Wow, had to gut my post since I'm not a post whore.

On a range trip this past Sunday, I had issues with two different CZs, a P-01 and a P-09 .40. Haven't been using CZs that long, but is this normal? I thought they were supposed to be ultra reliable and never have issues.

The P-01 has had some feeding issues since I got it. Had it about a year, it's one of the OD Green ones KYGunco sold, has around 800 rounds through it. First issue ever was a feeding jam with a 147gr HST sometime last year. Since then it has been mostly fine as I recall until this range trip. Had a few issues with not feeding fully and jamming during feeding. Most bizarre issue I took a picture of. Stovepiped a live round. I don't even know how this happened, but it did. Gun is stock except for CZ-85 trigger and CGW reduced power trigger return spring and grips. Just added the grips, so that's why I took it to the range. Haven't decided what to do about this issue, but it's making me question my future CZ purchases, some of which were sort of pre-planned.

Next issue was with new P-09 .40. I started with a P-07 .40, loved it and eventually got a P-09 9mm, then got a P-07 9mm, and then just picked up a P-09 .40 since it was a good price and I really like the others. Picked it up from my FFL, cleaned and lubed it, didn't notice anything amiss aside from tight slide to frame fit when field stripping. Somewhere during my range session, I noticed the sight picture was off. Figured out it was because the dot from the front sight was missing. I think it was there when I got the gun and disappeared during firing the gun. Also the gun had feeding issues due to the overly tight frame to slide fit, mostly near the last rounds in the mags, probably 14th round in both mags. Slide was getting hung up during moving forward after recoil probably due to frame warpage. After searching it seems this may be a somewhat common thing and may sort itself out after more rounds. I only put 100 rounds through it this range trip, but the 2-4 failures were pretty surprising to me.

I called CZ yesterday about the front sight dot issue. The guy in the warranty department suggested putting nail polish or white paint in the cavity where the dot was, completely ignoring that the factory sights are photo-luminescent, and was less than helpful. I asked about getting the sight replaced and he suggested sending the whole slide in. I asked about just getting a replacement sight and was transferred to the parts department and had to explain the whole thing again. The guy in the parts department agreed to swap my sight but I had to send in the bad one first. They provided a shipping label. This is ridiculous. I did not mention the feeding issues with the P-09 and think they would totally ignore any issues with that or issues  mentioned with my P-01 due to the complete abruptness of their responses. Is this what one can expect normally when dealing with CZ?

Here's a pic of what I took to the range on Sunday:

Hmm, posted pics with IMG tags but showing up as links.

the issue with your P-01 is most normally associated with a bad magazines/ feed lips being too loose allowing the round too come out early.  I would look at your mags and go from there, if possible, try new magazines.  as for the sight dot falling out, it is pretty standard for companies to request a defective part back before sending a replacement, you know to check and make sure the original wasn't hit with a rock or something.  If they are offering a prepaid shipping label, I'd just send the p-09 in for the feeding issue to be checked out and have a new sight installed at the same time.

All mags for the P-01 were new with the P-01 or bought after, so approximately 800 rounds between them all. Not sure how many I have, probably 3-5. My best guess was crappy 115gr fmj ammo. I used a box of Remington UMC and a box of Aguila. I don't know which ammo had the issues, maybe both.

With the P-09, the label they offered was from the parts guy to send in just the sight, there was no mention of sending the whole gun it. I was about to ask if the slide getting stuck was an issue, but got hung up on before I got the chance.

Well not sure on the CZ's although I can report from my time on the range with my Step-Dad. He had his Khar Lady. It's an older one. When I shot it I had to push the slide into battery. My my Taurus 24/7 9mm I had no issues. Yet personally I think it was a lack of lube on my step-dad since he cannot remember last time he shot and cleaned it. Although personally I do I have not had a good experience shooting polymer frames on handguns since I cannot lock my wrist from breaking both bones in the forearm and three surgeries on it. With his Khar almost every shot I had to push the slide in to battery. His only had the 7 round mag so it the lightest one which may be the difference from my Taurus which is 17 rounds and a much heaver pistol also with polymer frame.

