The CZ 97 B is a full-size hammer-fired .45 ACP built for range work and home defense. It has an MSRP of $743. Frame and slide are both steel under black polycoat, which is unusual now that full-size .45s are mostly polymer, and the barrel is cold hammer forged.

It arrives with a fiber optic front sight, thin aluminum grip panels and a staggered magazine holding ten rounds, which is a double-stack count in a gun 1.4 inches wide. The controls are a manual safety instead of a decocker, with a safety stop on the hammer, a firing pin block and a loaded chamber indicator, and the first pull is double action with single-action shots after it. It is 8.3 inches long and 5.9 inches tall, with no rail under the dust cover and no optic cut in the slide.

If you're cross-shopping, the HK HK45 is the polymer-framed route at an MSRP of $949, with the same ten rounds, a Picatinny rail molded into the frame, interchangeable backstraps and a combined safety and decocking lever, at 8.03 inches long and 1.54 inches wide. The Sig Sauer P220 Nitron is the single-stack alternative at 30.4 oz on an alloy frame with eight rounds and night sights, although Sig has retired it, so that one is a used buy.