You cannot avoid replacing springs, even if you are completely satisfied with your CZ just as you took it out of the box. They are subject to wear and tear, so from time to time you have to replace them for purely maintenance reasons.
Spring stiffness also fundamentally affects the behavior of the gun – how unpleasant the recoil is for you, how easily the gun racks, how reliably it ejects the casing, or how hard you have to pull the trigger.
Different shooters require different things from their pistol:
- sports shooters prefer a light trigger,
- those who have guns for self-defense, on the other hand, do not want it to fire accidentally.
To help you understand what each spring affects and how changing its stiffness changes the handling and behavior of your pistol, we have written a series of articles for you about individual springs. In this article, we focus on the recoil spring. You can find other articles here:
- Part 1: recoil spring
- Part 2: main spring and firing pin spring
- Part 4: extractor spring and magazine catch spring
ATTENTION: For CZ models, we must distinguish between two versions of pistols: classic hammer-fired models (e.g., CZ 75B, CZ 75 SP-01 Shadow 1, CZ Shadow 2, TS 2) and modern striker-fired models (CZ P-10 series). Each of them has its own specifics, also when it comes to springs.
Where to find springs on our website
You can find complete tuning spring sets, individual springs, and original CZ parts in several places:
- in the Springs category (focused on tuning sets),
- in the Spare parts category (original CZ parts),
- and in the Spare parts and Springs subcategories for individual models under the By model category.
TIP: Also check out Pins, which the springs cannot do without.
Where to find the trigger spring
You can find the trigger spring hidden inside the trigger mechanism – in the body of the trigger shoe on a small pin inside the frame. Both hammer-fired and striker-fired models have it.
What the trigger spring does
It returns the trigger forward after firing.
When pulling the trigger, you compress its legs, which provide resistance during the take-up. After releasing your finger, the trigger spring ensures the return of the trigger to its original position – the so-called reset. The stronger the trigger spring is, the faster and more aggressively the trigger returns.
The trigger spring determines the trigger pull weight together with the main spring, but each in a different way
You encounter the resistance of the trigger spring right at the beginning during the trigger take-up – it determines the resistance of the so-called slack before you hit the main wall before the shot. If you overdo it with tuning the lightness of the trigger spring, the take-up will indeed be very soft, but on the other hand, a sluggish reset might annoy you.
When to replace the trigger spring
The trigger spring is one of the most stressed springs in the gun. It breaks frequently and is strictly a consumable part: for sports guns, we recommend replacement after 10,000–15,000 rounds because they are weaker.
You can tell a broken trigger spring by the fact that after firing, the trigger does not return forward, and you have to mechanically push it forward for every subsequent shot.
Recommendations for sports shooters
The factory trigger spring is quite stiff to guarantee that the trigger returns reliably to the forward position every time. Sports shooters often install a lighter trigger spring, thereby reducing the trigger pull weight by another 100–200 g. The trigger thus becomes very sensitive.
ATTENTION: If you install a spring that is too weak, the reset will slow down. The goal of proper tuning is to find a happy medium.
Recommendations for self-defense
For guns used for EDC and self-defense, we therefore recommend keeping the factory trigger spring and regularly replacing it with a new one of the same stiffness.
The resistance of the factory trigger spring prevents an accidental discharge in a stressful situation and can overcome a certain amount of dirt in the gun, which a weaker trigger spring might not handle. In addition, you have greater certainty that a stronger spring will not just snap when you need it least.
Can I replace the trigger spring myself?
We recommend beginners visit a gunsmith. A more experienced shooter can handle it at home, even though it is not completely simple. A great helper for replacing the trigger spring is the trigger spring installation tool, which will save you a lot of time and nerves.
TIP: Don't want to deal with every individual spring? Get a complete sports-tuned set right away for CZ TS and CZ TS2 series models or CZ Shadow 2 models.