Cz-52

[George Hill]

To celebrate my new job, I picked up a nice little surplus CZ-52 for only 149 bucks. Ammo was 6 bucks for a box of 50. So I loaded up on ammo too.

The gun is just awesome. I love it. I've not yet replaced the firing pin, so if I dryfire it, it will break. But regardless, its still a good shooter. Accurate and reliable with no failures to feed, chamber, extract or eject. I did have a few failures to fire, but considering the depth of the firing pin mark - I can say those are ammo related. The ammo is total crap. Average muzzle blast and flash is the size of a pumpkin, but sometimes it will be much smaller or even just barely a "pop". But when the ammo is consistant, the groups are too. 50 cent piece sized at 15 yards. Not as accurate as I would like, but not bad for a $149 gun. I suspect with better ammo, the accuracy will improve.

After about 400 rounds, the trigger as smoothed out a lot and now actually feels good. At least compared to what it was. I am told with an aftermarket firing pin, the trigger will improve a lot more. Cool. If it will reduce the trigger slap, that would be great.

The sights are utilitarian mil-spec, so they are serviceable, but not easy to use. These will get swapped. The finish is just fine, but I want to refinish it. Smooth it out, polish it up, and then blue it. Maybe next weekend I'll tackle that... eventually I'll get it coated with Roguard or an NP3 type finish in a nice glossy black.

This is one of the neatest guns I've ever had. Veliocity range for this caliber is from 1,300FPS to over 2,000FPS. Wow. Average for the native load is what? 1,600 FPS? Good enough! I remain a .45 fan, but a pistol that can do what the FN Five-seveN does for this little cash - totally fun. Everyone that has fired it has had a big grin.

Gun = $149.
Ammo = $6.
New firing pin = $20.
Trying to hide that maniacal grin from your wife =
Priceless.

I'll post a full report on Mad Ogre and repost that here after I get my DSL back up and running and do some more shooting with it with better ammo. Maybe some penetration tests on some things like cars and propane tanks etc...

Did I say this was a fun gun?

 

[JackDRipper]

Did you get it at Van Wagonens? Did they only have 2 in stock? Did it come with 1 or 2 magazines. I looked at them a while back and thought they were kinda scruffy, maybe they were better than I remembered. Was that new generation ammo in a red box you used? I have heard it has hard primers. Sounds like fun!
JR

 

[George Hill]

Yup... on all counts.
Even the scruffy.
Scruffy doesn't bother me with this 50 year old warhorse. I'll get the nice smoother wood grips and after I refinish it, it will look just great.
Best 149 i've ever spent on a pistol.
Er... the only 149 I've ever spent on a pistol... but what a great buy! And Yes, came with 2 mags. Both good ones. Flawless functioning.

 

[Mal H]

Good on ya, George. Very nice find, I know you've been eyeing one for a while.

Is it 7.62X25 or 9mm? I suspect it's the former with the velocities you've quoted (and the price of the ammo).

Have fun!

 

[JackDRipper]

Van Wags had some Bulgarian Makarovs for $129 which is nice for the money.
Just read an article in the Sept/Oct American Handgunner magazine about shooting the .223 Timbs round in the CZ52. Sounds interesting, anyone shot it in their 52? Thanks, JR
www.qual-cart.com/223 Timbs.htm

 

[Yodar]

CZ 52 reloading

You can cast yer own using Lee's Tokarev 90 gr mould and use 6 gr. mas o menos of Power Pistol to duplicate the loudenboomer mit spitzensparken CZ52 surplus ammo...mine clock at 1252 fps using a larger bullet cast with Lyman 576311 (iirc) .30 carbine spitzer 113 gr mould

FUN!
Yodar in O'do

 

[Gewehr98]

Or you can go balls out...

And load those 95gr Hornady XTP's to 1600fps with a healthy load of AA#5, with Starline or S&B brass. (I used to make my own 7.62x25 brass from .223 Remington, which was no fun at all)


George, do me a favor, and with an empty-chambered CZ-52, close the slide, then put a pencil down the barrel eraser-first, with the muzzle up, so that the eraser rests on the boltface of the slide near the firing pin hole. Cock the pistol, then use the decocker function while watching the pencil. If it doesn't move while the hammer falls, you're all set. If it does move, remind yourself not to use the decocker on a loaded chamber. There was an early recall on the CZ-52 when they were first imported here, and the guns that were refitted with the new lockwork have a "Z" stamped on or near the triggerguard. Many guns never made the recall, and will fail the pencil test. (No, not THAT pencil test!)

