Author Topic: How to turn your 97B into a single shot pistol (temporarily)  (Read 877 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline pdoggeth

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 20
How to turn your 97B into a single shot pistol (temporarily)
« on: September 25, 2015, 01:09:04 PM »
I picked up a 97b recently, and I certainly loves me some 45ACP fun.  I did have a spare SP01 slide stop lying around, and I was very curious if it would fit in the 97b.  Well, I put it in, and it did fit.  Without any rounds, I function checked the gun, and it cycled.  Very carefully I tested a few semi wadcutter 200 gr rounds that I reloaded and cycled them through the gun, and it went through perfectly also.  So what's not to love?  I went to the range with my 97b with an SP01 slide stop, and my last batch of semi wad cutters and some  230gr RN Freedom Munitions reloads.

Well the semi wadcutters went through without a hitch.  But when I started shooting the 230 gr RN... it was jamming.  Every. Single. Round (almost).  Right there I decided to look in at see what was causing the jams.  It appears the tip of the bullet was having trouble going up the ramp, it would almost point at slightly below horizontal angle.  A tap and rack did not resolve these jams either.  I had to put some leverage with my finger at the back of the cartridge case and tip it up to get it to feed.  My previous outing with the 97b did not have any issues with 230 gr RN, so obviously the jams were because of the slide stop.  I guess this is what it feels like to have a single shot pistol though, as I had to tip up the jammed round every single time to get it to feed.

When I got back home and inspected the original 97b slide stop and the SP 01's, I noticed that the SP01 latch was much longer than the 97b's.  And when the slide stop was put into the 97b, the extra length would just barely block  the passage the bullet tip as it went up the ramp.  It did not block the semi wad cutters as those had much narrower profile and was able to not get bound up by the slide stop latch.

This was just an experiment out of boredom to see if parts were interchangeable (they are not, at least not without modification).  Since this is a spare slide stop, I may just try to file it down and see if it works later with my 97b (or my Rami), but I'll most likely just place the original slide stop back on.  The extended SP01 is long, but not long enough for my medium hands to manipulate it without changing position, so I might as well use the original anyways.

Offline Joe L

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7197
Re: How to turn your 97B into a single shot pistol (temporarily)
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2015, 12:02:57 AM »
I had to trim the slide stop nubbin on my 97 to get the 185 JHP to clear.  They wouldn't jam, they just didn't feel right hitting the stop, forcing them to hit the right side of the ramp, but they fed OK.  I think the SWC would miss it.  Anyway, didn't take long and didn't have to remove much material at all to get them to clear.  That was in February.  Not a single problem or weird feeling since, and I've stuck with the ammo. 

Joe
CZ-75B 9mm and Kadet, 97B"E", two P-09's, P-07, P-10C, P-10F, P-10S, MTR