Bang or Bust - Trigger Setups in the CZ Shadow 2

     Your gun setup will not win you a match, but it can certainly lose you one. I see it all the time. Someone has found a way to push their setup to the ragged edge, thinking it will get them the fraction of a second they need. It does not matter what gun it is. They will find a way, with lighter springs, softer ammo, extended firing pins, and tunning set screws to the edge of just working on getting what they believe at the time will help them shoot faster and more accurately until it doesn't work. That spring broke, that round failed to feed, that set screw moved, and the gun wouldn't fire. These failures in setup are a necessary lesson for many in their long path of learning and testing how far they can push the edge until they understand that there is a trade-off between reliability and consistency. And in this game of practical shooting, reliability and consistency mean more than feeling like your gun runs faster.   

     Safety is the number one priority of any USPSA match. Setting up a safe, reliable gun that is competitive at any skill level is easy for anyone. It is all fun and games until what you do with your equipment can put someone else at risk. Without layers of safety in place, combined with complacency is a recipe for disaster.  

     I know that that DA first trigger pull seems like something you will never be able to master now but don't worry, you will get there with a bit of practice, and before you know it, you won't even notice it's there. I have seen 10-11.5 Hammer springs that sometimes won't detonate a primer on the first strike. Then there are the super lightweight firing pin return springs that will break and wear out quickly, leading to failure. Light trigger return springs help the trigger pull gauge get a lower number but make the trigger return feel sluggish and have no place in USPA shooting. The newer red trigger return springs are reliable and last long in the CZ. Extended firing pins rest against the primer when the hammer is at rest. Extended firing pins in the CZ Shadow 2 are not a safe setup. In USPSA, you start with the hammer fully down. With an aftermarket extended firing pin and lightweight return spring, a dropped gun can hit the back of the hammer with enough force to set off the round in the chamber. 

     The Shadow 2 Orange comes with a competition hammer with optimal sear engagement. This hammer produces a fantastic single-action performance and is good to go. In our trigger jobs and builds, we only add a CZ competition hammer if one still needs to be installed. We use the 13# hammer spring as it will detonate any primer with the factory firing pin. If running a reduced reach setup (the hammer falls sooner from DA), we add the RAMI 2075 firing pin return spring. We set up our reduced reach triggers with a CZC Trigger shoe that does not rely on any set screws for takeup and overtravel adjustment. We then fit a disconnector for a nice reset in this gun with reliable and consistent pretravel. This is an optimal performing, safe, and reliable setup that will always work. This setup will provide the exact split times as a lighter, less reliable, and questionably safe setup will.

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