 

[Navy joe]

Considering that Hogue wants 60-90 bucks for their wood grips, the Czech Walnut ones that CDNN is selling for 19 bucks are a no brainer. I got a pair and they are pretty. The pet reload I want is a 40gr Win CXP .223HP in a sabot at about 2100 fps. I will get it too.

If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy...

Home trigger job so far. I cut 2 coils from the mainspring, cleaned up the edges on the hammer strut, over-stretched the trigger return spring a little and cut a few coils from the firing pin block spring, as well as polishing up the pin block plunger. Everything is still 100% functional, trigger pull about 1/2 what it was, much more improvement possible. Need a longer yet lighter gauge spring for the pin block, that seems to put most of the weight into the pull.

S&B ammo, can't beat it.

 

[Freightman]

CZ52 reloads

I haven't shot any of the surplus ammo for about three years as I have been using my reloads. I use 95g Hornady XTP JHP with 7.4g Unique very accurate and perfect mushrooms every time.
My CZ is perfect and I got some walnut gripps it improved the looks greatly. The finish on mine is 95%+. This is the 5th one I have had also the best.

 

[Eric Larsen]

Goerge..excellent choice for a fun gun...IMO, one of the funnest.
I can vouch for the decocker being an unknown second trigger. Thank god I was pointing down range....just a habit. Now I know why its a good habit. The firing pins wont ALWAYS break..they just used a bad mix of steel and they get brittle over time..50 years qualifies as "over time". The gun I shoot mostly is my old mans 52..its very accurate with S&B...its not that hot but fun enough.
Take it to The Shooting Range and watch for reactions from other shooters....gotta love it.
Congratulations....Makarov.com has EVERYTHING you will ever need for the 52 and then some...
Shoot well

 

[Tropical Z]

Good job George!
They are such a great gun.

 

[George Hill]

I'm aware of the decocker situation... Just don't use it. A 50 year old gun like that... I'm not even carrying it - yet.
Makarov.com is the best source for parts I've found.
After playing with it, the gun feels comfortable now. I'm just getting used to it.
Wiffy doesnt even want to touch it. She said "It feels like THE ENEMY." Gives her the chills. This coming from a woman who LOVES my other guns. Interesting.

 

[Justin]

George-
In addition to picking up a new firing pin, it's also a good idea to pick up a new 18.5 lb. Wolfe recoil spring. They sell them on Makarov.com, too.

You need the new spring if you plan on shooting any of the hot stuff through the gun. Otherwise it'll beat the crud out of the left side of the barrel/chamber/roller lock mechanism.
What happens then is that the little roller won't stay in it's place when you disassemble the gun.
Which takes reassembly of the gun and raises it to a whole new level of frustration.

And don't use the magazines to pull the barrel assembly out. It'll just end up bending the magazine floor plates. Use an old flathead screwdriver, or if you're really slick, build a tool that is the shape of a magazine, but is a whole lot stronger.
(And then build another one and send it to me! )

But most of all, don't forget to have fun with your new blaster!

 

[Spectre]

It feels like the enemy.

That is interesting. Hm...

 

[KITT]

My friend came to visit me and the first time I fired his CZ 52 I was hooked. The next gunshow I bought the seller's display model which looked like new for $100. It is really a "BLAST" to shoot.

 

[Coronach]

It feels like the enemy.

Precisely the reason I have no desire to own an AK-series rifle. Its silly, I will freely admit. But grew up reading things like The Lord of the Rings and other works of fantasy where the weapons had spirits like their masters. Would a sindarin warrior bear the cruel, curved blade of an orc? I think not. And so the AK is the weapon of choice of the communists. And the Taliban. Don't want one, sorry.

Huh. Doesn't seem to have bothered me in the pistol category, however. I have a CZ-52 and I love it. Like I said, silly.

Query: how does the 9x25 compare to .357 Sig in the penetration and fps departments?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[444]

Sounds good George. I have two of them. One of them even had the spare 9mm Luger barrel. I bought pretty much everything makarov.com sells and put it on one of them. Although the walnut grips they sell were really bad. I returned them and got the Hogues. Now that I read the article in American Handgunner, I would like to get a set of aftermarket sights. I am thinking adjustable would be the only way to go. I am not interested in rounded "carry" sights.
For reloading, check out the Accurate Powder manual. They have some real serious stuff in there. As for the so called ".223 Timbs", people have been loading .224 saboted bullets in the 7.62x25 case for years. I discussed the topic with a guy on this board several years ago and he hooked me right up. I haven't spent a lot of time loading this caliber because my inital attempts have been bad. All kinds of feeding problems. I need to dig out the CZ52 and spend some more time perfecting the process.