CZ Shadow KB

Slavex

Slavex

Morning Star, The Lightbringer
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so, blew my backup gun up today. Didn't take any pictures as there really wasn't much to see. round 140 at practice, last round in the 2nd to last mag, fired out of battery as near as we can tell. Case ruptured at both the base and the mouth of the case. It was easily extracted. Mag spit out onto the ground, follower destroyed and mag spring torqued (never seen that before). Right grip panel popped off (aluminum grips). Extractor blown free, extractor broken as well as the pin and spring for it. Fibre Optic rod gone too.
Gun taken apart, cleaned of all the bits in the trigger area and sear cage/hammer area. New extractor and spring and pin installed at the range same goes for FO rod. Gun tested, shoots exactly the same, no lasting damage to anything other than my Oakley Radars. A nice chunk of something hit the lens just below my eye, had I not been wearing them I am pretty sure I'd be in the hospital right now. A little blood from one wound just above my mustache.
All in all an exciting day. Fired another 60 rounds after the boom and went home. Using calipers, die penetrant and guages checked the slide and barrel for out of spec, cracks, etc. Nothing. Gun is fine. very impressed.
As for why it fired out of battery? well the case in question was a nickle plated case, but just at the end of the chamber where the rifling starts, there was a nice copper ring that I removed. It was enough that a case wouldn't chamber properly, likely causing the OOB detonation. Will try and take pics later of the ring. I'm assuming my lack of cleaning the gun with any regularity may have resulted in the copped building up. I use plated bullets and I've heard of this sort of thing happening elsewhere.
 
Every time I read these stories it just solidifies how I feel about eye protection. Glad to hear you are OK and sounds like the gun is in pretty good condition all things considered...

I beat the crap out of my CZ because I know it can take it.
 
Slavex said:
As for why it fired out of battery? well the case in question was a nickle plated case, but just at the end of the chamber where the rifling starts, there was a nice copper ring that I removed. It was enough that a case wouldn't chamber properly, likely causing the OOB detonation. Will try and take pics later of the ring. I'm assuming my lack of cleaning the gun with any regularity may have resulted in the copped building up. I use plated bullets and I've heard of this sort of thing happening elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Glad you came away unscathed from that.

...and appreciate the explanation. Were they also your own reloads?
 
It was quite the bang. I went over expecting blood. The state of the case and extractor I was very surprised there wasn't any other damage. The copper ring was certainly different and really very hard to actually see in the chamber despite poking a flashlight in there.

CZ really seem to know how to build a gun. I was just glad we didn't have to make any repairs to your hands.
 
I'm not much of a CZ Shadow specialist, but doesn't it have a FP Safety (Or any other mean) to prevent it from firing out of battery? Is it a malfunction or something the pistol can actually do by design?
 
Rivalen said:
I'm not much of a CZ Shadow specialist, but doesn't it have a FP Safety (Or any other mean) to prevent it from firing out of battery? Is it a malfunction or something the pistol can actually do by design?
Click to expand...

The shadow lacks a firing pin block so it COULD POSSIBLY MAYBE set off a round if the gun were dropped in such a way as to cause the firing pin to jump forward.

Other than that it has a disconnector which is supposed to avoid it firing out of battery. But I'm thinking it depends on just how far out of battery. Apparently it isn't effective by enough that this copper buildup that prevented the gun going into battery was enough. I'm thinking that I want to try some "dry" testing with shims of stuff to hold it back from going into battery to see how much of an issue it can be.
 
interestingly enough with the copper ring in place I couldn't get the gun to lock up at the range, and the hammer wouldn't drop either. So it's possible the out of battery firing was a result of a mushed primer, and the copper ring is a result of that last round jumping the gap it wouldn't normally have to do if it was seated all the way into the chamber. One of those things I guess we'll never know.
To answer a couple questions, yes they are my own reloads. Yes I have a couple nice, hardly used case guages. I check my ammo every now and then, but seldom. I've processed over 300,000 rounds on this press and the rounds that came out today drop straight into the case guage with no issues.
 
glad to hear your ok. thats one of the main reasons why i only use quality eye protection, because u never know what can happen while your on the firing line.

this also shows people the quality of cz firearms. they can handle alote,
 
Glad to hear that you came away from it relatively unscathed and that the gun is fine too. Definitely a testament to the quality of a CZ.

edit to add.....I hope you weren't exposed to any lead during this incident.
 
Glad to hear your ok and make me feel even more confident about my shadow.

it's must be just that time of the year, last thursday a very experienced shooter (you know who you are old fart!) had a similar kaboom happen to his .45 1911. He was fine witha couple of cuts and needed a new bbl bushing, but otherwise everything was ok. We think it was casued by a ruptured case....

anyways glad your Ok!
 
All steel handguns tend to tolerate KBs better than alloy or polymer guns (duh!).

I experienced a KB (suspect it was a double charge) with my S&W 5906 last year. The slide partially cycled to the rear and the case was jammed in the chamber but aside from a cracked grip, the gun was fine. I few brisk blows with a hammer to a brass rod down the barrel and the case was ejected. Some super glue fixed the grips and the gun now shoots just as it did before.
 
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