First ever failure in my SP-01. Thoughts?

The SP-01 is not a 'combat/police' pistol, and not engineered for severe reliability
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CZ's website says the SP-01 was engineered specifically as a military and law enforcement duty sidearm. True - that's marketing, but my understanding is that the SP-01 is basically a CZ-75 with a rail, a beavertail, and a few other minor changes.

Can't speak to the SP-01, but I don't recall ever having a malfunction in thousands of rounds through my CZ-75B (a 1993-production surplus pistol) or P-07.
 
Hey James,
When all said and done let us know what you figure out. I am leaning towards a bad mag/mag spring as well.
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I will.

I think my only option right now is just discard that mag and do another ammo heavy range trip. If nothing happens then it seems likely it’s a mag issue.
 
Welp I was wrong. :)

The SP-01 and Shadows can have a throat issue. The plunk test you did with the ammo that was causing the problems shows it's not that issue.
 
I too have experienced the short throat issue with all five of the CZ's I've owned. Since I don't shoot factory ammo, anytime I try a new bullet I first seat a bullet long in a piece of processed but unloaded brass. Then I plunk and seat until it plunks reliably, then I seat it .010" deaper to account for bullet variations. At this point I begin my load workup. I also use an undersize sizing die for added reliability. Until I learned this I had problems with my CZ's and my M&P, but once I went to this method I've had 100% reliability in all my guns. The only semi auto that's eaten everything no matter what has been my LC9s, this is the only pistol I've ever owned that's been 100% reliable out of the box for thousands of rounds.
 
Pond said:
Well, I did the plunk test and the round fell in flush and rotated without resistance so I think the cartridge OAL fine for my chamber.
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Just be sure to check SEVERAL rounds out of several boxes before you become sure that the ammo is OK. Some factory ammo can be irregular, too.
 
Have to say that I'm not a fan of S&B ammo. At least in 9mm--that's all I've tried.

In one of my pistols (non-CZ) I consistently get 2-3 failures to go into battery out of every 50 round box. As if the rounds are slightly oversize and won't fully chamber. They feed fine, the slide just won't close all the way.

This same pistol reliably feeds and fires the Winchester Forged steel cased ammunition that seems to have a really poor reputation for quality. In fact, it has no problems with any ammo I can ever recall feeding it except for S&B.

Another pistol I owned some years ago (same brand and model as the one I'm talking about above--and also obviously not a CZ) had a similar issue with S&B and would fail to go fully into battery maybe 3 times out of a 15 round magazine.
 
Here's a picture of a failure to feed back from January. This is what I see with what now seems to be the same mag.

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A very small rearward draw of the slide and the whole round flips up in to the chamber and goes into battery.
 

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Mr. Pond: If you decide to sell it, can you easily acquire an affordable CZ 'PCR'? I hated to read about those issues, but the SP-O1 seems to be the only CZ handgun I've read about with numerous problems (some had to replace different springs in new guns).

My PCR was bought with about 80-120 total rds. in it, and has been 100% reliable. As good as my 1994 Sig P228 and .380 Russian Makarov.

A very small fraction of the CZ ammo has been Russian steel-cased, the rest has been the lowest-cost, US-made 115 grain brass-cased, i.e. Rem., Win, Blazer, Federal etc.

A chunk of almost every ammo box has been kept in a labeled, small plastic bag-these 24 pieces = approx. 1200 rds. used since I bought it.
The mags are MecGar.
 
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