So I had an ND...

[Owen]

I am so embarrassed!

I was curious to see if 9mm would feed into my CZ-52 from the magazines. I put 1 round into the magazine and fed it into the chamber...low and behold, it slid right in, but the slide did not go into battery. I realized that the I now had a Single Action pistol with the wrong ammunition chambered, so I pushed the safety up to decock the pistol. The hammer fell, and the pistol discharged. Luckily, the gun was pointed towards the floor of my basement, so the bullet (and the front of the slide!!) passed through the glass on the sliding door about an inch off the ground, and struck the ground outside. The report was actually quite quiet, my ears weren't even ringing. The casing did not blow and looks like it could be reloaded. The bullet jacket was lying on the ground outside, no sign of the lead core. Other than the front of the slide being blown off (looks like a casting, judging by the break) the gun seems undamaged. I am going to try to magnaflux the barrel at work tomorrow.

The real stupid part, is that I have dummies, but I was too lazy to go get them.

Pictures forthcoming, as soon as I figure out how to post them.

Owen

 

[Kharn]

Did you previously test the decocker to see if it functioned properly, or was this the first time you used it with live ammo in the chamber?

Kharn

 

[cool45auto]

I'll second that !

Glad you're okay, can't wait to see the pics.

 

[longtom4570]

Glad you are all right,for me tho this is another reason not to own a pistol with a decocker.

 

[Black Majik]

wow... glad to hear no one was hurt!

 

[Owen]

Yes, I have previously tested the decocker. In addition the pistol was out of battery.

 

[Kharn]

What a loss.

So if the pistol is out of battery, the decocker will fire the pistol?

I might not shoot my CZ52 very often due to limited ammo supplies (I prefer to spend my limited budget on .45acp or .223), but I'll take it out of the safe pretty often just to look at and fondle.

Kharn

 

[straightShot]

Glad you are all right,for me tho this is another reason not to own a pistol with a decocker.

Decockers are usually fine since they have blocking mechanisms in place. In the case of the CZ-52, however, it is not wise to use the decocker whatsoever since using it may cause a discharge. It does not have such provisions in place.

 

[Owen]

Kharn, apparently, that is the case

 

[George Hill]

52's should be handled as if there was no decocker lever.
I am pleased that you are unhurt.

You'll never forget this for the rest of your life.

 

[GySgt]

Are you LUCKY, or what?

Two words...........Common Sense.............

I once had an ND........so I can relate.

I was lucky too

Semper Fi, GySgt

 

[fiVe]

I'm so glad no one was hurt.

I'm puzzled as to how your ND occurred. I thought the de-cocker on the CZ52 caused the hammer to drop, while blocking out hammer contact with the firing pin. If the pistol was out of battery, how could this happen (since the hammer could not fall)?


R/fiVe

 

[Owen]

that is my question exactly fiVe.

owen

 

[clubsoda22]

CZ-52 decockers are known for failing. Looks like you found out the hard way.

At least you didn't blow up an expensive gun.

 

[Majic]

Why decock the hammer when you have to rack the slide to remove cartridge?

For future reference, field strip the pistol and just drop the cartridge in the barrel and observe if it chambers or not. Never load a functioning firearm with the wrong ammunition.

 

[Owen]

Majic, I wanted to measure how far out of battery the slide was.

 

[Owen]

Is the pic working? Half the time it comes up as a red x, and the other half of the time, it comes up as the pic.

owen

 

[AJ Dual]

Riding the hammer down on the CZ52 is a good idea anyway. The firing pin is notoriously brittle and the tip will shoot off if it hits the bolt face without a primer or snap-cap cushioning the blow.

 

[RustyHammer]

Glad to hear all is well ... although that is very scary!

Dummy rounds aren't just for dummies ... so use them next time ... as I know you will.

Thanks for sharing, it reminds the rest of us pay attention to what we're doing too. (It's much better to read about it here than in the newspaper.)

/Rusty

 

[DMK]

So if the pistol is out of battery, the decocker will fire the pistol?

Many CZ-52s have unreliable decockers. This was a known issue even while they were in service. A lot of them were repaired with upgraded parts when they were re-arsenaled.

If you own a CZ-52 you should test it with a pencil.

1) check to see that the pistol is unloaded

2) point the pistol up and drop a pencil down the barrel

3) cock the hammer and activate the decocker.

The pencil should not move! If it jumps then the decocker is faulty and should not be used. I have two CZ-52s, one of them fails this test. Many do.

IMO, the CZ-52 decocker should not be trusted at all. These are old guns with a known problem. Perhaps it will work today and fail tommorrow. I don't see it's usefullness anyway.


Owen, I'm glad to hear that nobody was hurt. You had an honest to God mechanical failure, and at least had the sense to be pointing the gun in a safe direction.

 

[Billmanweh]

if you decocked your pistol using the decocker and it fired while being pointed in a safe direction, I'm not sure that's negligent. an accident for sure, but I'm not seeing negligence.

 

[jsalcedo]

Tested my decocker and it works

Thanks for the pencil trick

 

[Chipperman]

Well, there was a mechanical failure, but he was intentionally loading the wrong cartridge in.

I guess this does not fit the typical scenario of an ND, but owen is owning up to it anyway.
Thanks for the post.

Do CZ-50 's have this problem also?

 

[JohnKSa]

The CZ-52 pistols have a firing pin safety. The decocker simply drops the hammer as normal but doesn't disable the firing pin safety the way a trigger pull would.

BUT, there is a company selling aftermarket replacement firing pins that disable the firing pin safety. That makes the decocker a second trigger. This also allows the gun to fire out of battery if the firing pin is struck since the firing pin safety is one of the interlocks to prevent out of battery discharge.

ALSO, some of the guns had a defect in the decocker that can wear and allow the gun to fire.

This ND is purely an oddity of the CZ-52 and has virtually nothing to do with decockers on modern pistols. Modern decockers prevent the hammer from contacting the firing pin with the firing pin safety as a backup.

 

[twoblink]

Another reason why I hate DA/SA external hammer decocker guns..

Glad you are ok, waiting for pics..