I've had a brand new CZ-97B sitting in the box in the back of my safe for a while now. It is the old model 97-B with wood grips. The other day I decided to field strip it, lube it up, and get it ready for the range. When I disassembled it I found the factory stock plastic recoil spring guide rod to be badly warped in a bowed position.
The slide racked OK out of the box. But after I field stripped it to lube everything up, (the gun was filthy and dry as a bone from the factory), and reassembled it, I couldn't get the slide to rack. It was binding up after it went back an inch or so. I had to take off the slide and rotate the recoil spring and guide rod so the "bow" in the guide rod went up into the slide, instead of down toward the dust cover like I had it. With the bow in the rod pointing down it seemed to be causing an interference issue. The slide then racked as it should.
The bottom line is that I was not at all satisfied with the cheap, warped, flimsy plastic guide rod supplied with this pistol. I'm afraid to shoot it, for fear the guide rod will rotate 180 degrees through firing, and tie up the gun. Or possibly even damage something. I can't be the only guy that has had this condition develop with this gun, along with it's cheap, flimsy, factory plastic guide rod. So I purchased a nice, polished Stainless Steel Guide Rod from Cajun Gun Works.
https://cajungunworks.com/product/stainless-steel-guide-rod-97bbd-tactical-sport/
It arrived today, and took all of 2 minutes to install. This guide rod is longer, fits better, and keeps everything straight. The slide racks much smoother. Tomorrow I'm going to load up and head for the range. It's really sad to see a premier gun company like CZ put this kind of cheap, flimsy junk into a 42 ounce, all steel .45 ACP full size pistol. If it's money they're after, then charge another $20 bucks and put a decent guide rod in the thing for God's sake. That's not the way a guide rod is supposed to look from just sitting in a pistol, without firing a round through it.
The slide racked OK out of the box. But after I field stripped it to lube everything up, (the gun was filthy and dry as a bone from the factory), and reassembled it, I couldn't get the slide to rack. It was binding up after it went back an inch or so. I had to take off the slide and rotate the recoil spring and guide rod so the "bow" in the guide rod went up into the slide, instead of down toward the dust cover like I had it. With the bow in the rod pointing down it seemed to be causing an interference issue. The slide then racked as it should.
The bottom line is that I was not at all satisfied with the cheap, warped, flimsy plastic guide rod supplied with this pistol. I'm afraid to shoot it, for fear the guide rod will rotate 180 degrees through firing, and tie up the gun. Or possibly even damage something. I can't be the only guy that has had this condition develop with this gun, along with it's cheap, flimsy, factory plastic guide rod. So I purchased a nice, polished Stainless Steel Guide Rod from Cajun Gun Works.
https://cajungunworks.com/product/stainless-steel-guide-rod-97bbd-tactical-sport/
It arrived today, and took all of 2 minutes to install. This guide rod is longer, fits better, and keeps everything straight. The slide racks much smoother. Tomorrow I'm going to load up and head for the range. It's really sad to see a premier gun company like CZ put this kind of cheap, flimsy junk into a 42 ounce, all steel .45 ACP full size pistol. If it's money they're after, then charge another $20 bucks and put a decent guide rod in the thing for God's sake. That's not the way a guide rod is supposed to look from just sitting in a pistol, without firing a round through it.