CZ 75B FTF issue

[Rock River]

It was suggested that I would get a lot more views posting this in this section!

I’ve put a few hundred rounds through this gun without any issues until this last trip to the range. I don’t have the ammo brand in front of me but maybe its not relevant. I can add it if needed. I put 80 or so rounds through and 3 times the gun didn’t fire. The slide was hard to pull back to eject the round each time and when I checked the primer 2 of them weren’t even touched and the third barely had a dimple.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[mcapo]

The more knowledgeable will be in soon but I would suspect the first question would be if any modification, springs changes, etc. have been made to the firearm along with its overall age and approximate round count? 180, 1800 or 18,000 rounds...

Ammo brand is relevant. Primers vary.

 

[Expat]

On the failures to fire, did the pistol seem in battery? You mention the slide being hard to pull back, was it only after these failures when it was hard to retract? Other than those times, it felt normal before and after? Have you had it apart since? did you see any marks inside that appear new? Is the firing pin channel clean? Pass the pencil test? Lubed good?

 

[Hoosier45]

Is this a new or surplus gun? Have you had it apart? You will surprised at the amount of crud the surplus guns have packed in them.

 

[Hoosier45]

The more knowledgeable will be in soon but I would suspect the first question would be if any modification, springs changes, etc. have been made to the firearm along with its overall age and approximate round count? 180, 1800 or 18,000 rounds...

Ammo brand is relevant. Primers vary.

Yes, I realize you said knowledgeable, but I thought I would chime in, too.

 

[mcapo]

Yes, I realize you said knowledgeable, but I thought I would chime in, too.

Anything to get your post count up...

 

[Hoosier45]

Anything to get your post count up...

Making a run for the classifieds! I gave up on 50 quality posts a long time ago.

 

[Hopper]

Without knowing anymore about the history of the firearm, my initial suspicion would be the firing pin. Factory CZ firing pins are a known weak spot. But the good news is that it's not difficult to replace. If you're going to get an extended firing pin from CGW, you may as well go with the Ultra-Lite Kit (I'm a big fan of this package, it's about $50 shipped) and do a couple more minor spring upgrades while you have it apart.

 

[Old Bear]

You might want to check the "firing pin block lift lever". I had a similar issue with a surplus 75BD. The tip of the little lifter (located in the frame) had sheared off and would occasionally flip over and not allow the firing pin to hit the primer. It would flip over enough to wedge against the bottom of the slide and lock it up tight. I'll post a pic if it will help clarify what I am talking about.

 

[88E30M50]

Have you done much dry fire with this gun? The 75B has a known weak area in that the roll pin that retains the firing pin can be deformed with even a moderate amount of dry fire. When this happens, it can interfere with the firing pin travel.

Good news is that Cajun Gun Works makes an upgraded firing pin retainer for only a couple of bucks that is much more resistant to this type of issue. For a lot of folks that run CZs hard, there are two things they do when the get a new CZ. 1: Dry fire the heck out of it to smooth the action, but only while using an O ring or foam ear plug over the firing pin to protect that roll pin. 2: Replace the POS roll pin with an upgraded firing pin stop from CGW.

 

[Rock River]

Lots of great feedback. It’s a stock gun purchased new about a year ago. I’ve put about 400 rounds through it and never had an issue before now. I believe it was fully in battery when the FTF’s happened, if not it wasn’t out enough that I noticed. The difficult slide pulls only happened after each FTF, otherwise it acted as normal. I know it can use a good cleaning to so I’m going to start there. I’ll also check the firing pin out. I’ve wanted to do some Cajun upgrades so this is probably a good excuse to make that happen.

Thanks for the comments, I’ll report back after a good cleaning and another round of test fires.

 

[Old Bear]

If you remove the slide you can perform two quick visual checks.

First, inspect the underside of the slide for a scratch or gouge between the breach face and the firing pin block. If there is, then your lift lever is damaged and not lifting the block high enough to allow the firing pin to strike the primer. And it will occasionally jam the slide from moving freely.

Second, check the firing pin block lift lever (located in the top of the frame) and make sure it is still spring loaded in the down position. If it isn't, then it will allow the lever to get caught in the up position and wedge itself into the bottom of the slide. The spring for this is a tiny little torsion spring that can break easily if lift lever gets out of position.

If these two inspections reveal no issues, then I would suspect a damaged firing pin retaining pin like mentioned above.