Posted: 11/5/2025 8:09:30 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Jambalaya][Edited]
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I'm considering installing one of their upgrade kits. I see that they come with an extended firing pin for reliability. Is there any downside to installing it? Does it make the gun less drop safe or anything? There has to be a reason CZ engineers chose the length they did. |
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Not sure why they did it, just make sure to use their firing pin spring with their firing pin. This is an uneducated guess but it may have something to do with the reduced weight of the hammer springs. All but one of my CZ’s has cajun parts, they make good guns more gooder |
| I just installed the CGW 15# hammer spring, and it doesnt seem to have lightened the SA pull at all. Still 4.25#. I need to take the time to do the full disassembly, polish parts and install the other springs from the kit. But I really expected the hammer spring to make a bigger difference in the SA pull. |
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Originally Posted By CPTmorgan: Drop safe? No. But only 1 IPSC and 1 USPSA competitor have been killed by dropping their CZs Anyhow I took it apart and polished the sear and hammer hook, and the trigger bar where it contacts the roller, and the top of the lifter. I reassembled it using the CGW trigger return spring and lighter firing pin block spring, and after all that it finally has an improvement. The SA pull is down to 3.25 pounds, and the gritty feeling is gone. It's still got a lot of creep, but you can easily see that by observing the sear engagement. I watched a video that said the CGW hammer has a shorter hammer hook, but I think these guns will be fine with the factory hammer. ETA, just as an aside, bamboo BBQ skewers are the perfect diameter for making slave pins to reinstall the trigger. 
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I suppose the downside is you can't use the stock hammer spring and need a lighter one. I would guess they chose the length they did for increased double action and single action trigger weight. I've never carried a modified CZ so I never looked into the safety aspect but the firing pin block on models that have it, keep it with the longer pin. If you wanted to carry a non-B model like the Shadow 2 or the like, there may be a smaller margin of error on drops?... But then again they may have less inertia on a drop because there is less space between the extended pin and the breach block, but here I am speculating. |
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Originally Posted By Jambalaya: I just installed the CGW 15# hammer spring, and it doesnt seem to have lightened the SA pull at all. Still 4.25#. I need to take the time to do the full disassembly, polish parts and install the other springs from the kit. But I really expected the hammer spring to make a bigger difference in the SA pull. Hammer spring will have little to no effect on SA. The sear spring and firing pin block spring is what you want to experiment with. |
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Originally Posted By DamnYankee01: Hammer spring will have little to no effect on SA. The sear spring and firing pin block spring is what you want to experiment with. |
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Originally Posted By voyager3: Despite definitely using their hammer spring, my CZ97 eats CGW firing pins when dry firing with snap caps. CGW recommended using an O-ring to prevent the hammer from dropping on the pin. How do they fail? From hitting the retaining pins or something else? |
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Originally Posted By Jambalaya: @voyager3 How do they fail? From hitting the retaining pins or something else? No, they break closer to the tip of the pin, roughly at the point where the bolt face firing pin opening is when the pin is fully extended. Which makes me think that either the pin tapers too steeply, or the opening is too narrow or it travels too far forward even with the snap cap. |
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Originally Posted By voyager3: No, they break closer to the tip of the pin, roughly at the point where the bolt face firing pin opening is when the pin is fully extended. Which makes me think that either the pin tapers too steeply, or the opening is too narrow or it travels too far forward even with the snap cap. I have both the compact and full size P-09 Nocturne guns. Yesterday, I installed the lighter hammer spring, the lighter firing pin stop plunger springs, and lighter trigger return spring in the full size, and polished some of the parts including the hammer hook and sear face. I kept the stock firing pin. The trigger pull in that gun dropped from 4.25 pounds to 3.25 pounds. Just this evening, I took apart the compact version and replaced only the trigger return spring, and polished the engagement surfaces as before, hammer hooks and sear face, and the trigger bar where it contacts the roller. This dropped the trigger pull from 4.25 pounds down to 3.75 pounds. Given that the compact model is the one Id be most likely to carry, I feel like any trigger pull under 4 pounds for a carry gun is great, and I get to keep the factory firing pin and return spring, along with the factory hammer spring and firing pin block spring. This will ensure factory-like reliability with these parts, but the polishing gives a much better trigger feel, and the lighter trigger return spring contributes to that with zero impact on cartridge ignition reliability, and doesn't affect the drop safe mechanisms. I feel like I could have spent much less on CGW parts and just ordered 2 trigger return springs.
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The best kept secret in CZs is just shoot em SAO / LO. shadow 2 SAO came factory with a 2.5lb crisp trigger (with the take up and over travel adustment screws in the stock sao trigger shoe). No sketchy ass extended Firing pins No multi hundred dollar trigger kits No screwing with primers / mainsprings / return springs / FP springs, all stock spring-weights (except the recoil spring)= super reliable. Cocked and locked the way God intended.... they make all kinds of extended / ambi safety levers.... but the stock one is fine. Ill argue the safety location is superior to 1911/2011 for condition one, thumb rides higher = more room to grip up high with your support hand. |
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Originally Posted By deanwormer: The best kept secret in CZs is just shoot em SAO / LO. shadow 2 SAO came factory with a 2.5lb crisp trigger (with the take up and over travel adustment screws in the stock sao trigger shoe). No sketchy ass extended Firing pins No multi hundred dollar trigger kits No screwing with primers / mainsprings / return springs / FP springs, all stock spring-weights (except the recoil spring)= super reliable. Cocked and locked the way God intended.... they make all kinds of extended / ambi safety levers.... but the stock one is fine. Ill argue the safety location is superior to 1911/2011 for condition one, thumb rides higher = more room to grip up high with your support hand. In any case, the good news is I was able to achieve satisfactory trigger pulls without needing to install the extended firing pins. |
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Only downside is it changes a really safe pistol into a liability. I run 11.5lb hammer spring and lightened firing pin spring and it is reliable without extended pin. Don't be an asshole with an unsafe gun.  CZ Shadow 2 Extended Firing Pins |
| I bought my S2 used. It had already been sent to CGW and gone through, it’s a great shooter. I was curious and pulled the FP to measure it. It had an extended pin. Ordered a factory pin & RAMI spring. It made zero difference in the reliability of the pistol. I’m using a 13 lb mainspring. The only time I’ve had a FTF was with high primers (Servicios). |
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Originally Posted By optimator: I bought my S2 used. It had already been sent to CGW and gone through, it's a great shooter. I was curious and pulled the FP to measure it. It had an extended pin. Ordered a factory pin & RAMI spring. It made zero difference in the reliability of the pistol. I'm using a 13 lb mainspring. The only time I've had a FTF was with high primers (Servicios). I run 13lb/rami firing pin spring in my S2C that I carry, otherwise stock. The big downside for me or the biggest thing I notice for a carry gun is the hammer isn't as easy to decock as a CGW hammer. The profile is just harder to get a thumb on. |