M2 Carbine
member
I posted this on another web site (GT) but I thought it was important enough to post it again.
Damn that was loud.....
....or why I don't like hammer drop safeties.
Yesterday in my gun shop I emptied and reloaded a CZ-52 that had been laying on my reloading bench for a month or so.
The gun had been a car gun and was loaded with reloads using a JHP Hornady XTP bullet. A good defense load.
For no special reason except to just check the gun, I removed the magazine and ejected the chambered round.
I looked the gun over then fully reloaded it.
Then I used the hammer drop safety to drop the hammer.
The gun fired.
Damn that was loud. My left ear drum is still sore.
The bad news.
1. The hammer drop "safety" failed. (I don't know why yet.)
2. There's a hole clean through my shop wall.
3. My left ear drum still hurts.
4 My trust in the CZ-52 is now low (I have two).
The good news.
1. There's a hole in ONLY the shop wall. There is a LOT of stuff, including 50 cal cans of ammo that the bullet could have hit but the bullet found a clear path to the bare wall.
2. The bullet did not hit me. I was sitting and while (of course) I didn't have the gun pointed at myself it's a scary thought what might have happened if that bullet hit my knee.
3. Coming out the outside wall the bullet missed the electric cable by a quarter inch. (That Hornady bullet made a respectable hole in the metal wall)
4. The barn is a couple yards behind the shop. I couldn't find the bullet hole in the barn wall (the barn is full of stuff that doesn't take kindly to fast moving bullets).
Finally I saw where the bullet blasted into the dirt just under the barn wall.
Since I mostly lower the hammer on all my guns manually, when I last loaded this gun I may not have used the HDS. It's possible that I never used the HDS on this gun. Well, I damn sure will never use it again.
I did a fast Goggle search and immediately found that the CZ-52 firing when the HDS is used isn't uncommon. Now I find that out.
So, if you have a C-52 watch for this problem.