The story of Jizni

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Seriously, the first decade of the 21^st century was not a good one for South African gun owners. The South African Central Firearm Registry had huge backlogs of firearm license applications, leaving people waiting for two years and longer for licenses. Because of this, a lot of gun shops that we knew from our youth had actually disappeared. Those that remained necessarily had to focus on the more popular brands to survive. But things were taking a turn for the better. A task team, appointed to address the issues at the CFR, was making headway and local shooting sports were starting to boom.

The CZ75 was already well known for its reliability, and the ‘new’ SP-01 Shadow was busy building a formidable reputation as a sporting gun. It had been swopping IPSC world titles with Glock since the introduction of the Production Division and was already the most popular choice in the division. But in a world where polymer framed pistols had become the norm, CZ‘s workhorses were considered just too heavy for daily carry. The CZ100, their 1995 venture into polymer frames, was not well received due to a very heavy double action trigger and some reliability issues. The 2009 CZ 75 P-07 Duty was well received, but people were still being advised against it due to teething issues on the early models and a lack of spares and accessories. But CZ was ironing out these teething issues with the introduction of the second generation P-07, and in a small room in the outskirts of Centurion a new company was born, taking care of spares and accessories...

Over the next five years Jizni (meaning “South” in Czech) has become a household name among local CZ enthusiasts, but we grew into much more than the CZ specialists. Our combination of honest advice, wide range and quick shipping enabled us to compete on a much wider base, adding popular brands like Glock and Smith&Wesson to our line-up.

Jizni slowly grew from an after-hours venture, to a full-time venture, to adding more employees. Enthusiasm and dedication remains key criteria for selecting new team members. Customers contacting Jizni for technical advice can be assured that the person on the other side does not only have technical knowledge of the products, but practical shooting knowledge as well. We love shooting, and we love trying out our products. (It’s a dirty job, but somebody has got to do it!) Long discussions on the pros and cons of new products are not uncommon. Customers paging through our website should notice that we can more often than not offer more than one solution to their problem. As enthusiasts we love this, because it allows us to offer honest advice, without having to push any particular brand.

Fit for purpose philosophy

We believe that our “fit for purpose” philosophy towards accessories and improvements will transform your pistol from a generic tool to one that supports your specific application, but it will remain a tool. As dedicated sport shooters we dearly appreciate the value of training and practice. In this regard we contribute by means of sponsorships and, most importantly, offering our time in various organisational capacities towards our chosen sports. We also have an initiative whereby we organise a bi-annual training day for people in our community. We are especially proud of the ability of these to reach people who very rarely touch their guns, introduce new people to shooting in a relaxed atmosphere, and entrench basic safety skills and shooting fundamentals.

Proudly online

Being proudly online allows us to exercise some choices that are not available to a typical brick-and-mortar store. Apart from the advantages already mentioned, focusing our efforts on the online order filling process really allows us to get orders out of the door in record time. Customers wanting to see products first hand are welcome to pay us a visit, but in order for us to make sure somebody is available to assist, we do need customers to make an appointment.

We are looking forward to building new relationships, maintaining old relationships, and continuing to contribute towards the safety and well-being of our customers.