First Cleaning for New CZ-52?

[Drakejake]

Bravo to CDNN for speed of delivery. They got my C&R on Monday and the postman brought me the CZ-52 today. The grips are in lousy shape and will be replaced. The gun metal has some superficial marks on it but is in decent shape, I think.

I have removed the slide and the barrel and the firing pin. Obviously the gun needs to be cleaned after sitting for 50 years. There is no grease, but a rusty colored sticky oil in places. This cannot be good for the functioning of the gun. I intend to try cleaning with bore cleaner and then oiling. Is this the best thing to do? I will use a tooth-pick and other devices to clean the crucial firing pin well.

Thanks,

Drakejake

 

[CZ52GUY]

Your approach sounds fine. Don't go too heavy on the oil.

If you don't have any snap caps, find some.

Enjoy!

CZ52'

 

[Tropical Z]

I thought the only ones CDNN had were in "new" condition.Thats what their ads say.Lousy grips are not new.
BTW,take the grips off and soak the whole thing in mineral spirits for at least 24 hours.Make sure the barrel and slide are obviously apart.This will dissolve the gunk in tight places.

 

[hardheart]

I used running hot water, sprayed some WD40 in the hard to reach spots, then more hot water. Cleaned up real nice. Still waiting on my snap caps, new firing pin, and 16.5 recoil spring.

 

[Drakejake]

My cleaning efforts must have been adequate because I fired a number of rounds through the CZ today with no problems.

Drakejake

 

[Barry in IN]

Kinda neat, isn't it?
How about a range report?
I got one about a year ago. I still don't know what for, but it's fun!

 

[Drakejake]

I had fired a friend's CZ-52 (and Tokarev) several times in MS. I had no great craving for one, but the C&R status and low price appealed. I just bought one billed as unissued from CDNN for about $120 plus $10 shipping. It came with a new holster, cleaning tool, and lanyard. I was surprised at how crummy the grips looked and plan to replace them. The gun itself was light gray with a number of handling marks but no real scratches. As I reported, I disassembled it and cleaned it thoroughly. It wasn't greased up but had some sticky, rust colored stuff here and there. I really had to scrape it off because scrubbing with bore cleaner didn't work very well. I saw no rust anywhere on this 50 year old gun.

I fired several mags of S&B and Winchester at the range today. No jams and the recoil wasn't bad at all. But, as down in MS, I was rather inaccurate, pulling shots to the left and a bit down. The trigger has a little creep or take-up and isn't the lightest in the world. But it is OK for this kind of gun. The other people on the range didn't seem shocked by noise or fire-balls ( I didn't see any). So this is an interesting and fun handgun. The ammo and the mags seem to be a little scarce right now. I found five boxes of ammo locally at $10.25 each, but on the Net you can buy S&B at about $8 per box plus shipping.

I also shot my new Luger, but I will comment on that in a separate message.

Drakejake

 

[hardheart]

mine is an 'excellent condition' from AIM. Came with the old holster, lanyard, cleaning tool, and 2 mags for $109.95. Just changed the firing pin to a competition model from makarov.com, as well as a 16.5# Wolff recoil spring, which I got after I posted earlier The trigger feels ok, but I changed the pin before trying the snap caps, so I don't know how bad it was before. When I fire the one and only box of Winchester that was at the shop, I may put the old pin and spring back in to compare. I don't mind th grips, yet.

 

[WonderNine]

There's a guy on Ebay selling original pristine CZ-52 grips for about $8. Both of the grips on my unissued CZ-52's from AIM were scratched up, but the guns were new. I am very happy with the ones from this seller.