Z, M 70 follow up.

[velocette]

I know, I'm trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. Not possible. The M70 will never be a Sig or a 1911. It is a strong, durable pistol, built to stand up to heavy abuse. Beautiful and well crafted, not so much.
But it can be significantly improved.
1, The trigger pull, Fairly clean and crisp but HEAVY, like VERY HEAVY.
Its a 2 stage, the reset spring and the sear spring are both flat steel springs. Reset difficult to remove & the sear spring essentially impossible to remove. So on both, I used a small Dremel cutoff wheel to
cut a slot down the center of both. Leaving the top & bottom alone. This reduced the strength of the springs. Trigger pull dropped from over 10 lbs to about 8. (Still off scale on my trigger pull guage)
disassembled the hammer / sear, assembly, cleaned & polished all moving parts including the drilling where the mainspring resides. Changed NO angles or engagement surfaces. Trigger pull down to about 7 lbs but nice and crisp with clean re-set.
The barrel was short chambered as I received the pistol. Standard 71 grain ball ammo would not enter the chamber all the way & then jammed up the slide as the bullet stuck on the rifling.
Fired .32 acp cases would chamber, so the problem was the leade was too short. Found me a reamer of the proper taper & diameter & cleaned up the rifling just ahead of the chamber. Cut a little, test, cut a little, test, till the rounds chambered properly, then polished the area.
Now I have a pistol that has an acceptable trigger, will chamber all the ammo I have on hand.
Finally, I must address the pistols love of nose diving rounds out of the magazine into the feed ramp, thus jamming the pistol.
Any ideas or suggestions out there?

 

[AK103K]

Have you replaced the mag springs?

My CZ70 came with one mag, and the two I got later were both used as well, and all would only function with three or for rounds in the mag. At the time, there were all sorts of fixes, but what fixed mine, was new mag springs.

One of the "fixes", which was somewhat successful, was to file a half moon shaped cut on the front of the mag at the top, so the rounds could clear easier. It helped on the one mag I tried it with, but the springs were the ticket.

This is the mod.....

 

[Antihero]

Interesting, I've considered getting one after times

 

[velocette]

AK103K,
Sadly my mags all are low cut where yours appear to be high even with your modification.
Is your pistol a .380 or a .32?

 

[AK103K]

It was a 32. Dont have it anymore. Had it and a CZ50 at one point. Well made guns, and shoot well when they run. DA trigger on both was a joke, SA was actually very nice.

Just to clarify, you are talking about the CZ 70, right? Not the Zastava M70.

This is what Im refering to......

 

[velocette]

Zastava M 70

 

[AK103K]

Theres the difference.

These two get confused a good bit, especially if they arent spelled out completely.

Id still give the mag springs a try though.

 

[velocette]

Believe it or not, the pistol, magazines and the included holster were all new. New like never fired. It appears that it was purchased by some police or military organization, & stored, then
sold off as surplus. Enormous amounts of Cosmoline but no marks, no holster wear, no slide wear and the action is NOT smooth. It is now smoothing out as it has been shot about 150 rds.
Holster is absolutely new, no creases, or any marks from any pistol or magazine ever being in it.
Luck of the draw I guess. I'm thinking a lot of my problems are just a new pistol breaking in. (I hope)