Hi all,

I took my new CZ 550 Minnesota on her maiden voyage to the range yesterday for barrel break in and rough sighting in. Unfortunately I experienced a few problems.

Feeding was about 50% at best, from a full mag and all the way down to the last round. The bolt wouldn't reliably strip the top round off. Pressing up on the mag didn't help.

I also had trouble closing the bolt on some rounds where the claw wouldn't go over the rim and I had to bump the butt on the bench to dislodge the round from the chamber. This happened with some factory Win FailSafe rounds too. I was handling her with kid gloves and didn't want to SLAM the bolt home.

I was running handloads assembled in mixed commercial and Hirtenberger brass last fired in a Ruger M77 with 150gr boat tails over 38gr of AA2200 (2.5gr below max) and Rem primers crimped with a Lee Factory Crimp die.

Accuracy was marginal with 2"-4" groups at 100yds; un-tuned ammo and maybe my technique are hopefully the culprit but factory ammo wasn't any better.

The normal trigger is way too light at about 1.5 lbs. The set trigger worked great.

Again this was a breakin trip to season the barrel and get 'er on paper.

Anybody know if CZ chambers tend to run on the min. spec. side? I didn't bother trimming cases because I just wanted someting to fire. I pulled some of my bullets when I got home and some cases were .005 over max.

Any ideas on correcting the feeding problem, or should I just shoot the bejeezes out of this thing and hope it works itself out.

Thanks!

try lubing the magazine box underneath where the rounds stop. this helped my 7x57 550 lux a lot. I broke mine in 1 shot and clean for 10 rounds, 3 shots and clean for 30 rounds. acuracy is good 139 gr hornady .770 4 shots.

Beardog,

Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a try, but I'll probably take it to a local smith today. I do have an e-mail in to CZ too.

My planned break in routine was fire one & clean for ten, fire five & clean for 20, fire ten & clean for 20 but I got so frustrated that I packed up and went home before I got through all the five shot strings.

I forgot to mention in my initial post that when rounds were stripped of the mag by the bolt they weren't being gripped by the extractor claw in classic controlled cartridge feed fashion; just rattling loose in the receiver.

How'd you get a Minnesota? CZ-USA told me they were not importing that one.

BTW - the problems you're experiencing are VERY un-CZ-like. I'm guessing they'll ask you to send it to them for a going over.

I have the 550 American in 9.3x62, and it has performed flawlessly, although I do have the c-clip doo-dad on the firing pin to worry about.

R-WEST

To make a long story short, a friend spotted this in a local shop, NIB. It was kind of a race to see who got there first. $350 out the door. I suspect it had been sitting there a while.

But with these problems...?

I talked to the CZ gunsmithh this morning. He's sending me another mag to try. If that doesn't work I'll get an RMA and send it in.

What c-clip doo-dad? I haven't heard of that, but this is my first CZ.

Hey, MT, sorry I didn't check back earlier. The problem I referred to is covered pretty well here http://www.nookhill.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=003861;p=1

R-WEST

R-West,

Thanks for the follow-up. Now I know what to look for. Hopefully, though, I won't have the c-clip thingy. My CZ is a "Minnesota" with the MRI MPLS MN stamping, three position safety and contoured for Rem 700 bases.

Reading the thread you posted, this gun must have been siting in a warehouse for several years if it was imported by MRI before the current CZ-USA in KS took over.

BTW, Mike at CZ-USA did send me a new mag which worked perfectly. I also managed one two-hole four-shot group. One three shot hole I could literally cover with a dime with another about 1.5" low. I'm getting happier with this gun!

Told ya it would shoot You ain't seen nothin yet