Tactical Training Associates Handgun 1 Course today..

Did TTA's handgun 1 course again with my buddy, Eric. Probably fired another 287 rounds into the P-01. Definitely a faster class today even with beginners since it was half the size of the first class I took.  Got to shoot more rounds compared to the lower 200s like last time. Gun did well today and functioned perfectly with the standard Fed Champion 115 gr 9mm ammo as well as with 50 rounds of the Fed HST 9mm 124gr ammo. This was also a testing ground for the new hammer and disconnector from Cajun Gun Works that I had installed prior. No malfunctions to report. I did, however, messed up a few times with doing admin reloads on my gun and never checking to see if it was loaded. I had forgotten that I ran empty on the last run and just sent the slide forward and then did an admin reload. Loudest click I ever heard was while being on that line and pressing that trigger with nothing happening. Total round count now is 2587

Target Masters West range day..

Went to TM in Milpitas today to function test the P-01. Installed a CGW Kit #4 Hammer/Disconnector kit along with a new hammer strut and pins. Installation took about an hour and a half. Could be quicker but this was my first time so I was taking my time making sure not to lose track of parts and where they go for reinstallation. With that said, I did manage to reinstall everything fine and function tested the pistol when I saw in the corner of my eye that the firing pin spring had fallen out. Gah. Had to take out the sear pin a bit to reinstall the pin which, thankfully, didn't take very long but it was a bit of a chore.

Fired about 100 thru it at TM without any problems. Trigger definitely breaks crisper in SA, and there is basically no perceivable camming of the hammer anymore in either DA or SA. Also rented out a CZ Rami since it might be a possible future gun. I can shoot it fine but you definitely notice less accuracy in its shorter barrel compared to my P-01. I can only hook 2 fingers on the grip when shooting which is fine, but have to remember to watch out for the mag when reloading. That mag change can bite your hand if you're not paying attention. Still, it was good feeling gun to shoot and could do well as a CCW type gun although I might opt for a pinky extension on the mags if I were to get one.

Round count for the P-01 is now 2300.

Went to Reed's

  Went to Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara today. I replaced my guide rod and hammer spring two days ago on my P-01 and wanted to check for reliability today. I replaced the stock guide rod with the same polymer guide rod that I bought from CZ USA's online store. Still debating if I should go with the aluminum one I saw on their website but I'm not sure how that extra weight might affect the gun's balance in my hands. Bought 2 more extra guide rods to keep on hand just in case the guide rod warps again somewhere down the line. I had exactly 2000 rounds before I replaced it.

  The stock hammer srping I replaced with a 15lb Wolf hammer spring. Some people say you must also replace the firing pin spring and recoil spring whenever you change your hammer spring lest you get occasional light strikes. Well, so far, after 200 rounds on Federal Champion 115gr from Walmart, I haven't had a problem yet with the new hammer spring installed. Shoots like a champ as always. As for pull weight from differences between the stock spring to the Wolf Spring, I'd say there is a bit of difference there. It's not overly dramatic as say if you got a trigger job, but it did lessen the pull weight enough that I was much more comfortable shooting in DA mode. I was definitely more accurate as well as I could place my shots where I wanted to just like in SA. It's still a bit of a pull, but I kinda like it in terms of the P-01 doing duty as a home defense type pistol. I don't want a 1911 hair trigger for a HD pistol because I feel there'd be no room for error.
  Round count today is 200 rounds of Federal Champion 115gr which brings the total number of rounds fired in the P-01 to date to 2200 rounds. 200 rounds with the new hammer spring without any issue.

Went to Target Masters @ Milpitas yesterday to finish off the rest of the Fed 50 round box from the Level 2 Pistol class plus fired an additional 150 rounds. Total round count now is 2000 rounds fired. Was going to do a little 1000 round malfunction test by not cleaning the gun for at least that many rounds to see if it'll start malfunctioning. However, I wanted to check the internals for wear since I had just used it for the level 2 pistol class. Everything was fine except for the polymer guide rod. Could be the round count or maybe I just didn't allow the gun to cool down enough after the rapid fire session at the end of the class but the guide rod had warped/bent a bit upon inspection. Not too bad it seems as I used it last night at Target Masters without a problem. However, I did order two more spares from CZ USA plus a 15 lbs Wolf Mainspring from Wolf Springs to ease up the weight of the DA trigger pulls.

