Any CZ-52 fans?

[Faulkner]

I bought a CZ-52 a few years ago when they could be had for under a hundred bucks, but I've only shot it a couple of times. I took mine to the local indoor range today and literally had a blast. Very accurate and no feed problems using surplus Russian fodder, but wow, what a muzzle blast. The recoil is rather mild, though, certainly less than my .40 Glock.

The guys using the lanes on either side of me said they figured I was shooting a full load .357 or .44 magnum from the sound of it, until they took a look. The bottle necked 7.62x25 round is the same round the Russians used in their submachine guns. The .30 caliber bullet is small, but very fast out of the pistol. I passed it around and half a dozen folks at the range wanted to give a try as none had ever seen one. I didn't notice the muzzle flash while I was shooting it, but standing off the side it looked impressive.

Anyone else have any love for these eastern block service semi-auto's?

 

[pumpedTSI]

I've had one for years.....very powerful round......roller block MG action...

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I had one and loved it. The Chechs made them super strong, they are safe to shoot with any 7.62x25 ammo ever made! I shot several hundred rounds of chineese ammo in mine. My best friends son wanted it more than I did. Ivan

 

[2152hq]

I had one a few years back. Quite a noisy pistol to shoot w/ lots of muzzle flash.
Mine functioned OK,,some of the ammo I had was a problem in that it took occasional double strikes to make it fire. Not the pistols fault though.

Don't dry fire w/the original issue firing pin in place. They break quite easily doing that. I believe they are an investment casting or in any case quite brittle. 'Modern' replacements are available,,or at least they were when I had mine but I never had a problem.

There were some blow-ups of these using a certain Bulgarian surplus ammo. ID'd by headstamp, I can't recall what it was now. But a search should find it.
Usually a few pictures of destroyed CZ52's to go along with it. In the very least it was said that the ammo damaged the rollers and seats in the '52.
Others said it was nonsense, and there was no problem at all.
It was a while ago and that ammo may be gone by now but it may be worth checking.
Google 'CZ52 blowup Bulgarian ammo' or something close to that will probably get you the headstamp info and all the back and forth opinions.

Easy enough to stay away from one old lot of ammo I guess.

The Military leather holsters are kind of nice. They fit Star Model A & B and the Walther P38/P1 nicely. Probably other too. Don't know what they go for now. They used to be $12.00 for the holster w/a magazine.
I still have the holster and my P1 fills it now. Mag fits perfectly too.

I'd buy another if I could still pull the slide back on them.

 

[Marshwheeling]

The CZ 52 was one of my first guns, along with a Vz.50. It is fun to shoot, pretty accurate, with a fierce round. I have only put a few hundred rounds through. Never noticed the muzzle flash, or to be more precise, I didn't know enough when I first got it to think it extraordinary. I'll have to look for it now.

I like it, but it would be hard to say I love it; it's much too homely. What it did do, along with the 50, is make me a fan of the CZ marque. I am on the lookout for a Vz. 82 at a good price, and the CZ75 heads my list of desiderata. I would buy another 52 as well, as I would like to have one with a 9mm barrel.

 

[rwsmith]

Apparently

Apparently word got around about CZ and they went from being a steal to a really hot item.

 

[k22fan]

The CZ 52’s supper strong lock is a mixed blessing. Unlike most recoil operated pistols, when fired with an extreme over load the CZ 52’s rollers do hold the slide shut. That’s why they’ll blow to pieces. The pressure is going to get out some how. In ordinary pistols the brass blows out over the feed ramp and dumps the pressure out through the magazine well along with the magazine. I’ve seen Glocks and 1911s release the pressure from double charges off Dillion presses that way.

The damage to them was nothing like the CZ 52 I saw blow up. It was one the importer or distributor had installed a 9 MM barrel in. The owner was new to reloading and must have piled up about ever thing you can do wrong that raises pressure. The top and one side of the slide were found out on the lawn. The opposite side of the slide went through half inch square rabbit hutch type wire fencing that separated firing positions and badly gouged the head of the shooter in the next position. The top and sides of the barrel were peeled back like a banana. The brass case was found, and it was the damnedest thing you ever saw. Its head was swollen so big a large primer laid in the primer pocket had room to slide side to side. More incredibly, the case wall had split full length and peeled away from the case head until it was only attached for about 20 % of the head’s circumference.

There was a police & ambulance response followed by a lot of speculation about the cause.

The incident occurred back when CZ 52s with their original barrel were about $100 and the 9 MM up grade was less than $50 more. I wondered if the barrel steel wasn’t too soft. The blow up did nothing to encourage me to buy one in 9 MM and I avoid hand guns that fire bottle neck cartridges because bottle neck cartridges are slower to reload. However, several other shooters at the range bought one or more CZ 52s and had great fun reloading for them and shooting them.

I didn’t write this to talk anyone out of buying a CZ 52, I just thought you’d find it interesting.