CZ Scorpion EVO 3 S1 Carbine Comp

Who doesn’t love rattling shots off with a semi-automatic .22 rimfire? I think we all do but when you own one that isn’t someone else’s safe queen and fettled to infinity, the realities strike about functionality, reliability, and ergonomics. CZ’s blowback 9mm Parabellum Scorpion has been a great hit and now there is a .22 rimfire version available with a UK-legal 16” barrel. We are in for a treat.

It’s got the looks
The 16” cold hammer forged barrel is screwcut ½”x28 for a moderator and comes with a ported muzzle brake. I’m not sure anyone needs one for recoil reduction in the diminutive .22LR but it looks the part. The barrel extends just 4” from the handguard, shows a neatly crowned muzzle, and has a 16mm diameter.
The handguard is a polymer unit that extends through the forend, receiver and towards the butt in one flowing shape. At the front, the shape is octagonal, and it shows multiple M-LOK slots. A full-length Picatinny rail runs along the top of the rifle for scope mounting and accessories. The lower sides have a slightly swollen ridge, forming a wonderful hand-filling shape, and although some may dislike the use of polymers throughout, these have been neatly injection moulded as part of a process that shows CZ’s commitment to thoroughly engineered tooling and process control.

Wonderful open sights
Staying up top, open sights are supplied. There is a post at the front and an adjustable, circular aperture at the rear that comes with four interchangeable peephole sizes. The foresight’s base features a semicircular groove surrounding the blade, which makes the sight picture one of the best I have ever used, with intuitive natural alignment. The human eye naturally aligns circles to unnerving perfection!

Single-handed
There is a cocking handle on the left side of the forend, just below the Picatinny rail, and if desired, this can be swapped to the opposite side for left-handers. Again, this shows CZ’s deep understanding of rifle ergonomics and load/unload procedures, as you just pull it back and let go to chamber a round, yet if you want to lock the bolt open, just pull it back and flip it upward on its hinge to lock into a rebate on the receiver. This is so simple and natural, and far faster than anything with a separate bolt release latch. Having said that, the Scorpion does have a left-side bolt release lever if you want to use one, but there is little need.
Two 10-shot magazines are supplied, and the rifle offers last-round hold open once the mag is empty. The magazines are polymer and load one round at a time from the front, but you can ease spring pressure with the lateral tabs on the follower to speed up loading. It’s worth noting that the entrance to the magazine well has chamfered lips to ease and speed magazine insertion. The mags click securely in place with both tactile and audible perception to assure you nothing is going to fall loose.
There is a large, ambidextrous release lever on the front of the trigger guard, and it features moulded-in ridges for tactile operation with your extended trigger finger for fast reloads.

Fit for purpose
The serrated polymer trigger blade offers 2-stage operation and although not a match unit, it breaks consistently at 2650-grams (95 oz). The thumb-operated, 2-position safety catch (safe or fire) is ambidextrous. It is positioned above a hard polymer grip that is perhaps not quite as tactile as a rubber grip but there are moulded ribs for comfort. Like the rest of the polymer gun, it doesn’t draw the heat from your hands when it’s cold. Both sides of the receiver feature sling anchor points, with a pair above and ahead of the magazine well, with a second pair just ahead of the folding buttstock, above the grip.

Fold up
Pressing the release button on the left side of the stock allows the butt to fold to the right, where it locks magnetically onto the receiver. The length of pull (LOP) can be increased by using a latch on the inside face of the butt pad, which intuitively falls to hand when you are opening out the gun. The butt pad is solid rubber and the LOP varies from 12.25” to 14.25”. There is a central stage at 13.25”, too.
Rather than a buffer tube, the top of the stock’s cheek rest area is generally rectangular in profile, with chamfered edges for greater firing comfort. I found the linear angularity of the shape very comfortable, with perfect alignment on the rear open sight or when using a smaller 1-6x24 tubed optic. A red dot sight would be similar.

Good clean fun
I set the rifle up with a scope for initial testing, along with a DPT moderator and bipod. The latter was attached using some M-LOK Picatinny rail, with all the attachments creating a rather handy package. The 1-6x scope required the removal of the rear sight’s twin Picatinny rail Allen screws.
I used subsonic hollow points as well as plinking and match ammo types and had some fantastic fun. It was fun because everything with this gun was effortless and never felt like work. There were no missed ejections or misfeeds and every type of ammo, even the lowest velocity RWS subsonic, cycled the action without hesitation. The action was so smooth and reliable that you could hear its relative efficiency with different ammo types, which will intranasally offer varying degrees of recoil /bolt speed. The only tiny caveat was the lower velocity subsonic ammo didn’t cycle the bolt quite as hard against its absolute ‘stop’, which meant it didn’t catch the last round hold open on the magazine.

Strip down
There is a pin below the left side cocking lever, and when pushed through, you can draw out the underside trigger mechanism for cleaning. This also allows bolt removal when you want to deep clean it. Probably due to its scaled-down 9mm parabellum architecture, the action’s internals are quite voluminous. This allows for a large ejection port, and you never get brass bouncing off the action internals and then back onto the magazine, which is a common failure point for semi-auto rimfires. I think this indirectly also minimises the accumulation of firing residue and lead at literal choke points in the action and on the bolt face, which can also inhibit reliable feeding.

Ragged holes
All this has been said without mentioning the ragged holes the gun printed on paper at 50m. Yes, it’s not an ultra-precision rimfire, and the trigger weight requires patience, but for what it’s designed to do, it works superbly well. The accuracy and reliability mean it is not just good for plinking but for pest control and competition shooting, too.
As I am currently writing this article, I am planning my next setup for the Scorpion. I will be adding night vision to it for rabbit control, which will be advantageous due to the high speed of fire and the backup shot opportunities.
For a semi-automatic blowback action, the gun is quiet without mechanical noise. This is thanks to the ‘insulating’ properties of the polymer build. It’s also not rattly and yes, there is some slight movement in the butt’s telescopic extension, but it never reverberates annoyingly and similarly, if bumped or tapped against vehicles of foliage, never exhibits a hollow ring.
(see ammo table)

Conclusion
Some may say the Scorpion is more expensive than its peers, but I would say that it needs no customization in order for it to be a superb semi-automatic rimfire with seriously good credentials. As a 9mm parabellum submachine gun, the same rifle is in use across the globe and is highly respected, yet it loses nothing as a .22LR and benefits from the thorough research and development that goes into any firearm aimed at police of military use.