The 2015 TTAG Reader’s Choice Awards may have been all handed out, but we’ve got one more trophy up our sleeve. This past year has definitely been the year of the pistol caliber carbines and the faux SMGs as seen in guns from from the SIG SAUER MPX down to the new batch of imported MP5s that are coming in from Pakistan and Turkey. But while those cater to gun owners with deep pockets there was one product that placed the awesomeness of a cool looking 9mm SMG within reach of the common man, leaving him with money to spare for some ammo and a few mags . . .
Yes, it has its flaws, but the CZ Scorpion Evo 3 S1 pistol made a huge impact on the market and is doing spectacularly well in return. Therefore we, the editors of The Truth About Guns, have selected CZ’s Scorpion as our Editor’s Choice for New Firearm of the Year for 2015.
Gotta love CZ. They make good guns, at a reasonable price point.
Really? A “pistol” that can’t be fired as a pistol, can’t be carried on the hip and needs a “not-a-stock” to be accurate. Must be hella fun, because it’s hardly useful.
I suppose it makes a great prop for Facebook gangsta selfies.
They’re supposed to be SBR’ed. Nobody buys them to use as a pistol.
So, an SBR that combines the ballistics of a pistol with the bulk of a rifle. All in a package that makes gangsta selfies even better. Especially with a flashlight/lazer, optics, “tactical” sling and a bayonet. Gottit. Makes perfect sense.
Wtf do you care? Cz has a history of making great guns. Some use guns for fun, some for food, some for sport, some for defense, some for selfies, if everybody looked the same and dressed the same and all carried 1911’s and m1’s it would be not only extremely boring, but the industry would be broke. If you had said something along the lines es of “meh, not for me,” I wouldn’t have said shit back to you, but you don’t sound like there is any sense of pluralism in your tone, only mocking and disrespect for those who wish to purchase this fine little weapon, and no, its not really my thing hing either, but damn dude, someone piss in your cheerios this morning or what?
Eh, it’s small, lightweight (~6 pounds sbr’d and loaded), and reliable, so if you’re looking for something 9mm, it’s a great option.
If you *need* .223, then obviously you’d look elsewhere, but not everyone thinks that’s appropriate to every situaton.
The bottom pic is my Scorpion in SBR form with the factory stock. As soon as they’re ready, it’ll be sporting the carbine-length forend that will extend out over much of the suppressor. I have QD sockets from Parker Mountain Machine on the way so I can run the kind of sling I want to. Anyway, for me this is an ideal home defense weapon and there’s nothing “gangsta” about it. It has the stability and optics (plus accessories like lights) functionality of a carbine, is fairly lightweight and very compact, and is hearing safe even indoors. With 30 rounds of Federal HST in the magazine I certainly don’t feel undergunned.
I realize it isn’t the #1 concern when defending one’s home/person against a deadly threat, but given the ability to plan it out ahead of time, assuming no ear protection, I would greatly prefer to shoot a suppressed firearm in a subsonic caliber. Firing a pistol indoors w/out ears on is not high on my to-do list, and firing a 5.56 in that scenario is darn near the top of my do-not-want list.
Anyway, the platform offers a lot of opportunity. This gun is now exactly what I want for home defense, while also being a hell of a lot of fun to shoot, plus chambered in one of the most affordable centerfire calibers out there. And the MSRP is lower than most of the competition. And it’s dead-nuts reliable and shockingly accurate, to boot.
Ha ha ha .. Let me set you straight. .. If you get a folding stock you can have the PORTABILITY of a small rifle without a MIN. 16 inch barrel. Then once you extend the stock, you can have basically a rifle with a short barrel..
According to an FBI ballistic tests I read from a gun magazine, the 9mm cartridges penetrates an average of 24.95″ of plywood vs 10″ for .223., Hollow point that ammo and I say, you have a pretty good set up. I like having a shorter weapon for home defense. AR crowd might like theirs for when they leave the home, go to the streets of Djibouti, to shoot foes form a distance of a quarter mile.and have PIN POINT accuracy, which Im sure you do every day , right ?
