What's wrong with my CZ75?

I recently bought a CZ 75 BD after doing some research and hearing nothing but good things about them. I shot 150 rounds through it and had zero problems, and I was happy.

Recently though it's been having constant failure to feed. Almost every time I load a new magazine the first round doesn't feed all the way. Once I start shooting it sometimes feeds fine for 10 rounds in a row, but other times it'll jam up with the same failure to feed. Today I had nothing but problems. I barely made it through 100 rounds, with dozens of jams. The gun has total maybe 500 rounds through it.

The problem:




Sometimes I can pull the slide back a bit and it'll chamber. Other times it just won't go forward. I end up having to eject the round and try the next round. It seems the dirtier the gun gets the problem occurs more often. When it's clean though it still happens (just maybe only 50% of the time).

Can anyone help me? The ammo I've tried are the Aguila shown, and also some Speer Lawman 115gr FMJ. Both of those ammos jam. I had 2 boxes of Winchester Ranger JHP's when I first got the gun and those worked fine but I don't have any more to try now that it's become a full on Jam-O-Matic.

Were you using the same ammo when you first shot it, when it was working fine? If it runs on some ammo and hates others, that's the obvious answer. Like the old joke: "Doc, it hurts when I move my arm like this. What should I do?" Doc says "Don't move your arm like that."

Has the magazine been dropped or stepped on? Maybe the feed lips got damaged. Have you called CZ? My Witness did something similar when I switched to a heavier recoil spring. I think the slide was outrunning the magazine on the way forward.

It ran fine on 1 box of Speer Lawman when I first got it. Today it couldn't feed that either. All the ammo that it can't feed has been FMJ ammo. If it can't eat FMJ it's useless to me.

The magazines haven't been dropped or anything. I even cleaned both magazines thinking they may be the problem. The gun is completely stock and in perfect condition. I read on another forum that a guy had to "grind the corner" of the ejector to remedy a similar problem... Anyone heard of that?

get your hands on a diff mag and see what happens.

+1

On any magazine fed weapon, when you experience feeding issues, step one is Different Magazine!

I just went and cycled it by hand slowly to replicate the problem, watching what happens. It appears the bottom inside edge of the ejector arm is catching and pinching the round, not allowing the back end of the round to come up and go forward as the slide pushes it to the chamber. There are small dents/gouges in the rim of the rounds that jam where the ejector pinches it. It's kind of hard to explain (or photograph).

It does seem if the ejector arm was a bit more rounded on that bottom corner that it wouldn't pinch there...

Well it came with two magazines, both give the same problem.

Try spraying it good with brake cleaner or gun scrubber around the area where the extractor, extractor pin and spring is. CZ's get dirty around the extractor.

You also might poke around here CZ Forum lot's of knowledgeable CZ guys there.

CALL CZ! The pistol is brand new it should work perfectly. They will tell you to send it back and they will fix it.

This.

Stop wasting your time and ammo.

You have (rightfully so) done your due dillagance. Different ammo. Different Mags. Cleaned.

Call CZ.

This.

Do not fear their customer service. They get it done.

Well I took the ejector arm out and took some sandpaper to the bottom corner where it was pinching the rounds. I rounded it off more and smoothened it out. I hand cycled 15 rounds through it and it didn't jam. So it's an improvement. Will have to fire it tomorrow to be sure.

It appears the either the ejector spring is either A) too stiff and pushing it into the shell too hard, B) the edge of the arm isn't smooth enough and doesn't slide into the rim of the round easily or C) protrudes too much and instead of giving a little resistance to "guide" the shell straight in, it's rubbing enough and causing it to pinch.

I agree with you all that I should just call CZ. However, it's a weekend and I just wanted to shoot .

I assume you're talking about the extractor. The ejector is in the frame.

I would go easy on modifying the extractor. The improvement you saw may be from simply removing, cleaning and re-installing it.

#1 - CZs are not particularly tolerant of ammo that has out-of-spec extractor grooves. (Imagine that - a gun that doesn't like when you feed it shitty off-spec ammo!)

#2 - Depending on the OAL of the ammo and the bullet profile, the side stop may be interfering. (This also depends on which specific iteration of slide stop is present.)

Is it me or does the round in the picture look to be in front of the extractor hook instead of the hook in the cartridge groove?

My CZ75B has done that with Remington UMC 115gr. Not a lot, but enough that I researched the issue. I switched to 124 grain FMJ and haven't had a single issue since. I've been told it has something to do with the bullet profile. Maybe there is something to that.

I'm also reasonably sure the CZ-75B was tuned using Sellier and Bellot 124 gr FMJ. S&B is a bit hotter than most American brands.

Yes, they use S&B at the factory for testing in the 124gr loading. If I start having problems, I get some of that very ammo. Usually it is very nicely priced.

You don't need hot ammo to cycle a 75. Mine runs fine on very light handloads.

What is a common issue with 75's is that the extractors get dirty and cause problems.

The ammo I was using the most when it jammed was Aguila 124gr FMJ. Aguila is a "hotter than normal" loaded ammo.

I had heard a lot of stories/reviews where people claim to shoot "thousands" of rounds with no issues. I guess they leave out the part where you have to remove the extractor for a cleaning every few hundred rounds?

Not trying to bash on the CZ (I'm very happy with it except for this issue), but I didn't think I should need to do a detailed cleaning after only 400ish rounds. Every thousand or 2, maybe, but not a few hundred. (Yes if I have to get out a tiny punch and hammer a pin out, that's more than a normal cleaning in my opinion).


Anyways, I was able to fire 35 rounds without any issues after I did the sanding and cleaning... I'm going to leave the extractor uncleaned and hopefully fire a few hundred this weekend and see how it goes.

What you experienced is not normal, and quite unfair to CZ. Every manufacturer makes a lemon or two once in a while (some more often than others). What you should have done after your research was send it in to CZ, not waste your time trying to void the warranty by messing with it yourself. My CZ75 SP-01 Tactical has hundreds and hundreds of rounds through it without a problem.

It may have just been something flukey like a grain of sand in the wrong spot.

You don't have to pull the extractor every few hundred rounds to clean it. I've got thousands of rounds through mine (both of them) and have NEVER taken the extractor out to clean it. If mine gets exceptionally dirty, which is very rare, it gets flushed with gun scrubber. Otherwise, it gets a typical field strip and a cleaning.

Other than a few jams with Remington UMC 115gr FMJ, mine have been reliable. I'm convinced mine were ammo related. I'm confident the extractor had ZERO to do with it. It's far more likely you have a few rounds of dud ammo now and then as opposed to an extractor problem.

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