Project "C-100" how to smooth a Tristar/Canik Long thread lots of pictures!

[terry mc]

PART 1  SPRING KIT

Hi Guys,

A while ago, I had posted on some of the Stingray threads that I was about to do a full on Stingray.
Well plans do change.
After carrying it daily for 2 months, I reconsidered my purchase and then sold it for everything I had in it except tax.
Not bad for a 2 month rental.

So what I am going to customize is a 2013 model year Hard Chrome C-100.

It finally came in today, and I love it.
I PLAN TO DO THIS THREAD IN STAGES WITH PICTURES SO YOU CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCES AS IT PROGRESSES WITH THE DIFFERENT PARTS.


As most of you have read the fit and finish is nice on these with the machine work being even nicer.
Mine has a hard chrome slide with the Cerakote finish on the frame.



My wife and I went to the range to pick it up and to do a little shooting.
I will make it a short range report.
Good news.
This thing has amazing mechanical accuracy out of the box.
When I did my part it shot a single ragged hole at 7 yards, period.
The trigger is far superior to the one I had on the Stingray, that one was a 2014 model.
Double action is still ridiculous but single action is nice and crisp with almost 0 camming of the hammer.
I was actually shocked by the amount of difference, the Stingray had a lot of camming more than a stock CZ.
Stock Grips are more comfortable than the Stingray as well.
Bad News.
The sights are awful.
I was amazed that at 7 yards I consistently shot 3" low, over and over again.
DexterGSP and I have both experienced this on the Tristar/ Caniks and this one was no exception.

Well lets look at some baselines.
I recently bought a Lyman trigger gauge so I can see how things develop on my projects.
Baseline Double Action "OVERLOAD" the stock trigger double action is in excess of the Lymans 12# limit and judging by the fact the trigger did not even budge I would say it is way over that probably 16-20 lbs!
Single Action is much better 5 lbs. 0 oz. and nice and crisp. (10 pull average)



Here is a brief list of what is being done, OK not so brief.

Trigger Action
CGW Canik hammer and sear kit
CGW spring kit
CGW CZ 85 trigger with overtravel screw
CGW floating trigger pin
and full action polish by me.

Sights
CZC Tactical tritium rear sight
CZC 6.0mm tritium front sight

So for the first night, I am keeping the mods simple
Just the spring kit and the grips.
I want


And just for cosmetic
CZC Cocobolo Compact grips
Rob is too cool he brought out a bag of the compact grips and had me pick the grain pattern I liked the most.
It's nice to have those great guys at CZC in your city.



Installing the Spring kit is straight forward with the hardest part being removal of the firing pin retaining pin.
The kit comes with three springs, the hammer spring, the firing pin spring, and the firing pin lifter spring.
 In order to remove the firing pin you need to drift out the firing pin retaining pin you can see the hole in the slide in the middle of the serations below the reat sight. I did the removal with a 1/16" dift punch and I was lucky my rolled pin drifted out easily, I know others have had issues and have had to drill them out in some cases. I also like to push in on the firing pin from the hammer end while I do this to keep from scarring the firing pin with the punch.
Once the pin is out, push up on the Firing pin Block and you can pull the firing pin out the back.
Once it is out the Firing Pin Block can be pulled out the bottom.

Here you can see the holes for the Firing pin and the Firing pin Block.



Change the springs with the ones provided with the kit. and reverse the order above to reassemble.
One word of note here, I did order a spare Firing pin retaining pin just in case I had problems with the stock one, it is cheap insurance to keep you from having the gun set on your bench while you wait for parts.
Now for the Hammer spring, if you have not done this before, you will take the frame without the slide.
remove both grips
turn the frame upside down
make sure the hammer is dropped
Inside the grip/ magazine compartment you will see a flat piece of metal pull this toward the trigger until it comes loose at the butt of the gun.
Now use a punch, I like a tapered punch push down on the hammer spring retainer and while you have the retainer pressed,
you will press out a 1/16" pin that holds it in place by using a 1/16" punch pushing it out from side to side. (grip surface to grip surface)
carefully release pressure on the retainer, I say carefully as they like to launch across the room if you slide you finger or punch off before the spring is extended.
Remove the old spring, and reinstall the new spring.
Reassembly is reverse order of what you just did with one exception.
The magazine brake, aka that flat piece of steel, it can be a trick to get this reinstalled.
I was able to straighten the end of the magazine brake slightly and here is the tricky part.
While you press the hammer spring retainer down passed the retaining pin point as far as you can go, press the end of the magazine brake passed the hammer spring into the slot on the retainer, it really is a three hand act, because if you slip you will be searching for the retainer somewhere across the room.
Once you have it inserted slowly retract the hammer spring retainer until it is close to flush with the butt of the gun, at this point slide the retaining pin side to side holding the assembly in place.