They’re only “pistols” because of silly NFA rules. If the NFA didn’t exist, these would come from the factory with a rifle stock installed.
Wtf do you care? Cz has a history of making great guns. Some use guns for fun, some for food, some for sport, some for defense, some for selfies. If everybody looked the same and dressed the same and all carried 1911’s it would be not only extremely boring, but the industry would be broke. If you had said something along the lines of “meh, not for me,” I wouldn’t have said shit back to you, but you don’t sound like there is any sense of pluralism in your tone, only mocking and disrespect for those who wish to purchase this fine little weapon, and no, its not really my thing thing either, but damn dude, someone piss in your cheerios this morning or what?
An sbr rifle may be more effective, although a 5.56 out of a barrel that short has similar muzzle energy as 9mm P+, it has less flash and noise. The ammo is cheap and plentiful, and easily suppressed. However I prefer a slightly larger packaged Ak with a 10in barrel, but that is not even close to being a new gun to the US market.
I guess CZ makes a quality product at a reasonable price. I’m unfamiliar, myself, but I haven’t heard otherwise.
I just don’t get the design of this, though. What is this? What’s the application? Most acquisitions beyond the initial necessities may well come down to “for fun” or “just because”, and that’s fine. Still, there’s usually some kind of practicality pretense involved.
These seem too large to carry as pistols. Maybe size can help tame recoil, but in 9mm, what recoil? The barrels seem too short to gain any PCC advantages of muzzle velocity and first and follow-up shots accuracy.
Factor in a whole new and apparently expensive and difficult to obtain magazine to keep track of, and it just seems like the solution is more troublesome than whatever problem it was supposed to solve. Maybe add a suppressor and that opens up more doors?
If people are into it, then that’s cool. I just don’t get it.
Judging from the comments, there is a lot of misinformation and hate for this product. Some people just don’t get it. SMH.
Works just fine with my folding brace, and the magazines are neither expensive nor difficult to obtain.
Magazines are $20 each for 30 rounders, and are widely available now that the gun has had a few months to get into circulation.
It’s really there to be SBR’d, and in that configuration, it’s fantastic, especially suppressed.
This.
Any full size pistol with a 20-ish round mag would be a better at being a “pistol”. You buy the Scorpion for the same reason you buy the MPX “pistol” and POF MP5 clone “pistol”… to SBR it. It’s my understanding the CZ can’t import this in SBR form. So the only option is to buy it as a pistol and SBR it…
…which, for the price, I’d be totally okay with.
$19.95 for a 30 round Mag is expensive ???? Really ? Hmmmmmmm.
…there was one product that placed the awesomeness of a cool looking 9mm SMG…
Except it’s not an SMG and thus, lacking in said awesomeness. I really, really, don’t get the point of these faux SMGs. Only thing sillier is Mare’s Legs.
Mare’s Legs and Buntlines – the yin and yang of silly cowboy guns.
My SBR’d and suppressed .38/.357 Mare’s Leg is super fun and a great gun to take to the range with the kids. You do yourself a disservice if you overlook fun and somewhat unique projects. Besides how many kids in America can say “This weekend I went to the range with my dad and shot his silenced lever gun.”?
Psychological – sure looks scarier than my Sig P938.
So, if I’m in danger from a gang banger who was raised as a Democrat, one look, and he’s toast.
You can shoulder your Sig P938, attach a silencer and buy 30 round magazines for $20?
I’d be interested, if it came in 7.62×39 or .300 AAC, and I could get my hands on a folding stock adapter for it. Though MSRP $849 would still be pretty high, if it didn’t come with the folding adapter.
In the “just arrived” article here on this gun, the author speculates that the Evo 3’s sights may co-witness with a Bushnell TRS-25 RDS sans riser. Does anyone know if that’s the case?
My trs25 cowitnesses perfectly on my scorpion without a riser.
Yes, they do. They’re basically 1/3 lower cowitness with these sorts of dots mounted directly to the rail.
Never mind, Barfcommer here says it’s absolute co-witness:
https://www.ar15.com/mobile/topic.html?b=6&f=48&t=443659
Wait, isn’t this the gun where the safety selector switch digs into your trigger finger when you shoot?
