Heads up a CZ-52 for $229

At the armory in Annapolis. Stopped by today after work. I saw it and thought someone here may be interested...

ow does the CZ52 hold up compared to other Toks?

It's not a Tok... it's a CZ52. Same round, totally different action. Pretty unique actually; look it up. IIRC it's not the same at all, but uses some of the same ideas and principles as the roller delayed blowback HK systems like in the MP5 and I believe even the G3. I could be wrong on that.

I like shooting my CZ52 and it ejects the spent brass into the next county
The pistol is not exactly the most comfortable pistol grip I have tried that's for sure.
I have some new grips on the way with finger grooves , thumb rest and CZ logo from here http://www.marschalgrips.com/cz52/cz52.html#trfc
I am hoping it will improve the comfort of the hold.

Highly recommended. Get the gun, drop in a Harrington Competition Firing Pin and Trigger Enhancement, and it is a mighty fine shooter. I put about 200 rounds through mine on Tuesday.

As said, some people do not like the ergonomics. I think they are just fine.


http://www.harringtonproducts.com/firing-pins/

I love my 52!

Great shooters. I own two. I like the rollerlock. Shoots even the hot subgun ammo we run in our PPSH41s (don't do this to TT33s, they dont like it much!). I've shot the hell out of mine. Killed a few pests with the Wolf hollow points. 50 yard shots with the factory irons are easy with practice.

Really fun shooting at night. Spits a four foot flame. Also, you don't want to be shooting with someone on your right. You'll pelt them with empties. Although after the first shot or two they'll move anyway because its so damn loud.

You should check the classifieds. There might be a member here selling a really nice one that would be about the same price. Just sayin'......

CZ-52's are very different than Tokarevs. They used to be cheap to buy. Alas, no longer. Surplus ammo is easily found (but the prices have gone up). They're really nice shooters and aftermarket enhancements are available.

One can never have too many CZ-52's. I kinda like my "puppies".

P.S.: Garand1957, some of your cases made it all the way to Garrett County, but I sent some of mine back toward ya...so we're even. Yep, '52's can send brass into orbit.

j8064 said:

CZ-52's are very different than Tokarevs. They used to be cheap to buy. Alas, no longer. Surplus ammo is easily found (but the prices have gone up). They're really nice shooters and aftermarket enhancements are available.

One can never have too many CZ-52's. I kinda like my "puppies".

P.S.: Garand1957, some of your cases made it all the way to Garrett County, but I sent some of mine back toward ya...so we're even. Yep, '52's can send brass into orbit.

Click to expand...

I have two CZ52's myself
One is the redone by Century (I believe) blued and the other is the original gray parkerized finish both in excellent condition.
I also just got a Harrington Products Military Style Firing Pin with Return spring $30.
http://www.harringtonproducts.com/firing-pins/
It binds up in both pistols
I read their instalation intructions about how some pistols need to be reemed out with a 7/32" bit but I tried that and it still binds up.
I think I will be sending it back
I mostly just bought it so I would not have to worry about dry firing the pistol.
Anyone else bought one of the Harrington Military style firing pins ?

Garand1957 said:

I have two CZ52's myself

It binds up in both pistols
I read their instalation intructions about how some pistols need to be reemed out with a 7/32" bit but I tried that and it still binds up.
I think I will be sending it back
I mostly just bought it so I would not have to worry about dry firing the pistol.
Anyone else bought one of the Harrington Military style firing pins ?

Click to expand...

I bought the hardened replacement style firing pin for mine a few years ago. I love it, no dry-fire worries and no fitting. It also make the de-cocker safe to use, unlike the "military" style pins..

Garand1957 said:

I have two CZ52's myself
One is the redone by Century (I believe) blued and the other is the original gray parkerized finish both in excellent condition.
I also just got a Harrington Products Military Style Firing Pin with Return spring $30.
http://www.harringtonproducts.com/firing-pins/
It binds up in both pistols
I read their instalation intructions about how some pistols need to be reemed out with a 7/32" bit but I tried that and it still binds up.
I think I will be sending it back
I mostly just bought it so I would not have to worry about dry firing the pistol.
Anyone else bought one of the Harrington Military style firing pins ?

