P-01 has a heavy stage in DA just before the break

[ZedHeadHunter]

I found someone selling an unfired P-01 on armslist and since I cant find any in stock locally or online I quick bought it. I bought the gun not the story because it really did look like he bought it and stuck it in the safe for a few years. During the cleaning I have been getting lots of the cosmoline/ preservative off of it.

This is my 3rd CZ with a 2016 PCR and 2018 SP-01 Tactical being my other 2, this is a 2013 P-01. So I'm familiar with the platform and have 2 other guns to compare against.

The PCR has the best trigger by far and is nice and smooth throughout the DA pull. The SP-01 is also very smooth but a little heavier probably because it is new.

The P-01 has a definite heavy stage in DA before the break. The SA feels just fine and is inline with the other 2. Decocking all 3 also feels the same. If I pull the trigger to let the hammer fall and keep holding the trigger, I can work the hammer across the full range with no resistance. If I hold the hammer back and pull the trigger I do feel a slight resistance when the firing pin block lever is going up. it is slightly more than the other 2.

When I feel the stage the most is just before the firing pin block lever starts to go up in DA. With the slide off I pull the trigger until I hit the stage then next I see the lever start to go up with a little more pulling.

If this was my first CZ I would have formed the opinion that they have bad DA triggers but because I got the other 2 first I know that is not the case. Is there something I should be looking for or at? Would just a bunch or dryfire make the stage go away?

[M1A4ME]

Make sure it's empty.

Hold it up next to your ear (frame next to your ear, muzzle up).

Slowly pull the trigger (DA) and listen.  Do you hear gritty/grinding/clicking noises?

May be the hammer spring coils dragging across rough places on the hammer spring strut/guide.  My old Pre CZ85 looked like the strut was the model for what country people call a "washboard" road surface.  It was easy to hear the spring coils popping out of those grooves as the trigger pull/manually cocking the hammer compressed the spring by pushing the strut down through the coils.

[ZedHeadHunter]

I didn't hear anything too odd. I more feel grinding and clicking rather than hear it.. If I pull the trigger to let the hammer fall and keep holding the trigger, I can work the hammer across the full range with no resistance. That is nice and smooth with no resistance.

I'm going to try calling CZ to see what they say.

[ZedHeadHunter]

It seem that the gun was just rough from the factory.  https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=42537.0 and https://www.texasguntalk.com/threads/break-down-and-polish-of-cz-75-sp01-tactical-75-bd-p01.30231 both helped a lot to figure out what I was doing in there.

I called CZ directly and they pretty much told me to get lost because I don't have a warranty. CZ Custom didn't have a working number. Once again the guys at Cajun Gun Work picked up the phone and had a helpful conversation. I plan to spend some money with them for a bunch of parts but every time I save enough up another CZ pistol I had been eying pops up for sale. Now that I know what it will take their Pro Package is looking very tempting.

I wasn't planning on detail stripping and polishing the internals but I'm glad I did. the decocker sear cage was a pain but not as bad as I thought it would be. The interface between the trigger bar and underside of the sear cage had rough machine marks running perpendicular to the travel motion so it was like gear teeth skipping over each other. In fact that issue was prevalent all over on the internals, I'm sure it all stacked up to make a bad trigger.

[M1A4ME]

I've only polished a couple of the trigger bars and then mostly on the sides.

They had those rough machining marks, too.  I didn't try to completely remove them, just smooth the metal that contacts the inside of the frame.  The marks are still there, but just the grooves.  Any rough corners where the groove was cut are gone now.

Somebody here (can't remember the name) did a project where he removed and polished a piece at a time before reinstalling it and re-testing the trigger pull.  The idea was to see if he could figure out each parts contribution to lowering the trigger pull weight and smoothing out the trigger pull.

[ZedHeadHunter]

I probably polished a few areas that didn't need it, basically if I saw worn metal through the finish I polished that area.

I always cold blue the exposed metal for rust prevention so I didn't mind polishing a couple extra areas. I didn't want to have to take it all apart again if I missed an area.

The difference is substantial, before polishing I considered my PCR to have a pretty good trigger now next to the P01 it feels gritty.

This is why I sometimes avoid doing trigger jobs, once you do one it makes everything else feel like junk. I have to go through and polish everything else in my other guns now. Oh well, I'll likely wait until I get some Cajun Gun Works parts to do at the same time.

[M1A4ME]

Hey, I'm a nice trigger fan.  It's harder to like a gun with a nasty trigger when you've got one or more with nice triggers.

I've never cold blued any of the internal stuff I polish.  I'm a compulsive over oiler.  I've never found rust inside my guns.  Had some rust on the rear sight of my P07 once.  Had some rust on a magazine for the CZ75 Compact once.  I sweat like a pig this time of the year and it takes regular oily rag wipe downs to prevent my guns from turning into orange spotted clumps of ugly metal.  I suppose the oil inside doesn't get sweated/rubbed off before I add more so the insides look good.