TWO QUESTIONS: Best FL Guide rod and 10 MM Converssion?

[Tack-302]

Who makes the best full length guide rod and any possibillity of conversion to  full power 10 mm cartridge?

[Walt-Sherrill]

Jack Ash makes guide rods.  You'll find him mentioned here and in the links.  No 10mm conversions presently available for the 97B.

(Some rumors that CZ might build a 10mm on the 97B frame, however; but at the moment that remains a rumor.)

[Kalrog01]

A rumor - just a rumor at this point.  But I would certainly pick up the conversion (or maybe even a whole new gun) for 10mm.  Heck, I might just end up doing a DW (now CZ) 1911 in 10mm.  Or maybe get a .400CorBon conversion barrel for the -97.  But I really do want a 10mm from CZ...

[Poseiden]

Tang/Witness makes a 10mm. Close cousin to the 97B.

[Kalrog01]

Yes they do, but a CZ it isn't...

[Radom]

Clarification:

CZ-UB will never ever in a thousand years offer a true conversion (drop in barrel or top end) for any pistol.  They have never done business that way.  For example, you cannot purchase a CZ slide at any price; complete pistols only.  

That's not to say that they will never offer a 10mm model, but .45 ACP to 10mm would require a new breech face and extractor position (i.e. a different slide).  I don't see them selling a slide/barrel combo like Tanfoglio if they haven't broken down and done so by this point.

CZ-UB really prides it self on handfitting their pistols.  A Tanfoglio-style conversion would not be handfitted to the frame.

[fritze01]

Thanks guys for the Jack Ash info.

Here is a direct link to their guiderod page.

www.jackashcustom.com/guiderods.html

I work at a gunshop in the northwest and we just got in a  CZ 97B that a very good customer special ordered.  I wanted to see it before we delivered it, something I will do with a gun we do not normally stock, like the CZ 97B.

I went to rack the slide back as proper gun handling dictates to check the chamber and the slide would not move all the way back. Hmm, some kind of safety maybe??

Found out that the plastic recoil guide was bent and not allowing itself to protrude from the front of the gun. We were able to bend it straight so that it functions, hopefully it will not set back into a bend.

The shop I work at sells a fair amount of CZ product, pistols and rifles.

We, in the past have always been very happy with their product.


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Why they put such a cheap plastic guide rod in a gun is unfathomable, how it made it out of the factory in this condtion is remarkable.

Every manufacturer makes mistakes, I know I worked for one for 8 years.

This defect seems to be designed into this gun with the use of the cheap plastic part, please recall these guide rods and replace with steel.

CZ will be getting a call tomorrow.

I am just so glad that I caught this and not my customer.

[Walt-Sherrill]

The plastic guide rods bend in all of the CZ that use full length guide rods.  

Yours is the first example of that bending causing functional problems that I've heard of -- where it bent in a way that kept the gun from cycling.

[fritze01]

Yes, gun new in the box.

I was wiping off the factory grease and attempted to open up the action, pull the slide back.

It would not.

I am going to tell my customer that I either do not want to release it to him unless he agrees not use for self protection until either a new part is sent or a FLGR is aquired.

Sorry if my above post was a little hot.

All the plastic guide rods are bending?

[Uncle Alvah]

I know my plastic guide rod ain't bending. 'Cuz it ain't in the gun. I just had a hard time dealing with that plastic crap in such a fine pistol. I got some dimensions from on here and a friend who is a machinest cranked me out a couple no-sweat.  I made him a print to go by, I thought it was pretty good, I generated it on the computer ya know?
When the rods came, there was a note saying I had to promise NEVER to provide him with any prints ever again! Ha!

[Walt-Sherrill]

The compact guns have plastic guide rods which are, in effect, full length.  They all bend.

The full-size guns have plastic guide rods, not full length.  They bend -- but because they're not full length, you never realy get a chance to see it.

As I noted, yours was the first case of a plastic guide rod causing any problems that I've seen in several years here on the forum.  Thousands of CZ owners participate here, and yours is the first...  The problem you experienced sounds like defective part, and not a problem purely because it was plastic.

CZ has made a point of telling folks that after-market metal guide rods void the warranty, at least with some of the compact guns.  So have you customer keep the plastic one, in case he ever has to send the gun back.   He should get a good one, first, and try it.

CZ does offer (or has offered) metal guide rods for the 97B in the past, but it was one made for the 75B in .40, if I remember correctly.  I don't know if they still do.  A forum member offers metal FLGRs for both the compacts and the 97B.

The 75B in .40 comes standard, now, with a metal FLGR.

I've had a bunch of CZs that used plastic. My current 75 Compact uses plastic.  No problems.  I've also got a 75B in .40 with a metal guide rod and several clones with metal.  I can't tell a difference.

[fritze01]

Talked to Mike at CZ, he is sending a replacement full length steel guide rod.

He said that no recall for the plastic part was forthcoming.

He also stated that this was the first time he has seen this issue.

I explained all this to my customer.

He already has a 97B he purchased previously, he stated that the guide rod looked different and his other barrel was stainless steel.

I used a caliper on the guide rod and it was .190 thick in the shaft, .390 at the head, 3.000 long on the flat (not including the protrusion on end).

The head was .080 thick flat to flat.

My customers faith in CZ is a little shaken at this point, but after some discussion he is chalking it up to fate.

********************

I cannot tell you how much the CZ forums help with such issues.

I wish all manufacturers had links to a community forum like CZ does.

Kudos

[Walt-Sherrill]

His other barrel wasn't stainless.  CZ doesn't make stainless barrels.  They've started doing a "hardening" treatment on some barrels, which accounts for the different appearance.  I think its called carburizing.

Make sure that part 63 is properly installed -- the recoil spring housing.  If that wasn't in right, it could've caused problems.

If your customer's faith is shaken so easily, he can't have had many guns...  Stuff happens -- even with Glocks and SIGS and Berettas, etc.

Except for unwillingness to shoot hollowpoints (on some 97s) and a loaded chamber indicator that wants to go "walkabout" sometimes, the 97Bs have proved to be pretty robust and obscenely accurate.

[fritze01]

Quote:Make sure that part 63 is properly installed -- the recoil spring housing. If that wasn't in right, it could've caused problems.

Hope they are putting them in correctly at the factory then because this was a brand new gun.

We just got it directly from CZ.

[viking442]

I'm scratching my head on this one.  I've never seen or heard of a 97B shipped with a full length plastic guide rod and I can see no way that the half-length plastic rod (itself) would prevent the slide from moving back.

It sounds more like the problem I ran into when I first got my 97B NIB.  The barrel bushing. If the bushing was screwed on too tight from the factory (or by someone at the gun shop who likes to put their finger prints on the gun)... the slide isn't going anywhere.