CZ TSO - Mags won't drop freely after firing

[Zerofade]

Hi Everyone, I am new here and hoping your collective experience can save me from future trouble.

 

I have a CZ TSO in .40, I can practice reloads, or insert a fresh magazine, push the magazine release button and the magazine drops freely.  However, after firing the gun, the magazines do not drop freely, and I need to manually pull them from the gun.  Clearly this has become a problem in recent competitions.  

 

Can anyone provide some advice or tell me where you would start looking for issues?

 

Thanks in advance!

[manolis]

Hi Zerofade.

Look at the down place of your slide ,under the firing pin hole.

Maybe it drugs the bullet when it comes back and the bullet  hits the frond side of the grip.This can't leave the magazine drop free. 

Manolis

[Red_Dot]

There’s a couple things to check.

 

is the next round in the mag creeping forward and hanging up on the inside of the frame?

 

is your trigger bar spring riding properly in the grooves on the bottom side?

[Zerofade]

Thanks manolis and Red_Dot.  I don't think it is the next round dragging as I re watched some footage from the weekend.  I had a stage where I accidentally ran dry, you can see the slide locked back, but I still had to strip that mag from the gun, so it definitely isn't being held in by the top round.  I will take a look at the trigger bar spring tonight and see if that is the case.  Although, you would think that would provide the same failure to release magazine no matter if I fired a shot or not.  My magazines drop free prior to firing a shot, for example during dryfire, the magazines fall out effortlessly, but as soon as I fire a couple rounds and try to eject the magazine, I have to manually strip it from the gun.

[EazyRhino]

You using stock followers?  Sometimes aftermarket followers don't really lock the slide back and get stuck. Don't run dry.

[obsessiveshooter]

No idea about why it only happens after you've fired a shot, but I would look at the typical stuff like, is there a burr around the hole it he magazine for the catch that might be dragging?  Any damage to your magazine brake?  At least you can rule out the easiest fixes that way.  Good luck, I'd rather have random jams than mags that don't drop.  

[regor]

12 hours ago, EazyRhino said:

You using stock followers?  Sometimes aftermarket followers don't really lock the slide back and get stuck. Don't run dry.

 

This happens to me with the CZ followers. One or two of the ones I have comes up high enough in the feed lips that the breach face will get stuck on it if I run the mag empty (generally doesn't happen in live fire, but does happen if I manually cycle it). But it sounds like OP is having that issue regardless of running dry or not, so I don't think that is the issue. 

[Zerofade]

Thought I would follow up here.  I didn't really have the time to test a single item at a time, but I did the following, then went to the range to test and things seem to be working fine again.

 

-Cleaned everything (I don't think this was an issue, as I regularly clean it)

-Removed magazine catch/release.  I adjusted the spring and made sure it was sitting flat against frame.  I removed some of the tension from spring prior to reinstalling, there was the tiniest little burr on the catch that I removed.

-Took a close look at all magazines, all of them dropped freely from gun, but I took a little time and gave them a bit of a squeeze right above where the magazine catch/release engages them.

 

I took it to the range and test fired, and dropped all the magazines after firing.  Everything worked fine.  I'm not sure if it was one single thing I did or just a combination.  It is working now though!

 

Thanks for all of your insight!

[adamge]

I noticed something today, cleaning and getting ready for a match. Some of my factory mags would not lock slide back if I inserted them with no rounds on a closed chamber, and also would not drop free. Looking closely in there it looks like the slide stop nub was sitting beside the follower shelf rather than on top of it. I had never noticed this while shooting, they always lock back. So I think the recoil of the last shot, or maybe the path it takes while pushing on the last round, puts the follower in the right place to press on the stop, which is key for dropping free.

[Trinimon]

My friend's mags would get hung up and some were pretty difficult to remove. Turns out the very back top of the mags were getting pinched by the sear cage. Knocked down the face of the cage a little and now mags drop free.