Warning: 7.62x25 Tokarev MagSafe ammo and CZ-52

[Indy317]

I am posting this message to both the handgun and ammo forums.

Many years ago, I picked up a CZ-52. It is in decent condition. I never fired the gun till recently. When I purchased the CZ-52, I was planning on using it as a gun I could carry when I had to leave a gun in the car (ie: Going into a court house, traveling, etc.). Obviously I didn't want FMJ ammo and would rather have some defensive hollow point ammo due to over penetration issues. As such, I purchased four packs of MagSafe ammo.

Last week I finally took the gun to the range. I know this gun has cycled this ammo by hand (and FMJ) fine, as I have done it a few times over the years. I loaded the magazine with a couple of MagSafe rounds (to make sure they fired) and the rest surplus FMJ. The first round was MagSafe and it chambered fine. I fired the gun, the MagSafe round fired (I was very impressed with how accurate it was at over 20 yards), the casing ejected, but when the slide went forward, it wouldn't go all the way. It feed the next round about 85-90%. We took the gun apart and couldn't figure out what happened. The ammo would not seat in the chamber properly.

Today I was going to take the gun in, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out what happened. All the guys at the range who looked it over didn't see anything, I didn't see anything. Finally it dawns on me, the MagSafe ammo has a silver colored casing, maybe it is a cheaper metal or something and torn where it is necked down? Sure enough, that is exactly what the issue was. The torn part of the casing came out very easy, it wasn't stuck in there or anything. As soon as it was removed, the gun cycled just fine. I plan on taking the gun back to the range and using the brass cased FMJ rounds to see how the gun fires. I have found some Wolf hollow points and will likely get some of them. I might try some of the other rounds of MagSafe to see if the cases tear again.

Here is a photo:

 

[U.S. Patriot]

In my opinion the magsafe is a waste of money. In my opinion you would be better off with Wolf holow points.

 

[hotfarmboy1]

I'm not too surprised. I've heard the magsafe rounds in 7.62x25 are quite a bit hotter than the normal rounds. Running alot higher pressures. I actually read a readup about it in American Handgunner a few years ago when they sent a CZ52 to a gunsmith that knew them real well. Had some custom stuff done to it, then tried the surplus ammo, some of the magsafe ammo, and some custom loads by Quality Cartridge called the 223 timbs. A 223 softpoint 50 gr bullet in a sabot that ran around 1800-1900 fps out of a cz52. They were designed to work just with the cz and not the tokarev. I bought 2 boxes for mine and they shoot pretty dang good. But if I carry it I use the wolf hollow points, although I do have 2 packages of the magsafe, just haven't shot any yet. I may just shoot a pack soon and see if I have the same problem.

 

[chubbs]

I've had quite a few problems with my cz 52, i keep changing parts(rollers, recoil spring) and the slide still won't slide all the way back reliably.