Shadow 2 lubrication and other questions

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Indiana

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • Nepherael

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Apr 22, 2019
    155
    18
    Mentone
    Ready for a novel?


    So if anyone has followed the saga of my shadow 2 I've definitely had some issues even though this gun is awesome. For the most part they've been ironed out but I've got a couple thousand rounds down range and wanted to go over some of the issues I've been facing and see if I'm handling them correctly.

    I had a lot of failure to eject my first day. After extractot reassembly this issue seemed to fix itself. I made some spring mods from CGW (11 lbs recoil and 11.5 hammer and extended firing pin) which had a drastically positive effect on my trigger feel. However, I've still had intermittent FTE.

    I'm wondering if the intermittent FTE is due to my lube choices or ammo choices or both. From the beginning, I started using moly lube (CGW) on the rails as recommended here (oil everywhere else internally) and didn't have any issues for a long while. I'm am very liberal with all of my lube. After some shots and dry cycling it comes out the back of the rails and everything. I just wipe it and keep going. One day I switched to a PTFE grease (for guns) on the rails and the FTE returned (just one night for some training). I went back to the moly and everything was fine again.

    This week I shot some Winchester steel case through the shadow 2 and had MANY FTE's during a training session. Every 2 shots or so. When this happened I had recently done a cleaning and used only gun oil for lubrication (as recommended by someone who said I should ease up on the lube until my gun breaks in in a few thousand more rounds)

    When I cleaned it out afterward there was A LOT of carbon chunks stuck in the extractor groove. I assume this caused some of the FTE problem from the dirty ammo.

    My issue is, my gun shouldn't be finicky. I completely disagree with the whole "my gun will only cycle this ammo" mentality. My gun should work, every time.

    So to add to this, I always basically dump oil into the extractor because I don't want carbon chunks causing too much friction creating the FTE's. It seems to either work sometimes or not matter at all.

    Should I not lubricate the extractor area so much? I know the oil can attract stuff but I keep that area really wet and figure being that wet it shouldn't have too much crap in it. Should I buy a new extractor from CGW? Today I put in a new extractor spring.

    I know steel case ammo is dirty and a bit harder on the gun but I see people with shadow 2's that have run flawless for thousands of rounds with very few cleanings and I find it unacceptable to have so many malfunctions on mine. I also don't want to send it to CZ because it'll take 6 weeks and there's no guarantees they can recreate the issue.

    So, how do you treat your shadows? Should I keep heavily lubing the extractor? Not at all? Use grease in there when I disassemble? Should I get a new extractor and see what that does?

    On a separate note, I notice my recoil spring buffer looks pretty smashed in after shooting some 125 and 147 gr loads. They weren't hot or anything but do any of you think I should up the recoil spring weight or is it all good and the buffer is just doing its job?
     

    Nepherael

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Apr 22, 2019
    155
    18
    Mentone
    After some more extensive research I was finally able to find multiple people facing this issue (for some reason before I just wasn't seeing a lot of others) and it looks like the solution for this intermittent failure to extract is either new OEM extractor spring or an increased power spring as well as polishing the extractor. I'm going to skip on the polishing for now.

    Since I just replaced with an OEM spring we will see how that turns out and I may just replace the entire extractor assembly.

    Still interested in your opinions on the recoil spring buffer and you lubrication preferences
     

    gmcttr

    Grandmaster
    Site Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    12   0   0
    May 22, 2013
    8,596
    149
    Columbus
    My Shadow 2 has close 4000 Federal Syntech action pistol 150 gr rounds through it. It is a fairly clean round.

    The pistol is completely stock except for grips and the recoil buffer looks like new. If you're not shooting powder puff loads, put the factory recoil spring back in.

    I lube the rail, barrel bushing and barrel locking lugs with ALG Thin Grease (more of a light gel, barely a grease) and a touch of ALG Go-Juice oil. Less is probably better than too much as the excess just gets pushed out.