Click to expand...

Garand, I can't help you on the your Harrington firing pin and spring issue. I wish I could.

Early on I learned dry-firing a '52 is not good. I still have my original firing pins in two of my pistols. They work well. I do not dry fire them...period.

I bought spare steel replacement firing pins, rollers and weighted recoil springs from Makarov.com before they went under a few years ago. None of those parts required a mod to the pistol. I've installed them in my pistols, tried them and I've had no issues. Someone must now be selling the same stuff Makarov.com sold back then.

I've made some mods to my CZ-52 pistols over the years, but nothing that can't be reversed. I'll do many things to my firearms, but taking original metal off to fit an aftermarket part isn't one of them. I do hope you get your issue resolved.

I acquired my first '52 a long time ago. No ammo was unavailable then -> 7.62x25 what??. i built ammo out of reformed .223 cases so I could shoot. Not perfect, but it worked well. I can still do that if one day I can no longer get surplus ammo.

CZ-52's can be like collecting coins. They were only manufactured over a three-year period. I once thought, get the entire series. 1953 and 1954 dates are common. I passed on a 1952 dated pistol on an auction a few years ago that went for < $200 and I'm still kicking myself.

For folks who are not up to speed on CZ-52's, here are a few links. There's plenty of info on the internet to read so you can learn about them. They are very interesting C&R items. From experience I can't validate and don't agree with all they say. You'll need to judge that yourself.

http://www.harringtonproducts.com/markings.php
http://www.ai4fr.com/main/page_militaria__collectibles_other_cz_52.html
http://www.bobtuley.com/cz-52/#warning

Garand1957 said:

I have two CZ52's myself
One is the redone by Century (I believe) blued and the other is the original gray parkerized finish both in excellent condition.
I also just got a Harrington Products Military Style Firing Pin with Return spring $30.
http://www.harringtonproducts.com/firing-pins/
It binds up in both pistols
I read their instalation intructions about how some pistols need to be reemed out with a 7/32" bit but I tried that and it still binds up.
I think I will be sending it back
I mostly just bought it so I would not have to worry about dry firing the pistol.
Anyone else bought one of the Harrington Military style firing pins ?

Click to expand...

That sucks. I have the Heavy Competition Firing Pin and it dropped right in.

I'm sending that firing pin back to Harrington and putting the original back in.
I knew from the begining to never dry fire a CZ52 so I have never broken a firing pin. But I thought it would be nice if I did dry fire there would be no risk of breking one.
I see Numrich sells a "hardened steel" original design firing pin for $25.
It looks like I should have saved $5 and bought the one from Numrich from jump street.
I bought my two back around 2003-2004. I ordered the excellent condition with two mags,holster,lanyard and cleaning rod for $119.95 + 2nd day air shipping each. Nice to see they have gone up in value

I'd send it back too, Garand1957. There are hardened steel replacement firing pins that are drop-in and work perfectly. And they used to be inexpensive like the pistol.

I remember paying ~ $50 for my first CZ-52. It was missing the extractor, spring and pin. Nobody had parts (much less ammo like I said). So I shaped an extractor out of a piece of steel I'd cut off a butter knife handle. I ended up using part of ball-point pen spring and a pin made from a nail for parts. With that, I could shoot the rounds I built from cut down .223 cases using an RCBS case forming die.

Things have changed a lot since that first CZ-52 came my way:

- I now have the correct parts installed on the original pistol - and it has friends. (But I still have that homemade extractor as a keepsake).
- That RCBS case forming die set I paid $35 for then would cost someone over $200 to buy new today.
- The days of the dealer advertised $119 CZ-52's are long gone.
- 7.62x25 surplus ammo, even if it's corrosive, usually shoots well. It's still reasonably priced, but for how long?
- Still, if or when ammo disappears, I have a bunch of .223 cases I can behead, reform and load for my CZ's.

There were only ~ 200K CZ-52's ever manufactured. That's not a lot. I've really enjoyed learning about the pistol over the years. I encourage anyone who doesn't have one to consider getting a good one for your collection. They won't decrease in value. And they're really unique and fun shooters.