I got one of the Israeli ex police Pre B 75s a few months ago. When I test fired it the magazine didn't stay seated. I figured this was because the grips had been improperly modified with a non standard lanyard loop. They had cracked and were so loose that I and my FFL figured that my grip was shifting and I was hitting the release accidentally.

So I got new grips, refinish the gun. Replaced a few worn out or broken parts and the gun shoots great until I start using CZ75 mags with a metal baseplate. So I use mags with plastic or rubber base plates. But then the problem starts cropping up with those. I figure that I might be holding the gun wrong. So I fire it one handed with nothing anywhere near the release button and every mag I tries goes flying out of the gun like a spent shell.

Soooo, what's going on here? Is the mag latch or spring worn out? Should I be using Pre B magazines in this thing?

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Refinishing was done by Zephyr Defense in Sparks Nevada, titanium Cerakote. It's been mildly Cajunized with a Cajun Gun Works trigger pin. Grips are one of a kind Purple Heart Wood from Grips by Larry. He won't be making anymore because of the toxicity of Purpleheart and the relative difficulty of the CZs grip design.

Transitional models generally accept both pre-B and B mags from my understanding.  Maybe you will have better luck with B model mags.

What he said.  That is not a full pre B.

Aren't the pre-B mags loose in the B models, or do I have it backwards?

All I have at the moment are B model mags which work just fine in my 75 Omega.

Although the gun did come with one mag. Though as I said the mag it came with fell out too, I will take a closer look at it and see if there are any differences.

No visible differences.

Side note, I know police have a reputation of treating their guns as just another piece of equipment but man oh man did the previous owner(s) do a number on this one. The grips were a complete mess, various parts were rusting out and it looked like someone had squirted some kinda glue all over the grip area.

Some pics of the restoration process via Facebook.

Might be worth it to put in a new mag catch and spring.

That's what I was just thinking too. Cheap fix for a nice pistol.

Happy new year guys.

And that refinish came out really nice, btw.  I gotta get around to going thru and re coating this one, but it runs like a scalded ape now.

Czech police trade in. Dirt cheap, and full of dirt.

Trouble with that is that it requires a full detail strip. Something I'm not sure that I am up to.

But if that is what it is then I suppose I don't have a choice.

IIRC, I don't think you will. Pull the slide off as you would when cleaning. Decock the lower/frame, that should give you enough room to take the mag catch screw out along with the spring that's in front of the mag well. Once the spring is out the mag catch should push out. Here's a pic of the inside my CZ 85 Combat it should be close to your 75. ETA: BTW your 75 looks great!

After careful inspection it looks like I might be able to pull this off without a complete tear down. It also looks like the mag catch has a nasty little chunk taken out of it. I will order the needed parts from CZ-USA as soon as they reopen on the third. Thank you everyone I will report back later if this works or not.

I don't have a Pre B CZ 75, mine is a Pre B CZ 85.  Similar internals though for the mag. catch and spring.

That screw may have a very narrow slot in it.  Many European guns use very narrow slotted common screws.  I had to order a screw driver with bits from Brownells for my Auto 5 - and the screw in the Pre B CZ 85 required that same thin bladed screw driver.

The screw was also staked to the frame.  Soak it with some oil each day for two or three days before you try to take the screw out.  

The spring will come out easily once the screw is out.

The second (thin) spring is what puts upward pressure on the trigger bars on each side of the frame.  

The mag. catch spring will "open" up when you pull it out.  It takes a pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze the legs together and put it back in place.

When you tighten the screw down, be sure to check/watch the thinner spring that pushes up on the trigger bar.  Too much torque on the screw will twist the legs and may keep them from lining up/fitting into the grooves on the bottom of the trigger bars.  If not in the grooves the legs of that spring won't put the proper upwards pressure on the trigger bar.

On mine I tightened the screw down, noticed the spring legs twisted out from under the right side of the trigger bar and then loosened up on the screw just slightly.  Not much, just enough to let the spring move back into position.

They are great pistols.  I was just telling my wife this morning how much I like mine, as I put it in the holster to take the dogs for a walk.  It was in pretty rough shape when I got it (many years in Israel with a good mix of fine brown dust and old grease packed into the corners and crevices inside and under the grips) and now has new springs, new grips, new sights, a new barrel and a cerakote job (as well as a frame bob to allow the use of some modified 16 round magazines (now 18 round).



And they are built like tanks.  Had this happen about a month ago.  Gun went bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and then nothing.  I noticed the slide was hung back, saw a round jammed into the chamber mouth, racked the slide, and saw I'd had a "kaboom".  I field stripped the pistol and look what was left in the barrel.  Absolutely no damage to the pistol.  Only way I knew the round came apart was that it failed to feed/chamber the next round.  Oh, I don't recommend a similar event, just letting you know they are well designed, well made and strong as hell.

At long last! I have my new magazine latch. CZ USA apparently suffered a software glitch.

Installed new part, doesn't even look like the original. Much more metal on the new Latch. The new spring is soooo much stronger, had quite a time stuffing it into place. Will report back after test firing of the problem is still there but I doubt it will be.

Edit

100 rounds of various types of ammo thorough the gun. Magazines are no longer parting company with the weapon. I did have two malfunctions, but I think that is partly because of the goofy way I was holding it to try to replicate the malfunction. As stupid as it may sound I had gotten used to the gun not working.

Regardless it looks like everything is working just fine now.

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