CZ-USA 720 G2 ALS 20 Gauge ALOP MC3

Bought this as a...

Bought this as a starter for my short-ish wife for several reasons: One is the ALOP after market stock from ATI. Wife is really just playing with shooting right now and I didn't want to spend the $ for trial and error LOP. She'd shot my autoloader, but it was simply too big and long for her. The adjustable stock seemed to be an ideal solution. The second reason was that I already own a CZ O/U and have been pretty happy with it. It's stiff right out of the box, but it's coming along as I shoot it in. The last was price overall. To get a starter gun, which could adjust both LOP and drop at weld, short enough for her to handle well for $530 seemed to be perfect. I confess that I'm a bit disappointed in several aspects. First is that "stiff" doesn't BEGIN to describe the action. It takes MY two hands to release the bolt which is hardly a safe operation with an autoloader. She can hardly operate it at all. CZ tells me that it's 4-6 weeks at the factory to make that warranty adjustment. This oughta go to the front of the line, being right out of the box. Next was the instructions. An autoloader is a relatively complex tool and deserves some special care in the preparation of the instructions. CZ prepares a single manual for ALL of its shotguns, on a reduced pamphlet size document with text so small as to be nearly unreadable. All of which would be okay but for the fact that along the way, they changed the assembly and got rid of a certain retaining nut. The instructions were useless to assemble my brand new firearm. Nothing better on the web site. Had to email customer service who [within days] emailed the "instructions and photo that should have accompanied your shotgun. Perhaps the receiving FFL took it out of the box." They reacted as if I was some sort of rocket scientist genius when I suggested that was EXACTLY the sort of information that I would have expected to find on the website under "support" instead of the same lame instruction manual that I had. Lastly, the stock and cheekpiece, though adjustable, have fit and finish very similar to the rest of the gun. Twenty rounds through the gun and the stock was stuck fast and wouldn't adjust. No instructions for that or the cheek piece adjustment either. I suppose that I've gotten what I paid for. I am disappointed and not certain that I'd buy another CZ now.