Feeding Hollowpoints

[rbernie]

Hope everyone had a good holiday - I sure did.

Having a long weekend to play with, I went ahead and Dremel'ed the feed ramp on my 97B in an effort to increase the likelihood that it'd feed hollowpoints reliably. (I chose to muck with the feed ramp simply because it was easier than trying to address the magazine seating height side of the equation....)

I removed the droop at the end (straightening the ramp at the expense of making it a wee bit steeper), increased the ramp's flare at the bottom (which would look to be a big deal in getting hollowpoints to slide upward smoothly), and polished it all up after I got the shape that I wanted.

Before this, I could not get the pistol to feed any kind of hollowpoints - regardless of brand or weight (OAL length), they'd nosedive under the feedramp without fail. Since this surgery, my 97B has digested four boxes of UMC 230gr hardball, two boxes of 185gr Silvertips, and two boxes of Taurus 185gr all-copper HPs with nary a nosedive or hiccup of any sort. Not a huge sampling, but IMO it's a pretty good start.

WooHoo - my favorite pistol just got better.

[skucera]

I was pondering doing this myself, but was waiting for someone else to try it first to see what their results would be.  Thanks for doing it and posting the preliminary results.

Now, since I have the week off, maybe I'll get out my dremel and do a little recountouring....

Scott

[Jeff Bergquist]

Skucera, others including me have recontoured the feed ramp as well with good results. I also changed out my mag springs for +10% Wolff springs and haven't had a bobble since with any ammo. I'm still going to modify the mag catch eventually to hold the mags a mm. or so higher, but ain't in any hurry now.

Jeff

[rbernie]

I should add that I decided to try this modification based  upon the prior postings of folks like CZ75BSA, who'd already tried this approach.  Sorry for not making that attribution more clear in my initial post.

[skucera]

I guess this is another example of my porous memory.  I read this digest every day, and have since before I actually bought my CZ 97 a year ago, but I just didn't remember Jeff's post, or CZ75BSA's.  

There's no harm in not stating where you got the idea to recontour the feed ramp.  It's a subject that has bounced around this forum for months.

Thanks for the info about the stronger Wolff magazine spring.  I'll try that too, since those springs are so inexpensive.

Scott

[CZ75BSA]

It is good to get as much feedback as possible that these mods either work consistently or don't.
 
In this case it seems to work.    

Like i said before, it is so simple and obvioius that it is hard to understand why CZ didn't do it that way to begin with.  I was really afraid that I was going to discover some unforeseen negative, but that hasn't happened yet.

I still don't have the improved mag springs.  Looks like i will have to experiment with those also. I try to only change one thing at a time, so i can backtrack if things start to go wrong.

[bullsi1911]

I have a theory about why the CZ-97B was not set up for HP rounds.  Does the Czech Republic allow the use of HP ammo?  It may have just never crossed the designer's mind that we in the US use HP ammo....

[Jeff Bergquist]

Possibly Bullsi, but I still can't figure out the purpose of that curve in the feedramp for hollowpoints or roundnose.

CZ75BSA, the way I see it, recontouring the feedramp helps in case the round feeds low e.g. nosedives, while stronger mag springs help to prevent nosedives in the first place. Either way my gun has fed 100's of rounds of mixed ammo since then with perfect reliability, so I'm a happy camper.

Jeff

[Radom]

I have never had any problems with the CZ 97B feeding hollow points, provided the cartridges were neither too long nor too short.  The only factory load that I recall having feeding problems was the Federal Hydrashok, which will soon be discontinued anyway...

[DonNikmare]

Since I am not confident in my dremel skills, I'm having Mike at CZ-USA do a feed rampjob for $40 along with installing a serrated trigger ($35 +$40 labor).  Finding the 97b at a great price left a little extra funds which I'm spending on it before they get sucked in elsewhere as they most certainly would have.
Will try to figure out the picture posting thing n post a pic of the redone feedramp after I get it back. It's supposed to get to the point of reliably feeding not only hollow points but also wadcutters
Nik

[crt360]

I don't shoot a lot of hollowpoints through mine, but I did once try a box or so of CCI/Speer stuff (not Gold Dot, but really wide-mouth flying ashtray type) just to see if it would work.  The gun was fairly new and I had not done anything to the feed ramp.  I kept expecting a jam, but it fed with no problems.  I have not tried any Hydra-Shocks or other premium priced hp's in the 97B.

[CZ75BSA]

I put another 100 rounds of Remington Hollow Points through my 97B (with modified ramp) yesterday without the slightest hiccup.
In fact, I didn't even think about it the whole time.  
Success !

[Hermo Gut]

Rbernie - I did the same with my CZ97B. After seeing my friend's 9mm. CZ85 which has a straight feed ramp profile I decided to modify mine. To start with , my 97B is flawless with FMJ but had some problems with JHP (especially with Remington Golden Saber). After the modification , I polished the ramp to a mirror like finish.I also installed a 16lbs. wolff recoil spring to replace that under sprung 13lbs. recoil spring & ordered (made to order) a SS recoil spring guide to compliment my new spring.
         From thereon my 97B has been flawless with all kinds of ammo that I put into it.So far it has digested around 2K without a problem.

[BENETONE]

I only polished my feed ramp without changing its profile and changed spring for 16lb from .40's 75B. It feeds flat noses, semi-wads, Federal's EFMJs, except holow points, which are prohibited...

[shermanav]

My new CZ97 has had hollowpoints feeding problems out of the box. I polished the ramp, but FTFs were still happening. I noticed that FTFs only occurred after 1-st shot (I had 10 in the clip and 1 in the barrel). Then, I loaded only 10 rounds (9+1). FTFs became seldom. Finally, I loaded only 9 rounds (8+1), and - bingo! I shot over 500 hollowpoints of various manufacturers, and had zero FTFs. In all exercises above I used original Meg-Gar clips.

 I carry mine for self defense. I, basically, traded 2 rounds for 100% reliability.

Anybody has had the same experience?