Troubleshooting CZ RAMI FT Feed

[dpop24]

I love this RAMI, but it has started to exhibit failures to feed recently. As my primary CCW, this is not acceptable.

• The first 500 rounds were flawless - all PMC 115 FMJ
• The first failure came at round 548, but I was using Miwall 147 FMJ reloads so I chalked it up to the ammo
• I followed that failure the same day with 50 flawless rounds of Federal HST 147 JHP, in my mind providing more evidence of attributing the failure to the Miwall ammo
• The next time out, I had 2 failures in 100 rounds with Miwall ammo again. At this point, I have essentially ruled the ammo as the culprit
• Then, just yesterday in 50 rounds of Miwall, I had another failure and a failure with PMC factory ammo and now I'm very concerned about the reliability of this gun. That's 5 failures in the last 300 rounds!

I have pulled the two offending magazines from yesterday's failures and will mark them for easier analysis - I'm hoping it's a magazine issue and not the gun itself. My guns are always cleaned after shooting, so it's not a dirty gun issue.

I recently switched to Frog Lube, but that is not causing any reliability issues in any of my other guns.

Does anyone have any other advice on what to keep track of while I'm trying to determine the cause? I will stick to factory ammo for now and hopefully it's just these two magazines.....

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[paul0660]

Describe the feed malfunction, there are more than one.

[dpop24]

Describe the feed malfunction, there are more than one.

They have all been the same - the round feeds partially into the barrel and gets hung up causing the slide to come up just short of returning to full forward position (maybe about 1/4 inch). Once I release the magazine, the round feeds the rest of the way and I can re-insert the mag and fire.

This has occurred from different places in the mag. I didn't keep track of every single failure, but I did track that 2 of them occurred from the second round in the mag and another was the second to last round in the mag. The other 2 failures were somewhere in the middle too, never the first or last round so far.

[paul0660]

just short

So, failure to go into battery. Probably not a mag issue. I would suggest polishing (REALLY cleaning) the ramp and throat and considering replacing the recoil spring. I love CZ's and have had no problem with my Rami (or others) buy you are right this is unsatisfactory in a carry gun.

[daybreak]

I'll guess it's the recoil spring. Replace it or maybe get one with that's 1-2 lbs heavier.

[dpop24]

So, failure to go into battery. Probably not a mag issue. I would suggest polishing (REALLY cleaning) the ramp and throat and considering replacing the recoil spring. I love CZ's and have had no problem with my Rami (or others) buy you are right this is unsatisfactory in a carry gun.

Ok, thanks. I will try both of those and get it back out to the range. I love this gun and want it to be reliable so I can carry it.

Seems odd that the recoil spring would give up the ghost after so few rounds. I bought this gun brand new and the troubles started on round number 548.

[JeremyS]

...just short of returning to full forward position (maybe about 1/4 inch). Once I release the magazine, the round feeds the rest of the way...

Sounds like the pressure of the next round pushing up on the bottom of the slide is slowing the slide down enough that it isn't going all the way into battery. Since you just switched lubes, I'd make sure that everything is running smooth and the slide rails and other parts aren't over lubed to the point where it's slowing things down or under lubed to where there's excessive friction. Also, as other people suggested, maybe the recoil spring isn't strong enough to overcome that friction and push the slide shut with enough authority. Or... your mag springs are too stiff and they're pushing the rounds into the bottom of the slide too hard. Or... the lube on the part of the slide that slides along the top of the rounds in the magazine isn't sufficient and there's sticking going on between the slide and the round in the mag. Or... there's crud or a burr or something in the chamber that is preventing the case from going all the way forward to where it headspaces. Get a light and look in the chamber and make sure it's spotless all the way to the edge that the case pushes up against.

...Or... some combination of all of these things. It's feeding, it's just not going all the way into battery. Something is causing the slide to slow down and lose power too soon.



OR!!!!.... you're riding the slide with your thumb and you're slowing it down. This is very common! Especially with a thumbs forward/up grip. If your thumb is rubbing on the slide it can very easily cause this. Since I'm such a CZ fanboi, I'm going to blame it on you and not the gun so this reason is my best guess

Edit: or limp wristing, which can prevent the slide from cycling all of the way back and, therefore, from having enough spring power to go all the way into battery afterwards.

[Czsp-01-9mm]

^^always blaming the shooter haha,

[Euphoria526]

Is everything stock on it?!?
They are designed for the +p loads of the czhek police so the sprin might be too strong??
Just throwing it out there. Lol
Or
What Jeremy said about riding the slide or possible lube issue. Lol

[dpop24]

I'm going to order new recoil springs since that's a very easy, cheap test. I'll also keep a good eye on my technique to try and rule out the shooter as much as possible. I've never been plagued by limp wristed shooting problems, but the example of riding the slide is very possible. I recently switched to a thumbs forward grip whereas I used to cross my right thumb over my left and this kept the thumbs out of the way. I only switched because thumbs forward seems to be all the rage these days. I assumed I was doing it wrong!

I'll go back to my old grip and report back with my findings next week. Thanks for all the helpful advice!

[JeremyS]

...but the example of riding the slide is very possible. I recently switched to a thumbs forward grip ... I assumed I was doing it wrong!

I'll go back to my old grip and report back with my findings next week...

I've got $10 on it so make me proud


P.S. -- Not giving you a hard time! Happens all the time, especially when changing grips up. Stick with it. Not that I'm some sort of pro or anything, but when I switched to a thumbs forward grip with all of the rotated-forwards left hand and full-on locked elbows isosceles and such, it took me a while to start hitting targets properly again but now it's faster and more solid than ever. Even though sometimes I still shoot weaver and like it

[dpop24]

Time for an update....

Last week I switched back to my old grip, which has given me zero troubles over the years and I put 100 rounds through it with 3 of the same failures as before - this effectively rules out the shooter as I previously had gotten 600 trouble free rounds with my old grip.

I've completely taken it out of the CCW rotation of course until I can figure this out. Still no recoil guide assemblies available on czusa.com, so the next step was to see if the Frog Lube is the problem. So I cleaned all the Frog Lube off with Break Free, then rubbing alcohol, then Break Free again and lubed her liberally with the same plain old gun oil I've been using for forever.

Today I was able to run 150 trouble free rounds through it - zero issues at all. I'm going to the range again one Friday so hoping to get another 150-200 through it before declaring FL to be the problem. Actually, FL is not the problem, I run it quite successfully on all my other pistols. But if the problem goes away, I will declare that MY method for applying FL was at fault - I run it pretty thick but will likely go back to plain old Hoppe's and oil if this fixes my issues with this gun.

Sorry JeremyS, looks like you might owe yourself $10!