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Overcoming Light Strikes


Smitty79

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I've been shooting a CZ85 that had a trigger job at Automatic Accuracy a little over a year ago.

I've recently completed what I would consider "annual" maintenance. I changed out several springs, put in a new CGW extended firing pin and installed upgraded trigger and firing pin retaining pins.

The last thing I did, was put in a 13# hammer spring. It dropped the DA pull from 9# to 7.5#. When I took it to the range, I had 2 fail to fires in 100 rounds. I have far too many CCI primers to toss them all and buy a mountain of Federal.

I read on a post, that I can't find now, that polishing the firing pin channel might get me reliable performance with this lighter spring. Is it worth the time? I was planning to use the guide that Kneelingatlas has posted on tuning CZs. It covers this polish.

Is there something else I should try? I really like the lighter DA pull.

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When I had light strikes it was because of two issues. One was the stupid tanfo firing pin block (I realize I'm in the CZ forum) and the other was gunk in my reloading press that didn't allow me to fully seat the primers every time.

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My first attempt at reloading involved CCI primers and an SP01 Shadow that had always run 100% with a 13# mainspring. I had a failure to fire in every magazine, and sometimes two or three. Fortunately it was 100% attributable to improper seating.

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I agree, sounds like a primer depth issue. Do you have a single stage press in conjunction with your 550? If so, try manually seating primers on that (do 100 or so) and then continue with your normal reloading sequence on the 550. Document your results and compare your light strike failure rate with primers seated in the 550.

Edited by accu9
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CGW firing pin springs are very tight. Make sure you pushed it all the way on the firing pin. You can't put the spring in the firing pin channel and then drop the firing pin on top of it like you do with the stock springs.

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How do you tell if primers aren't seated correctly? I don't think this is adjustable on a 550. If they aren't seating properly, how would I fix it?

It is adjustable in the 550. I haven't loaded on a 550 for a while, so maybe someone else will chime in, but I know I've done it.

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Not a dillion user, I thought the 1050 was the only one that was adjustable for primer depth. Put rounds in a case gauge, if some primers look higher than others see if they give you issues. I can adjust depth on my press and still get occasional high primers. For matches I case gauge my ammo and look at the primers. I usually reject a few every 100. I put them in the practice ammo can. Sometimes I get light strikes with them (CZ and Glock, both have reduce power springs). I have yet to have a light strike at a match, but probably one or two every practice session. I was cleaning primer pockets, I think it reduced the high primers but not worth the time required, as I case gauge regardless.

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Polish, polish, polish.

There's no reason a 13# hammer spring shouldn't be 100% on CCI.

I must be polish (at least you didn't call us polaks), because my 13# hammer spring was not 100% on cci primers. So I put in a 15# spring and stopped worrying about it. I also dry-fired for a few minutes a day so that the heavier spring would have no measurable effect on my scores.

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That set screw is there to maintain depth. It goes in a groove on the pin. There might be some slight movement in the groove but it would certainly move after a few strokes. I have read about spacers on the anvil etc but I feel the true bottom line is, the depth is not truly adjustable.

As far as primers go, I know CCI primers are considerably taller than other brands. Don't know if that means things have to move farther for reliable ignition within the primer. If you put 100 federals in a dillon filler tube and eye where they come to inside, then do the same with CCI they will almost be too tall for the tube.

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this is the main reason I still load on a lee loadmaster. yes it falls over every once in a while and needs some love, but it has primer depth adjustment (works very nicely too) and means I can set it up to basically crush the shit out of them, then back it off a little. there's still a little variance as you'd expect between cases but light strikes are now a non issue in my CZ's and tanfogs. :) the 650 is a way better press in so many ways but 2 things i don't like are seating primers on the up stroke (loadmaster like a 1050 seats them on the down stroke) and I don't like non adjustable primer seat depth.

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