The range was packed today; always a good sign for gun owners. It was a good mix of experienced and new shooters in all of the range areas: shotguns, rifles and handguns, and it was truly a melting pot of humanity. I can’t speak Cantonese, but my firing line neighbor and I were able to communicate “Glock”, “CZ 75” and, “Again, I apologize for bopping you on the head with ejected empties”.
My wife shot a Glock M22, most of the day, while I shot and recorded chronograph data for the CZ 75 SP-01. I brought along a few boxes of Remington 115 and 124 grain factory loads, as well as a several types of handloads I had assembled specifically for the occasion. Combined, I believe I was able to put a few hundred rounds through the gun, enough to break in the hardware and develop a better sense of the gun’s capabilities.
9mm Handloads from the Lee breech Loader Challenger
I do routinely handload for a 9mm, however, it is in the form of the stubby 357 SIG. I’m not sure why, but I just never got into handloading the 9mm Luger, much like I never got into handloading the 38 Special. However, I enjoyed shooting the CZ 75 SP-01 a great deal, the Lee Precision Breech Lock Challenger Press was fun, so I thought it would be reasonable to put the two together.
The objective of the handloading exercise was to produce a few cost effective defensive loads, rather than more pedestrian practice ammo. I frequently find 9mm Winchester and Remington products for this application sold at $9/50 rounds at Wal-Mart and Big 5 that work reliably and deliver decent accuracy. Their use conserves my handloading time, without adding a huge cost penalty, and provides a ready supply of brass for more specialized handloads.
All of the handloads were assembled with the Lee Breech Lock Challenger kit, using the supplied scale, powder dispenser a Safety Prime System. I used a 4 die Lee Deluxe Pistol die set, however, I did not use the factory crimp die because of some of the short shank bullets that were loaded. With this equipment experience under my belt, I thought it would be appropriate to offer a few observations.
If we could all get past being equipment snobs, we could save so much money. Included in the kit, or $20 as a standalone piece, is the Lee Safety Scale. Every dispensed charge went to this scale’s pan, then into an RCBS pan and into a Hornady pan, products costing between 2.5x and 6x more; not a single perceptible difference in readings. I did finally get my brain around the tenth grain scale, after a few weighs, and it’s use became routine. The only suggestion I could add for improvement would be to make the cradle and pan as two separate parts. This would make loading the pan and dumping to a funnel less awkward. Other than that I am sold. The scale held zero, the magnets slowed the beam for quick reads and accuracy and repeatability was more precise then any handload needs to be.
I’ve done a number of powder measure comparisons on Real Guns. Mostly for fun because I don’t trust them very much and analysis typically bares this out. The little Perfect Powder Dispenser worked like a champ. I scaled every charge metered from the unit and with 5.3 grains expectation, achieved this weight 14 of 20 times, 5.4 grain 3 times and 5.2 grains 3 times. The 1/10th over / under was actually closer to 1/20th, if that actually makes a difference. The dispenser performed essentially the same for a 5.7 grain charge, a 6.2 grain charge and a 6.6 grain charge. I was metering Alliant Power Pistol in all cases, a ball powder.
I didn’t use the micrometer scale with the enclosed Grain – CC conversion table to anticipate the effect of adjustments, I’m lazy. It took very little time to get a feel for the effects of adjustments, so it was easy to bump or lose a tenth, or move up a grain without really looking at the indexed adjustment rod. However, I did try noting settings and was able to return with reliable results.
It is a smooth little unit; no bumping or jerky motions, no spills or leaks. Hopper cut off is clean, making it easy to empty when finished. Even static was minimal and no baffle was required in the hopper for uniform dispensing. Free in the kit, $18 in standalone form, it would be a tough unit to beat on price or performance for single station presses. For press mounted duty and turret press operation the Lee Disk Powder Measure is a good substitute.
The press worked fine affixed to the small roll cart for all operations, with the exception of priming with the Safety Prime System. The problem wasn’t the press, on a normal bench the Safety Prime Systems works effortlessly, it was the very light cart that was just too light to offer enough resistance when seating primers on the up stroke. My solution was to put some weight on the bottom shelf, about 70 pounds or so. An easier solution for anyone setting up a portable workstation would be to select the other Breech Lock Challenger kit with the Auto Prime handheld priming tool. The new Breech Load Challenger is priced at $46 for a standalone press, $96 for an entire reloading kit.
I did learn a few things after gaining additional experience with the Breech Lock System –
It is important not to over tighten the die lock rings as this is not necessary, defeats the purpose of the rubber “O” rings and will make initial die adjustment within the bushing difficult.
Initially, pulling the die and bushing without changing their orientation is a little tough. The “O” ring in the press creates enough friction to hold the bushing while the die turns out. After a handful of cycles of installing bushings the press internal “O” ring seems to settle down and relaxes its grip. I also found dabbing a little case lube on the “O” ring allows the “O” ring to provide vertical bushing – press alignment without holding on to it.
The funnel neck is too long for the 9mm Luger. It drops over the case and does not seal the mouth, same as when used with Winchester short magnums. The quick and easy fix is to cut off a piece of the funnel, but I think I am more curious why these are made so long. Picky, picky, picky. If Lee offered a funnel with removable inserts I would gladly buy one; big Weatherby, stubby WSM, diminutive .32 ACP.
The supplied plug in the bullet seating die works great with all of the bullets I loaded. The ogive contact is away from the nose that frequently is an unstable reference point. Measured with a comparator, COL for all was dead on. All of the dies were easy to set and all held their adjustment in Breech Lock configuration, and all functioned just as good when I installed dies in conventional press fashion.
