CZ 75 Mags hanging

[scroadkill]

the rig: cz75 sp01 shadow, lok g10 palmswells, mecgar 17 w/ TT+4s & wolf+10 springs, flat-ish mag brake. I polished magwell and inside of frame a few months ago.

chilling on couch - w/ round and w/o rounds in mag - no problems.
in match, seems like mags are dropping 1" and getting hung up forcing the shake, flick or quick pull.
no signs of wear on inside of grip panels. no protrusions. magbrake seems free of contact.

It has to be my technique..

 

[wespac78]

In my experience, it's one of 2 things (or maybe a combination of both lol).

1. Your grips are rubbing against your Mags. Take a sharpie (or Dycum blue) and paint the inside of your grips. Run your Mags in and out of the well. If any of the sharpie is missing then file that spot down.

2. Mag Release spring. You can either modify your stock one to put a bend at the end of the appropriate leg, or CZC sells these. You can use the pic as reference if you choose to modify your original mag release spring.
https://czcustom.com/cz-parts-all/cz-75-sa-ts-trigger-al-gs.html

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[ultimase]

As wespac78 mentioned, easy way to try.

 

In my experiences probably #2. Insert a mag, and push the mag release as hard and as quick as possible and see if the mag sticks. What's happening is the mag release is actually going past the opening and getting hooked. The link above has the cz spring that they've bent to limit the travel of the mag release. 

Edited January 14, 2018 by ultimase

[GeneBray]

My experience with an SP01 doing the same thing you described was the I was not consistently depressing the mag release far enough for the mag to drop.  Although I was certain I was fully depressing the release. 

 

The mag was binding on the mag release due to the heavy mag release spring tension.  Fixed the problem by removing the mag release spring and adjusting the tension (decreased it).

 

You should be able to fix the problem easily by reducing mag spring tension, or as someone above suggested replace the spring with one from CZC.  You may need to do some tension adjustment regardless.

 

Hardest part of the replacement is breaking the staking on the Magazine Catch Spring Screw.  It can be a real pain.  Best way to remove screw is disassemble receiver.  Use a large blade screw driver with a square shank that fits the screw slot well.  Place receiver in vise (be certain to protect the receiver from marring).  Using a lot of down force on screw driver and a wrench on the shank, break loose the staking and remove the screw.  For me, a 6" crescent wrench did the job.  Before complete reassembly, test the mag drop.  In my experience, I didn't quite have the tension right the first time so ended up making two adjustments.  Discovered the first wasn't enough during a match.

[rowdyb]

mecgar mags have external dimensions bigger than other mags. sand the inside of your grips down.

 

work on your mag release technique

[magpulled]

Is the mag brake in the correct way. 

[scroadkill]

8 hours ago, magpulled said:

Is the mag brake in the correct way. 

interesting.. let me get this coffee down, and Ill start the disassembly.

Rowdy - will do

Gene - will look at tension. its pretty strong.. Ill do the little hook trick if not already done.

Thanks all for the tips.

[M1A4ME]

I have bought about 10 of the Mecgar 19 round CZ magazines in the last couple of years.  Four of them hang up in my Pre B CZ85.  I traded them to my youngest son and the worked in his CZ 75 SA with no issues.  So, there are dimensional differences in some of these magazines.  Too wide??  Too long front to back??  I don't know, I just know they were so different they would not even fully insert into the frame.

 

With the grips off, insert a magazine (slowly) till it locks in, then press the magazine release and see if falls out.  Look at the frame from the side.  Does the mag. brake get pushed back against the frame where the grip screws thread into it?  I've seen that, too.  Just once, but the frame, at that place (both sides) was not letting the brake "relax" into a position that was far enough to the rear to keep it from dragging against the magazines.  A few strokes with a flat file and some cold blue took care of it.  Doesn't take much metal removal to get the brake a small amount of room to move rearward.

[magpulled]

1 hour ago, scroadkill said:

interesting.. let me get this coffee down, and Ill start the disassembly.

Rowdy - will do

Gene - will look at tension. its pretty strong.. Ill do the little hook trick if not already done.

Thanks all for the tips.

All you have to do is take the grips off and look at the top of the break. The rolled piece at the top should be facing away from the mags. 

