CZ 9mms and Blazer (aluminum) Ammo: Problems?

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P. Plainsman

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I love my CZ-75B and P-01. Not only are they accurate and good-looking, with great ergonomics, but they run extremely reliably.

Except with CCI Blazer aluminum cased ammo. With that stuff I get about 1 "choke" every 100 rounds from the 75B; one every 40 or 50 rounds from the shorter-barreled P-01.

Both pistols are stone reliable shooting factory brass-cased ammo (including CCI "Blazer Brass").

I see that at least one other THR poster has had the same problem:

http://thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=3882882&postcount=12

CZs have a reputation for tight chambers. Maybe that's the explanation. My P-01 also didn't do well in gun school "failure drills" with plastic 9mm dummy rounds; it wouldn't feed 'em. I did all the live firing in the course with brass -cased ammo, and everything went smooth.

I'm tempted to say, "CZs are splendid pistols, but avoid aluminum cased ammo."

Who else has had similar experiences?
 
Can't say I share your experience .........Blazer aluminum is all I feed my CZ75B's...........

Here is my take ............ the AL casings have a thinner rim than most brass shells..........so any studder in grabbing the casing from the chamber will cause a miss feed. On all my CZ pistols ....the first thing I do is replace the extractor springs with new ones made by Wolff.

I think this replacement helps the weapon make a more positive extraction of the aluminum casing .......... because after replacing the springs all my jams went away.

You might want to try the above solution ....it can't hurt ...........and might just solve your problem so you can go back to buying the cheaper CCI version of bullets.

JF.
 
Interesting. I may do that.

I was thinking about replacing the springs on my 75B anyway, for "preventative maintenance," as it's closing in on the 3,500 round mark. When I'm replacing the recoil spring, maybe I'll get a Wolff extractor spring too.
 
I'm tempted to say, "CZs are splendid pistols, but avoid aluminum cased ammo."

Who else has had similar experiences?
Click to expand...
Not at all. At least 50-75% of the ammo through my CZ75B and my CZ40B has been CCI aluminum cased Blazer. The only jams my CZ75 has ever had in many thousands of rounds was once on S&B and once on Winchester White box (might have been Remington, was a very long time ago). My CZ40B has never jammed in the one thousand+ rounds through it.

My 1911s shoot a lot of CCI Blazer too. I'm a cheap bastage when it comes to range ammo. The only ammo I avoid is someone else's reloads and Wolf (though I never tried it).
 
Funny you should mention this. On my last outing with my 75D Compact PCR, I tried a factory magazine and 50 rounds of Blazer aluminum (both new to that gun) and had two failures to eject in 50 rounds. A new cartridge still fed into the chamber :confused:, making a mess when I tried a "tap-rack" drill, as the top round in the magazine, now with no stovepiped case to obstruct the slide, tried to butt up against the chambered round. It had never done this before, only having one failure to chamber a wide-mouth JHP, and that after it was very dirty. That magazine also rattles when an even (8, 10, 12, 14) number of rounds are loaded, while none of the other three (also factory, to which I added rubber base pads) do this. This definitely bears watching.
 
My CZ-85B also has problems with Blazer aluminum casings. The gun has no problems with other brands of ammo, but Blazer casings eject weakly and straight into my face!

- Sr.
 
I use Blazer aluminum in all my cZs and have not had a problem. The pistols are stock in all respects. The only problems I have had were with a batch of Brown Bear.
 
my P-01 has never had any problems with brass, but with blazer aluminum, it is a stovepipe machine.

i have shot about 200 rounds of blazer aluminum through it and had about a dozen stovepipes with the blazers.

i replaced the extractor spring with a wolff spring and still had the same aluminum stovepipe problems.

as i said, with brass, the gun has never had any issues, but that blazer aluminum is an embarrassment at the range.
 
CZ's, like a lot of pistols don't like Blazer. I do however use it in my wheel guns.
Click to expand...

I'm not anti-Blazer, especially for revolvers. I use a lot of the 158 gr .357 Mag Blazer round for practice with my SP101. The Blazer Gold Dot .44 Special load is about the best defense deal going in .44 Spl., if you limit the question to factory loads from the Big Four makers.
 
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Blazer aluminum is the only ammo I've ever had a problem with. My 75b is only a range shooter.....but I wont use aluminum in it......I haven't had a single problem with any of my pistols since using brass exclusively. Blazer aluminum is fine for the range if you want to practice clearing drills though.

Joker
 
DMK,


My guess is the light weight aluminum in comparison to the heavier brass the cz75 was made to eject effects extraction. I'm not that smart....but the aluminum seems to bounce around occasionally off the ejection port and stovepipe, the cases also are thrown in several directions rather than in a general area.

Blazer aluminum is a fine way to save a buck (and it works great in everything else I own). It just bugs me to have ammo that I know isn't 100% in every gun I have.....so now that I have a CZ again.....I don't have aluminum rounds in the house (not that I'd use it for SD anyway, I just cant stand the idea of one of my guns malfunctioning.

Joker
 
I have a similar problem, but with a Glock 26. I used Blazer Aluminum with no problems in my Taurus 24/7 but when I got my Glock, I'd get a Failure to Extract/Eject 1%-2% of the time, causing a double feed. Only with the aluminum stuff. Rims and grooves on the rounds looked fine. Reloading them in to the mags got positive results.

I don't sweat it. I only use the aluminum stuff at the range, especially those where I can't retrieve my brass.
 
Good observation with stronger extractor spring if shooting Al-cased Blazer. I have a P-01 with factory spring and it chokes once in a while with Blazer, but another custom CZ75 Retro with strong Wolff extractor spring feeds and extracts Blazer reliably. Both pistols never malfunction with brass factory ammo.
 
I get that in my CZ75B. Chokes on two or so aluminums per box. It used to be worse, but recently it's gotten better.
 
I shot my PCR some more today with some Independence ball, a conventional "generic" brass-cased FMJ load. Two hundred rounds, 100% perfect functioning, including the rattly magazine. :) My confidence is restored. I want some more CZs!

I theorize that the aluminum cases are too light to be thrown fully clear. This gun does not have especially strong ejection to start with; the cases only fly a couple of feet. It would be nice to have a gun that eats everything it is fed, but a problem with just one kind of ammo is forgivable.
 
Who else has had similar experiences?
Click to expand...
Lots of us - this used to be one of the most common complaints on the CZ forum, back when I hung out over there.

I largely cured my issues using Blazer by upgrading the extractor spring to a stronger Wolff unit.
 
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