Total Round Count..2000 rounds.

Fighting Pistol Level 2

Took the level 2 Fighting Piston class today at Morgan Hill with the guys at Tactical Training Associates. Class, of course, was much different from the level 1 class in that movement and positional shooting is now incorporated. First part of the class was some lecturing on the basic rules of firearms along with a little overview of what we were going to do later in the day. Movements done were forward, back, and lateral movement while shooting. Positional shooting was done from standing, to knees, and, finally, prone. Shot strings ranged from a single round to 3 rounds. I expended 314 rounds total without any failures at all. That brings the running total of rounds fired in the CZ P-01 to 1714.

Went To Metcalf today..

..and shot another box of Rem UMC Value Pack 250 rounds. So, that brings the running total of ammo fired in the P0-1 to 1400. So far so good. No other failures during that time so I guess my one and only failure so far might've been a limpwristing incident or just a weak charge on the ammo. That also gets rid of any of that UMC yellow box ammor that I might've had in stock. Back to Federal Champion or WWB for plinking ammo.

Just found these at the Walmart in Milpitas. Federal Champion Value pack 9mm 100 rounds, 115gr FMJ RN for $19.97. At $60 for 300 rounds, you're basically getting 50 rounds more than the regular 50 round Fed Champion Box or the UMC Value pack which are both just about $60 for 250 rounds. WWB is basically not even in the same league price wise anymore. Best value at Walmart for brass cased 9mm ammo. Only Tula might be a bit less and that is if your Walmart carries it and if you can even fire it at your local range.


Pics of the WWB 100 round pack, Fed Champion 100rnd value pack and Fed Champion 50 rnd pack for comparison.


Another view.


Two smaller white boxes are inside the value pack


Each box has a row of 10 rounds, 5 layers deep for a total of 50 each.


Side by side of a regular 50 round cartridge on left vs 100 round cartridge on right. Pretty much
the same except coating on the 100 rnd cartridge is a bit more shiny.


View from below of primers. Looks the same to me

Update for Sat, Sept 10 - Sun, Sept 11

On Sat, Sept 10, I took the CZ P-01 out for some tactical training with Tactical Training Associates based out of Morgan Hill, CA. It was their level 1 Pistol class which is basically a beginner's class. It was different, however, from the NRA Basic Handgun course that I took previously last Dec 2010. They focused more on the semi automatic type of pistol rather than a combination of semi and revolver as the NRA class did. Their lecture on basic safety, legality of owning and using a firearm, and other basic info was covered basically in an hour rather than the 2-3 hours it took with the NRA class. The rest of the time with TTA was basically working  drills with our guns from basics of markmanship to rapid fire drills. My P0-1 performed like a champed. Used exactly 230 rounds for this class and had no failures whatsoever.

Took a class pic

On Sun, Sept 11, 2011, I basically just went to Target Masters in Milpitas to finish off another 170 rounds to bring the total number of rounds fired in the gun to be about 1150.

update 9/4/11

Another update.

Shot another 250 rounds of UMC Value Pack from Walmart. This time around no failures to go into battery like the previous session. So, out of 750 rounds so far, only one failure to go into battery which could've been from a weak charge or a limp wristing incident. Anways, shot all of these in 5 round strings on 4 mags so each target basically was shot 20 times at 7 yards and 10 yards. 25 yards went all to hell as I was getting tired and was losing focus. Camera pic came out all blurry too so won't even bother posting that.


This was at 7 yards. Not too bad. Very first shot was for the center target with the DA pull. Totally missed and hit the very edge of the lower right target. lol


This was at 10 yards. Groupings getting a bit bigger. Couple of flyers here and there were from the 1st DA pulls..