I would try again, sometimes you just end up a customer service representative that is in a bad mood or just not very helpful.  Heck I called At&t last week to cancel my cable and the guy didn't even hang up, just said he had to go check something and laid his phone down to try to get me to hang up on him (I lasted 45ish minutes sitting there listening to him talk and breath in the background before I caved and hung up)  but the next guy I got when I called back was very helpful.  moral is, regardless of industry, some people are dicks

I bought an SP-01 six weeks ago and a P-01 last weekend. With my P-01, I found that when a round feeds, the next round in the mag is pushed halfway out of the feed lips. It didn't interfere with the mag dropping free. Testing it, I found that 3 press checks will push the top round out of the mag (starting with the rounds properly seated). I was going to test it next time at the range and was expecting a stove pipe of the loose round. I mentioned the SP-01 because it does the same thing, though I didn't notice it until after I found the issue on my P-01. The SP-01 has about 250 rounds through it without any issues.

I'm betting that is what caused the stove pipe.

True. I'll probably put a few more rounds through the P-09 once I get the new sight and see if it sorts itself out. If not, I'll get back in touch with them and see about sending it in on their dime.

Hmm, interesting. I'm curious to know if it stovepipes when you test it. I only took 2 mags for the P-01 to the range, with 2 different baseplates, so I may mark the mag the stovepipe happened with and keep an eye on it.

Stove pipe is almost always one of two things, across ALL semi auto hand guns (Glock, CZ, Karh, Sig HK ect).

Limp wresting or Mags.

If you have a feed problem, set that mag aside and mark it. Keep shooting. Do another test session, if the problem does not pop up again then the variable you removed was the mag = Mag problem. Keep mag as range or training mag only.

If the problem pops up again, shoot like a man and not a pansy (joke don't get all upset ).

As for the sight, not sure I'm ready to get the pitchfork out, you talked to a knuckle head, call back see if some one else can send you a sight, offer to send them pictures of the defunct part, explain to them your trying to save them $ on return shipping.

I'm going to mark the mag and take the gun next range trip.

None of my other guns have an issue like this, so I'm more inclined to think mag, but I'll keep that in mind.

I was just a bit irritated with the handling of the issue with the first guy I spoke to. The second guy in the parts department was much more helpful. My only real gripe at this point is that I have to send in the old part before getting a new one. That would really suck if it was my only gun.

The first thing I did with my New CZ P-01 was use Testors white paint on the sights.
That Photo crap is so grey, I cant even see it while aiming. As for the sights glowing in the dark it pretty much sucks anyway.If you want night sights then I'm afraid you will have to buy some.


And this is no excuse on how you were treated in the phone call to the company,but the paint falling out was a good thing so more white paint can fill the hole where the useless paint used to be. My 2 cents.

Agreed on the P-01 sights, they suck. I don't really use the photo-luminescent part of the sights, but like to have the original parts for the sake of having them. If I can get the P-01 to a point where I'd feel confident carrying it, I'll get night sights for it. For the P-07s and P-09s, I'm waiting on night sights to become available. Supposedly Cajun Gun Works is in the process of developing some new ones that may be ready in the next few months.

my 40 P-09 has been 100% reliable

i replaced the factory sights with dawson precision fiber,....and the factory front sight was a bitch to drive out

maybe they've had customers who fuck up removing and reinstalling the replacement sight

Glad yours has been reliable. Hoping mine will be once I put some more rounds through it.

Agreed, the front sight was in the slot a lot better than I was expecting. It already shipped out yesterday, should be delivered to them tomorrow.

According to tracking, bad sight was delivered Thursday. Got a shipping notification Friday, shipment should be delivered Tuesday. Hoping for another range trip soon to see if issues are worked out.

I believe your recoil springs are too weak.  


I am basing this opinion on experience dealing with almost every type of malfunction with semi-automatic pistols.


-Failure to feed (this is the most common and I have seen it on many guns, it's usually the recoil spring being too weak)

-Failure to eject (fairly rare, probably related to weak ammo)

-Failure to extract (rough chamber)

-Magazine baseplate falling off (poor design of floorplate)

-Failure to fire (weak mainspring or improper headspace/firing pin length)

-Broken firing pin retaining pins (this will happen if you dry fire a CZ too much)

-Broken trigger pin (bad metallurgy)

-Double feed (weak recoil spring, or loose feed lips and magazine spring)

-Broken ejector (bad metallurgy)

-Live round being sent out ejection port (related to double feed)

-Slide not locking back (overly strong slide lock spring relative to mag spring, also could be a dirty magazine)

-Slide prematurely locking back (improper dimensions on slide stop)

-Hammer not falling in DA

-Magazine stuck (improper dimensions on slide stop)


The P-09 not returning to battery is partly a break-in issue.  You can probably fix this by racking the slide at home a lot or by firing it a lot.  But when you go to test it make sure the recoil spring is fresh and the gun is lubricated.  Use the most slippery lubricant you can find such as Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil.


