CZ - hammer follows?

[Zerwas]

An interesting question you pose: I use either a G35 with my handloads or a CZ75B-SA. I kind of go back and forth. The G35 is ultra reliable but I loose some accuracy. The CZ is VERY accurate, but has never been a reliable pistol. It is now back to CZ for the 2nd time to replace trigger and sear parts. If I could get that CZ to be as accurate as the Glock I would always use the CZ.

I have had hammer follows, light primer hits, fail to extract, and premature slide lock issues with the CZ. Hey Matthew, is this normal?

[Carlos]

I am not Matt, but I can tell you that such malfunctions are certainly NOT normal. You list:

"I have had hammer follows"

Thats a new one to me - even with gunsmithed triggers. You are certainly right to be concerned & returned it to CZ since following is usually followed by doubling. Not good. First I have heard of it though.

"light primer hits,"

Have only seen that with hammer springs reduced to the min. weight & then clipped. If you are using the stock spring, I would drive out the FP retaining roll pin & clean the upper, the re-assemble DRY. Also, stop using CCI/speer primers or surplus military ammo.

"fail to extract"

I had an old Solothurn AT-84 that had this problem until I replaced the extractor & spring (though likely only the spring needed replacement). In a pinch, the extractor spring from your AK-47 will work when clipped down to fit. You are not using Wolf 9mm are you?

"and premature slide lock issues"

My friend Bernie claimed the same with his CZ75B when he loaned to to me; it NEVER locked open on me with about 5 types of 147 grn bullets in loads I made for it. Same gun - I had no slide lock problems. Differences? Bernie uses Blazer 115 & I handload 147s (long too - 1.155"). More likely, Bernie's grip caused his thumb to hit the release. Definitely not normal though for a CZ.

Regards,

Douglas

www.shootersparadise.com

[Matthew_Mink]

I have had hammer follows, light primer hits, fail to extract, and premature slide lock issues with the CZ.  Hey Matthew, is this normal?

Absolutely not.

With hammer follow and light strikes, that leads me to believe the mainspring is too weak. Failure to extract sometimes happens while shooting Blazer, but sometimes it happens with good ammo too. A lot of times a thorough cleaning behind the extractor and add a Wolff extra power extractor spring will cure that. As premature slide lockage, that could be a matter of technique. It could be your hand is engaging the slide lock.

Give Mike a call at the factory and he can talk you through the problems, he is very helpful. 1-800-955-4486

[Zerwas]

Thanks for the replies guys. I use nothing but Federal American Eagle 165gr FMJ. I sent it back to Mike at CZ, as he told me the sear needed to be replaced (that caused the hammer follow), I did advise them of the slide lock malfunctions when I sent it back to them. They did replace the plastic trigger after it broke the 1st day I had it. They replaced it under warranty.

I DO NOT MEAN to bash CZ, because to be honest, I REALLY like the pistol. I am not ready to give up on it yet. I advised CZ of the same. I would love to use that pistol in competition, but I cannot afford all of the malfunctions. It killed me at a local IDPA match back in December of '04.

I'll just wait until it comes back from CZ and we'll see what happens.

Matthew, if you could email me at valkyrie@mninter.net to let me know how much a once over would run "just in case" it still doesn't work reliably. I am also interested in that trigger you talked about above.

Thanks!

[Flexmoney]

I split the above out from the "what do you shoot in Production" thread.

[Zerwas]

Thanks Flex, I didn't want to muddy up the other post like that. Sorry.

[revchuck]

TRP - You could always trade it on a 75B. Mine's a 9x19, so there's obviously a difference there, but it's been 100% except for about three failures to extract with WalMart bulk pack hardball. It eats up Blazer and my handloads, and has no ignition problems, including WCC NATO ball.

I'd at least get a steel trigger for it.