WOW THAT WAS A MOUTHFULL.

upon reassembly, we can see the results.

Big difference for the DOUBLE ACTION, 
8 lbs. 6.5 0z. (10 pull average)  WAY, WAY BETTER THAN BEFORE and I have not polished anything yet!!




Single Action nice drop as well  4 lbs. 7.8 oz. ( just over a half pound drop from stock)


Well one last thing for the night and I call it quits.
We just have to see what the new grips look like!



Most of you could probably use a cliff notes version of this, but I wanted to write this also for the guys who have not tried these mods before.
Please feel free to give your opinions.

[RogerCZ75Bfan]

Awesome! Love the pics and following the project. All my pistols are just stock but I'm taking notes in case I start tinkering in the future.

[jwc007]

Very Interesting Project and Excellent Photography! 

[DexterGSP]

Terry, great write up and loved the pictures.  I've heard that the older models (C-100) often shoot low and yours in no exception.  I'm still trying to figure out why Canik would release pistols like the C-100 and the Stingray-C that are so off from their point of aim.  Please keep us informed of your progress on the pistol.

We'll go shooting soon, Paul.

[flyingbrass]

Hi Terry,

Nice pics.  I'm still waiting for my C-100 to even get out of the shipping stage where I ordered it.  I had better log off and go try to think about something else.  This waiting game isn't fun.

Jay

[terry mc]

Thanks guys glad you are enjoying it.
Tomorrow Stage 2 hammer and sear kit.

flying brass,
I know what you mean, first I was waiting for parts then I up and decided to change guns so I started the wait over again.
Patience and in the end it will be worth it.


See you guys tomorrow, good night all,

[p4R4d0x]

Nice project, pictures, and write-up!  It will be interesting to see the results after each addition - I sort of wish I did mine in stages, for this purpose, but didn't want to open it up so many times, and I have the patience of a mosquito. 

I'm curious as to your thoughts on why the C-100 trigger is better than the Stingray's?  I have a late 2013 Stingray-C (with the fixed sights), and the trigger was worse even slightly broken in, than the straight out-of-the-box Tristar P-120 I just picked up, and I can't quite put my finger on why, since all of the internals appeared to be the same.  They're both wearing CGW goodies now, though, so that gap has been closed, but it was still strange/interesting.  I thought the stock Stingray and C-100 grips were the same, though?

I had an older adjustable-sight model Stingray-C, and didn't have any problems with POA/POI, but the new, fixed-sight one does shoot low like you guys are experiencing,  I wonder if maybe the sights that ended up on these newer models are meant for or calibrated for the full-size pistols and that missing slide length puts them off POA just enough to cause problems?  I'm not sure if that small difference is really enough to make such a huge difference, but I like to think that's more likely than Canik just putting on sights that are wrong, haha.

[Genin]

Terry,

Awesome thread and great photography with explanations! Thank you for posting it. You did break my heart with not doing the Stingray-C though hahaha.

This should be stickied so we can all reference it time-to-time. JWC, could you hook that up?

[terry mc]

p4R4d0x,
 I really do not know why the differences.
Actually if anything the sear parts in this one look rougher made than the ones in the Stingray.
I know the untouched surfaces do not matter but these almost look industrial. You will see in the pictures tonight.
I know what you mean about the patience thing, it is all I can do to just take it one step at a time, I usually tear them down and do everything at once.
Todays process is actually way different than I normally do, I will be installing the sear and hammer by themselves with no polishing so everyone can see what the results are like for that and then compare to when it has been polished.

Genin,
Good to see you here!
I actually am going to borrow a friends Stingray to photograph a small detail that will help you and the other Stingray owners.
It may not be for a couple days but I promise I will take care of you!

[Genin]

Thank you. Good looking out.

[oldfrank]

Good start to a really nice build. Great pictures.

[AZ_CZ]

Nice write up. I'm going to follow along even though I promised myself not to do any more than a spring job on my L-120.





The sights look very nice!

[terry mc]

First thing for tonight,
I want to backtrack last night I did not install any pictures for the hammer spring install so I am going to add those here.

Here is pulling out the magazine brake from the hammer spring.


And here is a shot of depressing the hammer spring retainer and the cross pin partially pulled out.


Hopefully those images will help some of you that have not done this before.

[terry mc]

AZ CZ,
Dont you know that is the worst thing you can do is promise yourself your NOT GOING TO DO SOMETHING.

[75Plus]

Terry, make yourself one of these tools. It will make servicing that hammer spring and mag brake a LOT easier.

http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=51650.msg316253#msg316253

Joe