    A touch of grease on the sear/hammer hooks and a few drops of oil where needed.

    I have used just oil (ALG Go-Juice or Slip 2000) everywhere and it runs fine.

    It does not seem to be a gun that needs to be run sloppy wet but I tend to over lube everything.

    Rarely, I have placed a drop of oil on the extractor and spring.

    I don't remember ever having a failure to extract.
     
    Last edited:

    Nepherael

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Apr 22, 2019
    155
    18
    Mentone
    My Shadow 2 has close 4000 Federal Syntech action pistol 150 gr rounds through it. It is a fairly clean round.

    The pistol is completely stock except for grips and the recoil buffer looks like new. If you're not shooting powder puff loads, put the factory recoil spring back in.

    I lube the rail, barrel bushing and barrel locking lugs with ALG Thin Grease (more of a light gel, barely a grease) and a touch of ALG Go-Juice oil. Less is probably better than too much as the excess just gets pushed out.

    A touch of grease on the sear/hammer hooks and a few drops of oil where needed.

    I have used just oil (ALG Go-Juice or Slip 2000) everywhere and it runs fine.

    It does not seem to be a gun that needs to be run sloppy wet but I tend to over lube everything.

    Rarely, I have placed a drop of oil on the extractor and spring.

    I don't remember ever having a failure to extract.

    Thanks for all that!

    I'm finding a lot of older threads that relate to this. I even found a guy trying to get shadows approved for duty carry for over 1200 officers that couldnt because he said 1/3 of all CZ's he gets have FTE issues out of the box. It doesn't seem to be as prevalent with the shadow 2's but I'm finding SO many threads today (mostly on Enos and czfirearms forums) with people facing this issue.

    I think I've got some solid directions to go and I have a good feeling after fixing up my extractor and maybe doing some recoil soting tuning I will have an epic shadow 2.

    I'm shooting pretty light loads on my reloads. Prob just over 130 pf and for factory ammo I've shot almost exclusively federal 9mm brass. Not sure how hot those are but I doubt they're too hot.

    I can tell I may have gone a little light on the recoil spring with how beat up my shock buffer is right now so I'm at least bumping to a 12#
     

    Nepherael

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Apr 22, 2019
    155
    18
    Mentone
    After reading through everything I made a few changes. Very excited to see how they work out.

    First off I had this issue regardless of the springs installed but as of today I had to change my hammer and recoil spring because the spring on the extended firing pin purchased from CGW broke (CGW is replacing the spring for free, they were cool about it since it shouldn't have broken in 800 rounds). So I put my original FP back in.

    - polished extractor hook interior as well as top and bottom to aid in case grip and freedom of movement.


    - VERY slight edge work to the bottom of the breech face (supposedly that edge is harsh and can scrape against rounds in the mag and pull them forward against a round already in the chamber)

    - changed to the thin recoil buffer. Chose the best of both worlds since some people say it short strokes the slide and others say it's necessary to stop frame battering.

    I'll see how it works out soon. I'm not happy I had to go back to such a heavier trigger pull and my original FP all because of one tiny defective spring. Bleh nothing but bad luck with this thing.
     

    bobjones223

    Master
    Rating - 98.2%
    55   1   0
    Mar 3, 2011
    1,780
    47
    Noblesville, IN
    Hmmmm, sorry you have been having troubles with it.

    I shoot mine until it starts to feel a little crusty, pull the slide, shoot some more lube into her, put her back together, load mag., and keep shooting.

    What is this "proper lubrication" you speak of here?

    Treat your sexy girl like a Glock so they don't get spoiled! You know she is a supermodel but don't show her that!

    Also for the record all guns that I "may" have posted in the classifieds or "may" post in the future have less than 200 rounds through them, cleaned after every range trip, and "properly lubricated" everyday.

    Also....I know there should be some PURPLE someplace in this post...read it into where ever you feel fit.:laugh:
     
    Top Bottom