This is the most retarded thing of 2015. Well, aside from the Remington pistol…
It doesn’t dig into everyone’s fingers, just some people’s, and only if you don’t have a stock or a brace, if you have either (as the gun was designed to have, US import regulations aside) then the point of balance changes and it’s not an issue at all.
Besides, it’s really easy to fix either way.
CZ is the bomb. An sbr-ed, suppressed Scorpion is the most fun a gun-loving human can stand.
Of my firearm purchases this year, this is by far my favorite. I was in one of my LGS and I had a choice to make. Either pay full retail for a MPX-P or street price for the Scorpion. The money I saved buying the CZ got me 6 30 round magazines, will get me the SBR compliance kit (get in stock dammit!) and the tax stamp with money left over.
How do you reconcile this award with your review? You got cruel shoes too?
“Ergonomics: *
I can’t remember another firearm I’ve tested that has inflicted physical pain on me as I was shooting it. “
They probably reconciled it by saying, “yes, it has its flaws…” Granted, it’s a flaw that a needle file fixes at no cost in about ten minutes. Or you can install an AK-style selector for a dozen bucks, turning a negative into a positive.
When did $700+ become a reasonable price point for a 9mm PCC that shouldn’t cost more than $400?
Yay best new gun of 2015. I mean, yaaaaay.
It’s the lowest priced PCC out there. The MP5 clones or MPX will cost you several hundred dollars more.
No, it is not the lowest PPC out there. Starting at the bottom, there is HiPoint at around $300, sometimes less. With a little patience, Sub2000s are starting to come back into supply at around $400. Rossi lever guns- also a pistol caliber carbines -can be found at around $500. There’s even that POS Taurus in the same price point. The CX4 Beretta Storm is about $600.
Unless you want to argue the definition of PPC. In that case, we’ll be here all day.
Unfortunatley the CX4 has some issues. Try finding a CX4 (in stock) for much under $800/$850 (if you can find one at all), especially in 9mm, right now. You won’t find one at $600, because Beretta isn’t importing any at the moment, and won’t be for many months, possibly until 2017, as they’re putting all production to military contracts. I love my CX4, but it’s also a very different gun than my scorpion in design and usage concept in many ways, and with more expensive accessories, plus the mandatory Sierra papa buffer assembly upgrades.
While the keltec’s and High Points are cheaper, they also have their own issues, particularly in the areas of QC and expected lifespan.
I’d debate your perception of hipoint reliability, but its besides the point. I just offer $300-600 price range of PPCs. Quibble over the details all you want but the genre suffers from a generous amount of price gouging. IMO of course.
My used Hi-Point 4095TS was $200, and seems to work perfectly fine.
I’d much rather have a CZ Skorpion Evo3 SBR. It is clearly a better gun.
But, I still like the Hi-Point.
My CZ Scorpion Evo runs flawlessly… until I put on the Octane 9 suppressor. Gets jammed up every other shot when shooting 147gr. 🙁
Contacted CZ and they won’t help since it’s malfunctioning while suppressed. Just a thought for anyone else considering the setup.
That’s weird. In what way is it jamming? I’ve run mine almost exclusively suppressed and it runs like a top. Which is, really, one of the advantages of a straight blowback action. It’s simple and rugged and should run almost no matter what. Have you tried other brands/models of ammo just in case there’s something about that one that the gun doesn’t like for whatever reason?
I have an EVO SBR with factory folder. I did it because I’ve been SO tired of AR clone after AR clone after AR clone ( aka the MPX ) being put out on the market.
It’s about DANG TIME theres a non-AR modular rifle/handgun platform.
Don Nelson is a bit of a cunt. How much do you wanna bet that dick is a 1911 lover? You can spot 1911 lovers a mile away. They absolutely hate any gun that is plastic. The hilarious part is that 1911s have to be broken in before they are reliable. Every single plastic gun I’ve ever shot can be shot right off the shelf brand new and fire every single time. 1911 owners are the hipsters of the gun world.