Ah hell. I might as well post the last one, too. Center and top targets were from 25 yards. Didn't go as well as I liked. So I pulled the target back to 7 yards and shot the center target again plus the bottom two to get the groupings back down.

Update 8/28/2011

Just a little update...

Went to Metcalf today and shot a 250 rnd box of the UMC value pack from Walmart. I had already researched that this particular box of ammo has some feeding problems when used with the p0-1. Wanted to test it out since I still have 5 more boxes of this stuff and wanted to see if it would be reliable enough to take with me on an upcoming level 1 handgun course.

I shot all the 250 rounds with only 1 failure to go into full battery. It happened on the fourth tray of ammo during my DA/decocking test. I was loading full 10 round mags and decocking after each shot to get accustomed to the DA trigger pull. Was also testing for the finger pain I was experiencing with the trigger from the previous range trip to see if it was the long, hard DA trigger pull that was doing it and not the SA trigger pull.

Anyways, after firing a couple of rounds on the third mag for this drill, I tried to decock the hammer at one point and couldn't. Noticed that slide wasn't all the way forward. Could it have been a weak load from the previous round? Might've been. Might have also been from limp wristing since I was constantly decocking the hammer and might've just been a little too anxious at the last shot that I might've loosened the grip a bit too soon to decock. I did eject the round and compared it to some others for any differences in length or deformities. Nothing looked abnormal to my eyes. Loaded that round back in and fired it without a hitch. No problems whatsoever after that so I still couldn't say if it was an ammo induced failure or operator error.

As for the trigger pain, yes, for me I can say it only bothers me during DA pulls only. I went 100 rounds at first full SA pulls. No problems. When I went to DA/SA pulls and full DA pulls for the next 100 rounds, I couldn't definitely feel that hard and long trigger pull coupled with that curved trigger was a problem at least for me. Last 50 rounds I went back to SA pulls only while feeling for trigger reset and was fine.

Had one gentlemen try it out for a full mag on SA and said it was a really smooth trigger. Guess he liked it. In turn I got to try out his Beretta Neos. Man, I've forgotten what a .22 feels like. I was flinching the whole time cause I kept anticipating a snap when one never came so I kept dropping the muzzle a bit.

Got my CZ P0-1 out of jail yesterday..

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..and she's a darling. Man, I really love this gun. The fit of this gun in my hand feels like it was custom made just for me. Brought it home from Reed's yesterday and gave it a cleaning and lube using FL paste. Went to Target Masters today and fired about 50 rounds S&B and 200 rnds of Fed Champion. No hiccups whatsoever.

Things I noticed which other CZ P0-1 owners have mentioned previously:

1. Yeah, you do notice lesser purchase on those serrations when racking the slide but it's not that bad really. It might only have been a problem in the beginning when the recoil spring hadn't been broken in a bit cause it was tough those first few mags. Afterwards, it was easier and probably will be as I fire more rounds.

2. That DA trigger is really tough as others have said. I ended up loading mags with 2 rounds only to practice successive DA/SA trigger pulls and then full mags, decocking each time, to practice DA trigger pulls only for one box of Federal. Trigger got easier a bit to pull but its still heavy. Gonna shoot a couple hundred more rounds to see how she feels before I try for a trigger job.

3. I'm not sure if it was the heavy DA trigger or people were right about that curved trigger, but my trigger finger really did start to hurt after about 150 rounds. Never felt that kinda pain with my XDM trigger. Going to try SA trigger pulls only for the same amount of rounds to see if it was just a problem with the DA trigger or the curved trigger istself.

4. And speaking of the SA trigger, yes, it reminds me of my factory XDM trigger. It has a long reset and lots of slack before it breaks. Nothing I can't adopt to but it's a far cry from a good 1911 trigger.

Anyhoo..I know. Pics or it didn't happen.


The gun itself after its cleaning from the range.

Crappy cell phone target pics at 10 yards with, I think, 4 10rnd mags worth of ammo.


And @ 25 yards with 4 10 rnd mags worth of ammo.