Apple a Day
Member
Man, am I aggravated.
I bought a refurbished CZ-52 recently (refinished with bluing rather than the old 'green' finish) for no other reason that I couldn't find one in the original finish in good shape. I bought it as a fun gun and to add to my little group of eastern european military pistols/oddities.
Appearance:The CZ-52 with a new finish is like putting a pig in a dress. It isn't quite as ugly as it used to be but, well, it's still a pig. But some people like pigs and I happen to like surplus eastern european pistols, so I got it. The finish is pretty good but there are still lots of tool marks and such to give the gun character.
Comfort: easy as pie. I was expecting a lot more recoil and noise after hearing stories or the powerful 7.62x25mm cartridge. It was nice and comfortable, though... a lot easier on my hands and head than a .357 magnum. I have big hands so gripping wasn't an issue. The action smoothes the recoil and it tended to push back rather than flip up. It was fun to shoot. Lots of flash!
Accuracy: I set out a target at 25 feet and banged off some rounds just to get a feel for the range and point of aim versus point of impact. POI was a few inches below POA but horizontally it was dead center. Same thing at 50 feet. It only took an extra magazine to adjust and start putting them all in the black (3 inch diameter target) at 25 feet using both hands in a Weaver stance. At 50" they were all in the target area (8" target) but more like 5" or 6" spread, still mostly vertical. I'm not a great shot by any means and wasn't benchresting or taking particular care with regards to technique. I was aiming more to have fun and break the gun in.
It's not what I would call super accurate but worthy of a fun gun.
Function: Here's where it broke my heart. I had several light hammer strikes going through ~120 rounds. I brought 210 with me but didn't get all the way through and I'll expain why in a minute. As for the light strikes, I'm not sure if I had hard primers or if I have a weak hammer spring. The cartridge always fired on the second pull... always. The ammo I was using was surplus Russian (Ithink) which came in packs of 70, brass cased. That was survivable for a fun gun.
Then, disaster struck- somehow the extractor pin worked its way out and the extractor went walkabout. I found the extractor pin on the ground but the extractor and spring were nowhere to be found. The pin's bluing is marred on one end but intact on the tip, so I don't believe it sheared off, just worked out. I cleaned the gun pretty well before I took it to the range but didn't remove the extractor assembly. It may be that the preservative oil lubed it enough for the pin to escape. I'm just irritated about the whole thing.
Oh, well. Back into the locker it goes until I come up with some new parts and decide to fix it.
I bought a refurbished CZ-52 recently (refinished with bluing rather than the old 'green' finish) for no other reason that I couldn't find one in the original finish in good shape. I bought it as a fun gun and to add to my little group of eastern european military pistols/oddities.
Appearance:The CZ-52 with a new finish is like putting a pig in a dress. It isn't quite as ugly as it used to be but, well, it's still a pig. But some people like pigs and I happen to like surplus eastern european pistols, so I got it. The finish is pretty good but there are still lots of tool marks and such to give the gun character.
Comfort: easy as pie. I was expecting a lot more recoil and noise after hearing stories or the powerful 7.62x25mm cartridge. It was nice and comfortable, though... a lot easier on my hands and head than a .357 magnum. I have big hands so gripping wasn't an issue. The action smoothes the recoil and it tended to push back rather than flip up. It was fun to shoot. Lots of flash!
Accuracy: I set out a target at 25 feet and banged off some rounds just to get a feel for the range and point of aim versus point of impact. POI was a few inches below POA but horizontally it was dead center. Same thing at 50 feet. It only took an extra magazine to adjust and start putting them all in the black (3 inch diameter target) at 25 feet using both hands in a Weaver stance. At 50" they were all in the target area (8" target) but more like 5" or 6" spread, still mostly vertical. I'm not a great shot by any means and wasn't benchresting or taking particular care with regards to technique. I was aiming more to have fun and break the gun in.
It's not what I would call super accurate but worthy of a fun gun.
Function: Here's where it broke my heart. I had several light hammer strikes going through ~120 rounds. I brought 210 with me but didn't get all the way through and I'll expain why in a minute. As for the light strikes, I'm not sure if I had hard primers or if I have a weak hammer spring. The cartridge always fired on the second pull... always. The ammo I was using was surplus Russian (Ithink) which came in packs of 70, brass cased. That was survivable for a fun gun.
Then, disaster struck- somehow the extractor pin worked its way out and the extractor went walkabout. I found the extractor pin on the ground but the extractor and spring were nowhere to be found. The pin's bluing is marred on one end but intact on the tip, so I don't believe it sheared off, just worked out. I cleaned the gun pretty well before I took it to the range but didn't remove the extractor assembly. It may be that the preservative oil lubed it enough for the pin to escape. I'm just irritated about the whole thing.
Oh, well. Back into the locker it goes until I come up with some new parts and decide to fix it.