Achilles' Heel on my CZ-75B - Broken slide stop

[Caseless]

I bought a 16 Ibs. extra-power conventional recoil spring for my CZ-75B 9mm. On my first range outing with the new spring on Saturday, the slide stop in my CZ broke after 3 rounds. (I have shot 3,000 rounds of various non +P factory ammo thru the same gun in stock condition over the past several years)
After field-stripping, it looked like the middle part of the Wolff recoil spring was out of alignment, it was pushed steeply downward during firing so the spring did not dampen the recoil energy at all.
I compared the factory spring and the Wolff spring and it seems the ends of the two springs are different. The factory one has flat coil ends(bases), the Wolff spring has rounded ends. They are also dimensionally different, both length and spring coil width-wise. Dave at Wolff was very prompt replying to my question and confirmed I did buy the correct recoil spring.
I am going to call up Mike at CZ-USA this week and see what he recommends.

Back to the title of this post, I think the slide stop is not the weak point in this gun. Rather, the plastic guide rod, coupled with the very strong Wolff recoil spring may be the culprit in this case. Anyway, my first spring modification on a handgun is a complete fiasco.
At least I brought a back up pistol to finish the Steel Challenge...but I missed my CZ's accuracy using the back up gun.

 

[raz-0]

I've seen the problem with decreased power springs too. The wolf springs are too long and need to be trimmed or they kink like that IIRC.

My friends CZ had the same issue, but at about 5000 rounds. The replacement stop is still going strong, and it has been more than another 5000 rounds. Could be a bad batch, or it could be that all the hassle he went through getting the springs right in the gun paid off. Still keeps a spare handy though.

 

[atblis]

CZ slide stops

There has been a decent amount of discussion about this on czforum.com
The general consensus is that usually they go for quite a while without breaking. There appear to be a few possibilities. Heavier springs in theory are harder on the slidestops. Additionally it has been mentioned that the BHP springs may be a better fit.

a. CZ made a bad batch of slide stops.

b. CZ made a few guns slightly out of spec that have a habit of breaking the slidestop.

c. I suppose the recoil spring could have done it.

d. They really do just break every so often (One, perhaps a fluke. Two well...)

Using heavier springs is a popular debate (whether it helps or harms your gun). I believe some competitors use stock and perhaps even lighter springs, and their guns usually have quite a few rounds down the pipe.

 

[Gary G23]

Before I bought four CZ's this year I read about all the people that felt you should replace your recoil spring with a 16# Wolf. I replaced the spring on three of mine. I had to take it out of two of these because of binding. It seems to work okay in my single action though. I wish you could put a full length guide rod in them. I think that would be a great improvement.

 

[Berg01]

I have a CZ 75B in .40 S&W. In my humble opinion, the stock CZ recoil and mag springs are flat-out junk. The gun has run 100% since I started using a Wolff 18lb recoil spring, and the Wolff XP mag springs. With those mag springs, I also suggest using one of those HKS speedloaders.

If I had a 9mm CZ 75B, I'd get both the Wolff 14 and 16 lb recoil springs, and see which one works best. With the 16lb spring, I would also try the XP mag springs. This is a very cheap upgrade for a CZ.

 

[pauli]

Achilles' Heel on my CZ-75B - Broken slide stop

sounds like the achilles heel is really the nut attached to the grips

 

[PCRCCW]

Well, theoritically if the recoil spring isnt taking ANY of the recoil away then you have slide to frame battery n alot of the recoil being taken by the slide stop.

Wolff springs do trash the OEM plastic guide rod very quickly....I use 20 and 22# recoil springs on my CZs....9mm Compact and 40B. The NEED the harder guide rod.

CZ did have a batch of bad stops and they went out on many different guns...they seem to be mostly found on the fullsize guns.

Some people use the Witness parts and have found them to work very well.

Shoot well......

 

[atblis]

Mag springs.

The XP mag springs probably cured your problem, and not the recoil spring. Didn't Angus have some things to say about stock springs?