[scroadkill]

59 minutes ago, magpulled said:

All you have to do is take the grips off and look at the top of the break. The rolled piece at the top should be facing away from the mags. 

done. mag brake was ok. I have one mag I use a lot as my 21 rounder to start with. all others I down load to 20. So this starter mag has  wear marks where the mag release makes contact - but I see long wear marks on both sides.. telling me I press the button in pretty far, or hold it way in while trying to remove mag.  I looked at the mag release spring and it doesn't have the bend on the right leg. I can press the mag release all the way and hold the mag in place from the left side catch... so tat mod should help.

I tried to remove screw that holds the springs in place, but damn. I'm afraid Ill gall it up, so punted on that and going to plan B. spring mod will have to wait.

Plan B
I put some rouge on my buffing wheel and polished the black finish off of my starter mag above and below the mag release holes. Now when I push the mag release button all the way in and hold it it still holds the mag, but barely.

I also took my flat file and filed the texture off of the insides of my LOK grips where they stick inside the frame.  cleaned and oiled everything up.

Out of curiosity as a test I took a stock CZ 18 round mag and tried a MecGar 17 round mag and there is a huge difference on the tension on the mag while holding the mag release button  all the way in. CZ mags seem less susceptible to the problem I'm having. I may put one in my range bag for classifiers etc and low round count stages.

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by scroadkill

[JayDee]

Next time you are at practice, see if this happens with empty mags or with rounds in the mag. If it hangs with an empty mag, then grip screws or mag brake could be at fault. If it only hangs with rounds in the mag, take a look at the top round. If it is pushed forward in the magazine and the tip extends at or beyond the front edge of the mag tube, then it could be your slide.......Stock CZ's occasionally need to have the underside of the slide polished and the leading edge of the bottom of breech face chamfered slightly. Typically this is a remedy for feeding issues like double feeds, but it also helps alleviate sticky mags that aren't affected by grip screws or mag brakes. Essentially, if the underside of the slide catches the top round in the magazine, it can push it forward slightly so that the tip of the bullet hangs in the frame. I've made this modification on 2 SP01's and 2 75's. 

[scroadkill]

2 hours ago, JayDee said:

...Stock CZ's occasionally need to have the underside of the slide polished and the leading edge of the bottom of breech face chamfered slightly.

copy.. I was thinking this may be a possibility.  Mark on youtube has a video on tuning cz mags to help hold the top round back.  You have a link/pic to show a propper chamber?

[slavex]

This is a known issue with the MecGar mags, the mag catch can be over pressed, into the frame and bind the mags, as they are slightly larger than the older CZ mags. That is one reason the Shadow 2 mag catch has a different design where the spring sits. The spring tweak to the mag catch spring fixes the problem.

[scroadkill]

Match today when perfect.. I just started off each stage w/ a CZ mag I polished up a bit above and below the mag release holes. stock springs. TT+4 base pad. I'm thinking it is the Mecgars being a being a bit too wide causing the problems mentioned above. Ide do the spring trick, but the screw is really in there - I dont want to bugger it up. For now the mecgars can ride the belt for #2, #3

 

[slavex]

I can't recommend the Chapman Toolkit highly enough, if you get their big kit taking out the screws in CZs is easy.

[scroadkill]

I put my soldering iron on the screw for 3 minutes, and found a good fitting flat head.. and got the screw loose w/o too much fuss.

My wife was sitting there telling me if it breaks off I was going to use that as an excuse to order another gun and I would have to match the new gun $ for her. so the pressure was on.

then i discovered you have to remove the trigger bar to get it all the  way out.. and I really have to be in the mood to break my gun all the way down.. especially with a match the next day. It will have to wait.

Thanks all for the encouragement and tips. 

[JayDee]

On 1/17/2018 at 1:47 PM, scroadkill said:

copy.. I was thinking this may be a possibility.  Mark on youtube has a video on tuning cz mags to help hold the top round back.  You have a link/pic to show a propper chamber?

 

The CZ Forum used to have pictures of the tuning to the underside of the slide (not the chamber), but those were on photo bucket and are no more. Still some good info for SP01 shooters: http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=22862.0

 

[robert.a.brewer.]

I can't recommend the Chapman Toolkit highly enough, if you get their big kit taking out the screws in CZs is easy.

Are you referring to the $76 kit I see on Amazon, model #5589?

They say it's a gunsmith set. I do like the design of the bits.

[slavex]

I opted for the full kit, which includes gunsmith fit bits plus others.