CZ 52 Problems

[tkcomer]

I have a CZ 52 pistol in 7.62X25. Bought it about 12 years ago because it was so cheap. I also bought 3 thousand rounds of mil-surp ammo with it. This pistol will lock up at times. It looks like the slide is all the way forward, but it's not quite there. You can't pull the slide back when this happens. It takes a few hard raps with a plastic hammer to get it to release and eject the shell. I'm not keen on doing that with a loaded round in the chamber. I thought it might be the ammo I bought, but you can take the same bullet you've ejected, put it in the chamber, drop the slide, and you can jack that round out with out any problems. Over and over. I'm not sure where the problem is. I may take it out and it doesn't miss a beat. That's what happens most of the time. Then it might do it once or twice when I have it out. Any ideas of whats going on?

 

[Novus Collectus]

Look closely at your rollers and see if they are out of round. If they are out of round, then also check the tracks they run in for damage. This is the first thing that comes to mind because rollers going bad is just about all I really know about what goes wrong.

 

[sandy4570]

This sound like your ammo are oversized that why when your tab the slide back and eject the round it will chamber again without any problem. This happen to my oversized .357 reload too and only way I can solve this problem is to run the bullet to the bullet sizer. I am not awared of any company making 7.62 x 25 crimpin die . You might have to do it the hard way by remove the barrel of your CZ 52 and put the ammo in to the chamber ,lightly tap it in to the chamber and poke them out with rod , I am not sure if you can do this with 3K of ammo though .

 

[tkcomer]

I've looked at the rollers and they seem fine. But then again, I might not know what to look for. Out of that 3 thousand rounds, I probably only have about 700 left. Out of what I've shot, the gun has malfunctioned probably about 10 times. It never did it when I first got it. It's more of the last few hundred rounds that this cropped up. I really don't like tapping on the muzzle end of the slide to release it. In fact, I haven't shot it in over a year. I keep thinking it's an ammo problem. Not sure what kind of mil-surp I have. Made in 1954, brass case and has 3 crimp type dots around the bullet. I've never had an auto lock up like this before. Must have something to do with the roller lock. I'd like to try some different ammo, but you just don't walk into Wal-Marts and pick this stuff up.

 

[Novus Collectus]

Sellier & Bellot 7.62x25 is awesome and you may want to give that a try. Aim surplus probably has the best price on it right now. http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/copy_of_7_62x25.html

What is possible is that maybe the surplus ammo you are using varied within the batch and as sandy4570 said they may be oversized, or maybe the necks are out of round due to poor quality control?
Also, maybe this part of the batch has the wrong OAL and the reason it gets stuck is because the bullet is sticking out too far and getting jammed into the throat or rifling. If this is the case then it might explain why you are able to shoot the same round again because the crimp is loosened and the bullet is jammed back further down the throat of the cartridge easier when you reinsert it.

The last and final theory is that you have a ring of metal fouling built up in your chamber afer 2,300 rounds and this is what is making the bullet get stuck before completely seating. It is possible the reason it does not stick for every round is because the surplus ammo was made within a certain tolerance with certain rounds just a little smaller or larger than the next but within certain parameters.

By the way, I have no gunsmithing knowledge or experience and these are total guesses. Others here will know much more.

 

[Never No More]

There is a lot of bad surplus commie ammo out there for 7.62x25
I had to throw away almost 1500 rounds last year.


http://www.makarov.com/cz52/

give this guy a call, he knows everything about CZ-52s, I bought his firing pin and barrel upgrades for mine.

 

[tkcomer]

The more I listen to the gang, the more I wonder if the 3 dot crimp might be the problem. Case neck out of round causing the problem. That might explain the sporadic jams I have. I'm not sure about a ring of metal around the chamber. I'll have to look. I treat this stuff as corrosive and clean that gun pretty darn good when I get done with it.

 

[NC-Mike]

Go to Makarov.com


Common problem. Like another guy said, some people strip the gun and check the rounds in the barrel. There are going to be some over-sized rounds in most lots of surplus. I had it happen to me as well with the Romanian surplus.

Great pistol. Wish it had a better trigger.

 

[tkcomer]

Yeah, the trigger is pretty crappy. And the sights are kinda rough to use. Plus it is loud, but it's fun to shoot when the ammo was dirt cheap. I don't shoot it that much anymore. I bought a PA-63 and a bunch of ammo for it. That's a fun gun to shoot but the ammo is no longer cheap for that gun. Never had a problem with it. I guess the roller lock system on the CZ is what makes it jam so hard. Like I've said, I get extremely nervous tapping on that gun with a round in the chamber. My other autos are a Colt 45 and a Browning Hi-Power. Doesn't take much to clear a jam from them. And I have had to throw away bad mil-surp. Bought a bunch of Egyptian 9mm once. Half the cases already had cracks in them. I found that out after my first hang fire. That was a trip. Got to looking at the cases on the ground and a lot had cracked cases. That's when I noticed the unfired rounds were cracked. That buy was a bargain. Jeeze.

 

[NC-Mike]

You could still get 1200 rounds of Romanian for 120 dollars or so.

In today's world, that's still a hell of a bargain.