Could I have damaged my CZ Shadow 2 with a metal snap cap?

[CZfirsttimer]

Good evening,
    I am an owner of a new CZ Shadow 2 bought 2 weeks ago and am a newbie gun owner overall......bought my first gun ever on June 16, 2020.  Really enjoy shooting.  I have shot about 50 9mm rounds through it about 2 weeks ago.  Then put it away.  Went on vacation and came back today.  Decided to oil my Shadow 2 and wanted to try new snap caps that came in the mail—Realistic Snap Caps 9mm.  They looked good—metal with a rubber “spot” where the primer is.  So after I oiled my gun with gun oil, I tried these snap caps.  Racked the slide about 10-12 times in order to load and dry fire these snap caps.  They ejected well also.  Allowed me to load the magazine and practice overall and work on the Basics.  Well, later this evening, I loaded 3 of these snap caps into my magazine. I racked the slide and was able to practice dry firing 2 of these snap caps and eject these 2 snap caps.  The 3rd snap cap got stuck.....I couldn’t move the slide much at all—I could barely move it at all when I tried to rack the slide.  I could not move it enough to open the chamber on the top of the gun to see if a bullet or snap cap was there.  So I took the gun apart.....learned how on YouTube.  The snap cap was tightly stuck in the bore/muzzle.  Had to use pliers to remove it.  Got worried because I saw what appeared to be some irregularity in the bore.....actually it was on the right bottom side of the metal shoehorn—looking “tongue shape” that sloped up into the bore opening.  My question......could the tightly snug snap cap have cause a crack or damaged/bent the metal shoehorn looking “tongue”?   I cleaned up/ wiped down the gun with an old soft cotton shirt after I removed the snap cap with the pliers.  Tried placing one snap cap at a time in the magazine and practiced racking the slide and dry firing several times with the other 9mm snap caps.  I threw away the one that got stuck.  Everything worked well.....loading and ejecting.  My thinking is that the gun tried to double feed and probably pushed the front snap cap into the bore and lodged it there.  But I am not sure—-any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.   I have the B snap caps 9mm ordered from Amazon that arrived and will practice next with them.  I want the practice.  Would make mistakes now rather than with live ammunition.  Thanks all.

[M1A4ME]

Don't rack the slide to feed a new snap cap from the magazine.  Just use your thumb to cock the hammer to full cock and pull the trigger again to practice dry firing in single action.  If practicing double action then just keep pulling the trigger on the same snap cap in the chamber.

As to damage?  You'd have to have/share some pictures of what you think might be the damaged areas.  Let the folks here look them over to see if they can help make a determination.

Good luck.

[bang bang]

welcome

remember....pictures are worth a thousand words.   its not just for the CZ board but for any board you join to ask for help.

And if you do post a picture, try to center the issue in question or maybe add a circle or arrow to point to the issue.  If its obvious, not a big deal, but if its not obvious then it maybe an issue.

then remember many boards can be GLOBAL, so you may have people from other parts of the world trying to help you. 

[JimLob65]

Without pictures it isn't possible to say definitively 'no', but it is highly unlikely.  The 'tongue' you are referring to is most likely the feed ramp.  While it may be possible to scratch it it is highly unlikely that you bent it.  Inspect it closely for cracks maybe, but it is designed to work incredibly quickly in real time with much greater force than hand cycling.  A good guess would be that a snap cap round got stuck in the chamber, maybe due to CZs reputation for having chambers on the tight side, and that the extractor jumped over the rim, leaving it stuck in the chamber.  Just a guess though.

[Atomic Punk]

No need to use pliers and risk damaging the gun if it happens again. Just stick a capped plastic pen down the barrel and slap it with your palm. The snap cap will pop out. I had to do that with a laser boresighter. 

[Jigo23]

First off, congrats on your new Shadow 2. For a first gun, you made an excellent choice!  Sure wish I had been able to afford one of those as my first gun
Second off, as usual you got some great answers above!  I am also fairly certain you didn’t do any real damage to what sounds like your feed ramp. Hey, it’s all part of the learning experience.  I’ve made my fair share of mistakes as most here have at some point. As long as you learn from them and nobody gets hurt, it’s all good
Definitely commend you for wanting to practice and get more comfortable with your gun...enjoy!

[eastman]

I am not familiar with the brand "Realistic Snap Caps". I use the Lyman / A-Zoom.

What it sounds like is a need to plunk test your snap caps. The slide locking up sounds a lot like the "bullet" portion of the snap cap getting caught on the lands.

Remove the barrel from your pistol. One at a time, drop each of the snap caps into the chamber. The should bottom out with a nice "plunk" sound. Then try to spin the rim of the cap with the muzzle pointed down. If the cap doesn't spin freely, then you shouldn't use it in your CZ.

[CZfirsttimer]

    Hello and thank you all for your answers!  Really do appreciate the valuable information given!  I took my CZ Shadow 2 to a gunsmith today and asked him to look at it.  He took the pistol apart, including removing the bore/barrel and closely inspected the feed ramp and bore site where the feed ramp meets the bore/barrel opening.  He said that it looked fine and no damage was seen.  He wasn’t sure what may have caused it.  Told me to avoid that particular snap cap. Nice guy. Then told me to go and enjoy my day!  A really decent person.  I thanked him and wished him a good day as well.  Gave me a sigh of relief.  I am learning a lot—reviewing videos on malfunctions on YouTube and reading some information on aiming, managing recoil and how to practice efficiently, including drills.  Also learned how to oil and clean this pistol.  Took a handgun safety and fundamentals class 2 weeks ago and got a certificate.  Someone should have a class designed strictly for handgun malfunctions and solutions, both for the revolver and the semi-automatic pistols.  Take care! 

[Gunnerdad80]

Good on you for taking time to learn about gun safety and proper technique. Practice practice practice, then practice some more. Agreed, very nice first gun purchase. The first gun I ever bought was a Ruger P95 9mm when the high capacity ban was still in effect. She wasn’t pretty but she put out every time reliably. 

[mrerick]

I think you'll find that higher end and match grade guns have tighter (closer to exact specification) chambers.

Depending on the precision used for manufacturing your snap cap, it might be slightly oversized, and thus stick and resist extraction.

I make my own snap caps (I reload) including a little pencil eraser insert in the primer pocket to cushion the firing pin.