New Shadow 2 Orange

[JBruns]

Picked up my new S2O yesterday, my first CZ. Strictly a range/comp gun. Did a quick clean/lube on it at the gun shop/range and ran 50 rounds through it. A bit milder recoil impulses than my X5. Really nice trigger. One thing I didn't like about the trigger was the difference in trigger position between SA and DA. Had to reach up a ways to engage it on the DA pulls. I have a P229 Legion SA/DA and it is more consistent that way. I have XL/XXL hands, so it was not a big deal, just something different than I'm used to. I'm sure I'll get used to it. VERY accurate gun.

Just wondering if I should take the slide apart for a good cleaning also? I see some grease oozing from the extractor a bit, which makes me think it's been factory over lubed. Is oil okay for the slide rails or is grease recommended?

Came with a bunch of different springs. I'll shoot it a bit before deciding if I need to change them out. Thinking I may want to lighten up the DA pull, but time will tell. Nary a hiccup out of the 50 124gr bullets yesterday.

Any recommendations on things to clean or watch for would be appreciated. I'll go through the mags and clean them up today.

EDIT: Is there a good armorers/repair manual for these guns? I read the owners manual, and it doesn't even talk about the springs that were included, so shows me detail is lacking. So hoping there is a better source I can download or buy. I know there are lots of YT vids, but would prefer a more all inclusive type of thing.

[JimLob65]

Congratulations on an awesome pistol! 

Personally I use grease on the rails and barrel hood.   As far as the springs go you will find you can fine tune your pistol to your ammo, particularly the muzzle flip with the recoil spring based on the ammo you normally shoot.  You will see a noticeable improvement in the weight of the trigger pull by changing out the mainspring for a lighter unit.  I forget exactly what weights I changed my Shadow 2’s out too but IIRC the weight of both springs were roughly 11-11.5lbs.  Normally it is recommended that you change out the firing pin to a longer unit and that you install a lighter firing pin return spring on a Shadow 2, and easy, fairly inexpensive swap.  I am unsure if the S2O comes with the longer firing pin and lighter spring so you may want to do a bit of research.  There is a ton of advice on this forum about spring weights.  Also, if you search the net there are a ton of videos covering the various mods to these pistols. 

These are amazing pistols, even more so when you fine tune them to your liking.

[JBruns]

Thanks for the input. I went ahead and pulled the slide apart. Glad I did. Stuff they ship them with made the firing pin spring stick a bit, and the extractor had too much grease on it.

I will study up more on the springs, and call CZ to find out exactly what springs came with my Orange.

I've read about the longer firing pin. What is up with that mod? I've read where some believe the longer pin can make the Shadow 2 more of a drop fire hazard, so a bit leery of it.

Still curious on if there is better documentation/manuals available for these.

[JimLob65]

As you know, there is not a firing pin block on these pistols at all.  Not sure how truly 'drop safe' they are in this regard as a result.  Not really designed as a carry piece.

As I understand it the firing pin mods, lengthened & with a lighter return spring, in relation to fitting a lighter mainspring are done to help ensure more reliable primer ignition with the lighter mainspring.  It is a staple mod of these pistols & I personally haven't heard of any increased drop safety issues as a result. 

[JBruns]

I called CZ USA yesterday to ask about the springs, spare parts, manuals, etc. Was pretty unimpressed. Person I was talking to knew next to nothing about the extra springs that came with my Orange. Read off something about 2 of them being 13lb and 11lb, but couldn't tell me which of the pairs of springs that was. Said he'd have to talk to somebody and I could call back in today to get more info.

No other manuals or documentation are available from CZ about the gun, springs, etc.

First he told me they could not get the bushing tool (want a spare) then told me they were out of stock. Said they could not get spare slides for them, but they were trying to change that since they got "several calls a day" asking for them. Couldn't tell me the born on date, only the import date.

So I didn't get much out of the call, except a surprise that my USA customer service experience is pretty poor thus far.

[cwmoss]

I got an new Orange last week. I too have been trying to find out what weight springs came with the pistol. From what I have found, the S2O comes with about a 20lb mainspring.
I checked the SA and DA with my Lyman digital trigger pull gage and out of the box mine was SA 2.12 avg of 5 pulls. and DA was 8.14 avg for 5 pulls.
I then installed the shorter of the two extra mainsprings and got a DA of 6.14 avg for 5 pulls. Then I took it out and put the other (longer) extra mainspring in the pistol and got 9.8 avg for 5 pulls. I put the shorter one back in. Went out later that day and ran maybe 100 rounds thru it, no problems.
What I am probably gonna do is just buy some extra recoil and main springs in different weights and that way I can experiment with them. This is just a range toy and will never see any competition. I just like to tinker.

[JBruns]

Thanks for the input, cwmoss. I need to change out that main spring also. My DA pulls are at just above 9lbs. SA is similar to yours. I'm very happy with the SA pull. But I've been researching it and it seems like many insist you need to change multiple things at the same time if you mess with the main spring. Extended firing pins, lighter FP spring, different recoil springs in various combinations. I guess I just need to do some tweaking and see what works for my situation. I only load softer primers, so I'm hoping I can leave the firing pin and recoil springs stock.

Congrats on your Orange. I'm impressed by mine so far.