The P-01 your slide is probably hitting the frame so hard that it is jarring the next round in the magazine loose and forward.  When the slide comes forward the round is not in the right place.  This malfunction could be caused by a bad mag and exacerbated by limp wristing, but I am leaning more towards weak recoil spring based on your description.  


For ammo try to use something like 115 to 124 gr. from an American manufacturer.  An oddball type of ammo might cause trouble.  


Most important thing:  Replace your recoil springs (with factory CZ ones).  


On the sight, just paint the P-01 sights with white fingernail polish.  That worked really well on mine.

Thanks for the feedback.

On the P-09, you can really feel the resistance when removing the slide during field stripping. As I said, my plan is to shoot it some more and see if it corrects itself. I put a coating of Lucas Gun Oil on the inside of the frame and on the slide.

With the P-01, I'm not against changing the recoil spring, but CZ seems to be out of stock on the factory recoil spring at the moment. Only thing I'm seeing elsewhere are different weight springs. Any recommendations for a different weight or aftermarket spring? I marked the magazine I had the stovepiped live round with, so next range trip I'll check for issues specific to that mag.

Perhaps you could try Wolff gun springs part number 53917.  That's a standard weight spring and it looks like it's in stock.  I would go with standard weight.  If you absolutely had to, go with a heavier spring over a lighter spring.

 

https://www.gunsprings.com/CZ/75%20Series/cID1/mID16/dID91


 

Thanks, ordered, along with a +5% mag spring in case it ends up being an issue with that mag.

Cool, hopefully that works for you.  You might also consider using a bit more oil on your barrel and slide rails.  Your gun looks a bit dry in the photo.

 

I think it's just the lighting. Used a drop of oil on the outside of the barrel, a drop inside the barrel lug, a drop inside the slide, and Cajun Gun Works grease on the rails.

I've owned several CZ 75B pistols and have one now. I never had any issues with any of them. I do agree that the magazines and the ammunition are probable sources of FTF or FTE. However, I have experienced another issue causing FTF and FTE with a Sig P229 Stainless Elite. That was a recoil spring that needed to be replaced. I probably only had about 1,000 rounds through the gun (since purchased brand new) and started to notice an occasional FTF or FTE out of every 30 rounds fired during qualifications. I bought a new spring and that solved that problem. I always figured that the recoil spring would be good for several thousand rounds before it needed to be replaced.  

I was under the same impression about the recoil spring being good for awhile. Got the new recoil spring in, have the extra power mag spring but haven't installed it yet. Not sure how soon I'll be able to get back to the range.

Made it to the range today, still having issues with both.

Put 200 rounds through the P-01. Had the problem twice on the 3rd box of ammo, which was Speer Lawman 115gr. The other boxes were Blazer Brass 115gr, Blazer Brass 124gr, and Blazer Aluminum 115gr. The problem happened both on the suspect mag from last time, and a brand new magazine. No problems with the 1st, 2nd, or 4th boxes of ammo.





Put 150 rounds through the P-09. Had the problem once on the 3rd box of ammo, which was PPU 180gr TMJ. Gun didn't go all the way into battery. Other ammo used were American Eagle 180gr & 155gr.



Not sure what to do at this point, maybe I'll get in touch with CZ's warranty department.

In other news, I put 150 rounds through my new RAMI BD with no problems!

I'd send it back.  Let them figure it out.

+1
I've had good experiences with CZ customer service.  That doesn't make up for the crabby guy you experienced, but I would send it back and let them figure out what is going on.  It should not be having that many problems.  My P-01 has been totally relaible from day one with factory branded and Mec-Gar magazines, shooting most of the brands of ammo you mentioned including PMC, UMC, Remington, HST, Freedom Munitions,  Blazer and several others.  I'm not a huge fan of Blazer.  Aluminum or brass, it seems to run very dirty through everything I've shot.

I called them CZ last week, told them I was having issues with two different guns, explained the problems, and got RMA numbers and shipping labels for both guns. I will be sending them in this week. They were actually pretty good to deal with.

Thanks for keeping us updated. Are you going to send some of the ammunition that you had issues with along with firearm?

They didn't ask me to, so probably not, plus I think there are restrictions on individuals shipping ammo. They asked me to provide a note detailing the problem with each gun, so I'll just be as thorough as I can with those. I'll also provide printed copies of the pics I've posted here. After I called, they emailed me a link to request an RMA where I basically enter in the info about the gun and the problem, but you can only upload 1 picture for each RMA request. A bit after submitting the requests, I got an email for each one with directions (include a note, etc.) and a link to print a shipping label.

