds like O/U's are subpar for most any use and require a high price tag to hopefully get one that's almost as functionally sound as an auto, which seems like insult to injury.

I agree 100%
My stable has a couple of K80's, Browning, Winchester 101, Franchi, Ruger, and something else I am forgetting.
The other thing about a cheaper O/U (or any cheaper gun for that matter) is when they break (and they will break) who are you going to get to fix them. I coached SCTP for the kids in my county for many years and would see parents go out and buy a Mossberg O/U for $600 and it would break (never saw one that did not) and the only place that could find to work on it was the factory. They would send it off and it would be gone 3 or more months only to get it back and in a few weeks, it would break again. The old saying of "buy once, cry once" was never truer in my mind that on O/U shotguns.

"Subpar" is subjective in this context, I think. Granted, of the game you listed I would only use an O/U for quail, choosing my Montefeltro or SBE for the rest. For squirrel, I'd probably opt for my old 20ga J. Stevens Single-Gun, simply because that's how I grew up hunting them. But 90% of my hunting today is upland birds- pheasant, quail, grouse- and that's what I use my O/U's for. I also prefer an O/U for clays games.

IANative,

Those CZ Kansas boys know their way around a viable, competitive over/under. You can take CZ off your list of lesser shotguns.

One fella has been keeping record of how many rounds his CZ has had through it. I lost track as the thread he started has gone on for years and many pages long. The round count is into the thousands of heavy field and target shells.

I keep a CZ Bobwhite 20ga around for high volume steel shooting. I've had it 20 years, always goes bang and it does well out in the marsh too. With two triggers there's not much to go bad. I prefer two triggers on my shotguns anyway.

Erich,
Our CZ woodcock 12 gauge is regulated so well, you can double tap a paper plate at 50 yds, with brenneke black magic 3in slugs. I prefer more weight to a shotgun for switching over to slugs, as we spook grizzlies up here occasionally while busting brush for birds in the uplands.

The CZ skeet choke patterns about the same as my browning invector+ improved cylinder choke. The CZ improved cylinder patterns tighter than the browning improved cylinder. Confusing, as the CZ chokes constrict to a smaller diameter over the browning chokes. I measured them with calipers.

Those bottom locking lugs, are as big as a k98 Mauser. You won't rattle that shot gun loose with even the most powerful shells.

I dunno about that aluminum receiver on the ultralight though. Does it have the same locking lugs system?

Turkish walnut, color case hardening, crisp trigger, ejectors, hand engraving, hand checkering, 5 choke tubes, a hard case, robust locking system: lotta scattergun for $500.