There is a lot to be said for batch processing with a single stage press. The process makes it much easier to verify steps. The process of doing one step continually, much like my dancing, tends to make for more uniform powder charges, primer seating, bullet seating, etc. I know some folks need a lot of volume, thousands of rounds in a very short period of time, but I think that is an atypical application.
Handload components selected…
I loaded three bullet types: Speer Gold Dot 147 grain $0.18, Remington Golden Saber 124 grain $0.11 and Sierra SportsMaster 125 grain $0.15. They are all hollow points, all provide rapid expansion with high weight retention. The Golden Saber features a driving band and reduced diameter forward of the band to improve feeding and reduce bore friction. This list just as easily could have included Hornady and Winchester bullets as they provide similar performance at comparable prices. This list specifically excludes Barnes $0.75, or Extreme Shock $0.92 because they are expensive and a colossal waste of money for most applications.
I selected new MagTech brass $0.13…because it was on sale. I could have just as easily selected Remington $0.12, Winchester $0.14 or Starline $0.15 because it is all shiny, made of C26000 cartridge brass alloy and makes not one bit of difference.
For the sake of simplicity I loaded Alliant Power Pistol. Power Pistol is an easy to meter ball powder that comes close to filling cases the size of the 9mm Luger. It generates a moderate amount of energy per grain, burns consistently and ignites just fine with standard primers; in this case CCI #500 small pistol. I don’t typically load very fast powders in handguns because they are less forgiving of small human and scale measuring deviations. I did try slower Blue Dot with the heavy 147 grain bullets, a powder I use for the 357 SIG and other larger cartridges with some frequency, but the results were inconsistent with the 9mm and there was a lot of unburned powder residue.
Handload Data…
I try to seat pistol bullets out as far as possible, as long as they feed and function reliably. The increased net capacity tends to require more powder for a given velocity, but usually is more consistent than loads assembled with really fast powders. COL for these loads are critical as decreasing COL in even relatively minor increments can increase the intended 30,000 – 35,000 PSI levels to 60,000+ levels. There is also not a lot of room for increased COL before failure to feed problems develop. The most critical in this regard was the Sierra 125 grain that has a relative long bearing surface and sharply angled ogive.
Bullet: Remington Golden Saber
Bullet weight: 124 grains
Brass: MagTech
Powder: Alliant Power Pistol
Powder Charge: 6.2 grains
Primer: CCI #500
COL: 1.120″
Recorded Average Velocity: 1,244 fps
Bullet: Sierra SportsMaster
Bullet weight: 125 grains
Brass: MagTech
Powder: Alliant Power Pistol
Powder Charge: 5.7 grains
Primer: CCI #500
COL: 1.050″
Recorded Average Velocity: 1,181 fps
Bullet: Speer Gold Dot
Bullet weight: 147 grains
Brass: MagTech
Powder: Alliant Power Pistol
Powder Charge: 5.2 grains
Primer: CCI #500
COL: 1.130″
Recorded Average Velocity: 1,096 fps
Factory Load: Remington UMC 115 grain
Recorded Average Velocity: 1,145 fpsFactory Load: Remington UMC 124 grain
Recorded Average Velocity: 1,070 fps
CZ 75 SP-01 Shooting Performance
The best performance came from handloads, specifically Sierra SportsMaster 125 grain where 1″ – 1½” 15 yard groups were routine. Please keep in mind I have not had much experience with the gun and this is from a two hand hold. Golden Saber, 124 grain, handloads grouped about the same. 147 grain Gold Dots and 124 grain Remington factory ammo grouped between 1 ½” – 2″. 115 grain Remington factory loads shot about 2 ½“.
My wife shot similar performance with a 40 S&W chambered M22, but the SP-01 is bone stock, while the Glock has had over $500 worth of massaging added to its purchase price. I think that says a lot about the quality of the CZ and the gun’s potential. If a little more is needed, CZ-USA does have a custom shop that performs serious competition and routine refinement. CZ also offers a CZ 75 SP-01 Custom that includes packaged competition mods.
The CZ 75 SP-01 is big, beefy, balanced and easy to shoot. The muzzle comes up on target, it does not share the skyward point of a Glock. Feeling a little muzzle heavy, it is steady on target and perceived recoil, regardless the level of load, is minimal. The sights are sharp and well defined, the long sight radius is even forgiving of three cups of strong morning coffee. The controls are within reasonable reach and positive in operation. During all of the live fire, factory ammo and handload all fed and cycled reliably. At one point I had 4 types of ammo staged in one magazine, 115 grains to 147 grains, and it all fed normally. Performance and appearance were good enough to cause visits from other shooters at the range; they looked, asked questions and left with a favorable impression. The only thing that took some getting use to, and required a bit more concentration than I typically supply, was the trigger pull. The active part of the trigger pull is very good. Creep is virtually non-existent and measured single action pull is reasonable at a shade over 5 lbs, but the slack portion of the pull is…maybe eight feet long. Once I got use to taking up this slack, and mentally ignored this preliminary motion as part of the trigger squeeze, the trigger broke cleanly and even relatively rapid fire groups shrank dramatically.
In my opinion, much better than a Glock in handling and accuracy and comparable in price. Less expensive and more substantial than a SIG. The CZ 75 SP-01 is a well made, well mannered full size all steel 9mm. It will encourage practice because it is easy to shoot and its accuracy and reliability will quickly build a shooter’s confidence. A very nice gun.
Thanks,
Joe
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