I'll post updates here as I have them.

Finally dropped off the guns (boxed individually) yesterday at Fedex, they were delivered this morning. Got an email this afternoon for each RMA that they received them.

I've had good luck with their warranty dept, you should have them back pretty quick.

Thanks, good to hear.

I've been owning and shooting CZ for at least 20 years. Down to 4 now.  Only warranty issue was with a first issue P07, they replaced the entire gun.  I broke a slide stop on a 75b once, after 15k rds. Never had reliability issues.

They had me a new 07 in 2 weeks.

Nice. I'm hopeful they will make things right. I know I was a bit unhappy in my very first dealing with them, but everything since has been good. None of my other CZ's have had any issues.

Got emails for each gun that repairs are complete and will ship back soon.

For the P-01:
Description: Fails to feed
Work Performed: adjusted slide stop, extractor, breech face lead in and slide. installed extra power extractor spring. test fired good 56 rounds.

For the P-09:
Description: Feeding/Slide tight
Work Performed: adjusted slide stop, extractor, firing pin hole, breech face lead in and slide. test fired good. 60 rounds.

Looking forward to getting them back and wringing them out a bit.

Thanks for the update. Seems like a lot of smithing. I wonder what adjusting the slide stop affects or how they do it. I hope they are now reliable.

Got them back today. Haven't looked super closely yet, but neither of them look very different. Thought there might be some cosmetic differences in color noticeable if they "adjusted slide stop, breech face lead in and slide" per the emails/paperwork they sent. Slide-to-frame fit on the P-09 is still overly tight compared to any of my other P-07s or P-09s. To backtrack slightly, the original sight on my P-09 had a 3 on the front of it. The replacement sight they sent looked like old stock and was not marked the same way nor took the same size allen wrench as the one I sent them. According to the part number on the paperwork they sent with the replacement sight, it is a #4 sight and is clearly taller compared to my other stock sights on other guns with a 3. I explained this in the note I sent in with the gun per their request, but it was ignored. I guess you have to intimately spell out every issue on the phone with them, since they tell you send a note but didn't really bother reading the whole thing. I get that my writing style is a bit long-winded but I broke it down into small items limited to a line each. I'm a bit disappointed by that but I got a set of the Dawson fiber optic sights from CGW and they also have night sights available now (already have a set on my CGW'd P-07 in .40, they are nice! Small dots, but sharp and bright!) so it becomes less of an issue if the gun works reliably. I'm also a bit disappointed that nothing they claimed to do would really alleviate the very tight slide-to-frame fit, in my mind, and makes me think they just ignored that. If it was addressed and found to be within spec, they could bother mentioning it.

At this point I have mixed feelings. Turnaround was very quick, was pleased with that part. Guns are both fixed according to CZ (4 mags put through each with no problems; no mention of ammo used); I have my doubts, but will reserve judgement until I put some rounds through them myself. Best case, all issues are fixed (aside from sights on P-09). Worst case, I have to send either (hopefully not both) back for a 2nd visit. Plan is to take a few boxes of each ammo I had issues with most recently, plus at least one box of ammo that didn't give me fits, and see what happens.

Also, the guns both smell quite different. They were lubed with a mix of Breakfree CLP and CGW grease when I sent them in, and possibly a bit of Lucas Gun Oil on the P-09. The scent they both have now smells like a mixture between a petroleum product and citrus, but it's not anything I'm familiar with. Neither was cleaned after firing by them.

My 40 cal CZ P-09 slide to frame fit is very tight, and the gun has digested over 500 rounds with zero malfunctions

hopefully your CZ trouble is behind you

Personally, I'd take a tight slide to frame fit over a loose one any day.  Shoot it, break it in and it should loosen up.

Sounds like you got a lot of good smithing done for free.  Nothing to complain about there.

I had to send back a CZ 912 shotgun for a broken hammer.  I found CZ customer service and smithing to be fantastic and I have nothing but praise.

Maybe I'm not explaining my issue with the P-09 properly. The issue is the dust cover area squeezes the slide very tight, not the frame rails.

On three other P-07s/P-09s, if you push the slide past this point, it will fall off.





I can start putting the slide back into the frame on this P-09 and it gets tight here, before even hitting the frame rails.







I tried this on others, the P-09 in .40 is the only one that that acts that way. It doesn't appear to have been addressed. That's why I'm very doubtful about it being fixed.

Went to range today. Took too many guns and only got to put one box of ammo through each gun, but used the same ammo that gave me problems last time. No problems today. Hopefully both are fixed.