While the purchase price of the CZ big bores is attractive..... what does a buyer have/need to do in terms of making them good solid working rifles? Standard modifications?

Thanks, Jeff

My 416Rigby CZ550 has been put in a Brockman Laminate stock but that was primarily because I like the stock and didn't like the European style that came on it. It has had the barrel cut to 21" and new front ramp and sight and barrel band sling swivel installed but these were only done because I WANTED them done not because the rifle needed it done. It has had no other mods done to it and it performs flawlessly and the accuracy is well under an inch. I would probably glass a new one but I glass every gun I own. I do not like the cheekpiece on the European stocks but that can be modified. Most come with crossbolts in the larger bores. The sights,trigger and scope mounts are perfectly capable of good use right out of the box. Most people just seem to like to trash CZ's but have probably never used one. I have a Brno ZKK 602 in 375 that has the original stock because I like the perfect fit of it. I have glassed and installed crossbolts but it was owned and used by Jon Speed in Africa and he didn't do anything to it but remove the front sling swivel from the forearm. The set trigger on the CZ works fine for bench work and is fine as a regular trigger. My two have safeties that work the opposite of each other and again that has caused zero problems for me. The CZ's have the normal front to fire operation most are used to but I have Mdl 70 style safeties,FN style safeties on both sides,Remington style side safeties and old fashioned Mauser safeties and i use them all with no problems including in triggerguard and tang safeties on my shotguns so I believe that is an over emphasized 'FLAW'. The main thing you need to do with a new CZ is shoot it.

Zim,

Good reply.

Just to add, I think any new CZ just has to be evaluated on an individual basis. If it was I .... the big kickers probably need a couple crossbolts, bedded, the barrel whacked and a new front sight installed (in my case a NECG so I can have a big (old man) bead), and a new bolt handle. The trigger can be adjusted if you screw around with it long enough!

Personally, I like the safety the way it is, 2-position.

I just think that one should figure on another ~$500 +/- to get it going.

But it is all personal preference stuff. Do what you want.

Will said it better than I could. Ditto the above post. You might want to polish the feedramp as well. I hear a lot of griping about the CZ set trigger. I have never heard of one giving up, and they do smooth out after some use.

I've owned 4 or 5 of them personally in the large calibers, and I've not seen one yet that was "safari ready" for feeding cartridges.

I highly reccomend you put some money into having the inside of the action polished and the feeding worked over by someone that understands how they should work. To have it done right, that will cost you about $250.

With it done, and for the money, they are great guns.

I pretty much agree with all the above comments. One thing I will add is not all the CZ-550's or ZKK-602's that you might buy, have cross-bolts. If you are like me and like to do-it-yourself now and then, Brownells sells a simple gig, I think it's made by B-Square, that you can use to easily drill your stock to install cross-bolts.


Check this out...


B-Square jig.






Showing how the jig is clamped in place. It must remain securely clamped until each hole is drilled out.




The finished product.


This is a ZKK-602 in .416 Remington.

Check the muzzle crown also. Mine was awful from the factory.

LWD

Very cool Demo.

My son ordered a CZ 416 Rigby in advance of our first safari in 06. His rifle came thru the CZ US custom shop for special work; bedding, trigger, forend cap, etc. When it arrived it wouldn't feed properly. It was sent back and reworked by CZ. On safari the trigger puked out. Lucky we had back up rifle with us. It has since been reworked by an excellent gunsmith and should be fine. From this experience it seems CZ makes a sound action and that's all.

I would buy the version with two x-bolts already installed and hope the stock fits you. You can polish that action and make sure that everything works by shooting 100+ rounds through it. Thankfully CZ got rid of that stupid English-style stock they used to put on ZKK Magnums. I got rid of two of them because I looked at the back of the bolt shroud every time I mounted each rifle. I pay more attention to stock fit on my heavy rifles than on my classic double bird guns.

I find it interesting that studdog had trouble after getting the factory trigger changed.

Sounds a bit like the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." thing to me.

People will obviously have different experiences. I have had no problems with my Brno's.

I've got a 1989 ZKK-602 that was originally a .375H&H and was re-chambered to .416RM, I believe by the original owner.
It's got that "fugly" 2-piece trigger, but it works. I have contemplated switching it to a Timney. It also has no barrel band sling stud, a major fault of all the Brno's.

My other is a CZ-550 that was a .458WM and I had it re-chambered to .458 Lott. The rifle fed like crap with the shorter WinMag cartridge, but it functions great as a Lott. That longer cartridge improves the feed angle.

I am not crazy about the triggers on either of these rifles but have a serious amount of trepidation about changing something that functions fine as is. But I am considering it.
I think a discussion with my gunsmith has to occur before I do it.

A lot of people do not like the 2 position safety but I think it is fine. But I am also considering the 3 position safety made by David Miller, that Brownells sells.

Regarding my own Brno 602, I had the stock bedded all the way from the recoil lug to the fore-end tip, cut the barrel to 23 inches, recrowned and refitted the front sight, removed the nasty fore-end sling swivel boss and replaced with a barrel band, polish rails, follower and feed ramp, fit Decellarator and hand-finished the stock. The whole is topped with a 1-4 Leupold in Warne QD rings.

Balance is just fine and it feeds anything as reliable as you can ask for. I do not recommend shortening the barrel to 21 inches. 23 is fine, and muzzle flip and blast increases alarmingly with shorter lengths, in my experience at least.

With a .416 or larger you must fit a crossbolt through the recoil lug as well. That and bedding will prevent the stock from splitting, although I don't think a crossbolt is necessary on a .375 provided it is properly bedded.

My rifle has withstood hundreds of full-power 300-grain reloads with no problems and accounted for a wide variety of game here in Africa. Have yet to see a factory CZ with crossbolts over here in the RSA.

CZ/Brno rifles turn into very reliable workhorses with just a little TLC. I have lost count of the number of PH's I have met who use them for back-up rifles, although I'll admit that most of them prefer the old ZKK 602 to the newer CZ 550. The 550's trigger has a way of breaking when least needed, or so I'm told. My own 602 luckily came with the standard one-piece trigger and not that awful, straight, two-piece set trigger. The let-off is just fine at about 4 lbs and I have had no cause to complain.

My two cents' worth...

this question always surprises me. i've still got a 550 in 416 rigby and have had 3 others in 308, 270, and 375. all were bought new, never had any modifications (except reshaping the outside of the 416's stock) and never gave anything less than perfect performance. no stock splits, no malfunctions, no nothing.

the last group i got out of the 416 was 4 shots cutting each other at 50 yds. somewhere i've got a 3" 10 shot 100yd group fired with the 375 which doesn't sound impressive except was the last 10 shots of 20 and the barrel was blistering hot and inside that 3" group are 3 smaller distinct groups of 3, 3, and 4 shots because i adjusted the scope twice.

i agree their bedding is unorthodox but so what. i've also noticed in similar threads how many "new" CZ's malfunctioned after some alleged expert had screwed around with it before the owner ever shot it once.

my advice: get one, shoot it, check it out and see if it actually needs anything at all BEFORE you let some stupid wanker dink with it.

roger

I own two safari classics and never had to do any type of modifications. Very reliable feeding and extracting and handle very nicely.

a while back on one of these forums some one listed the name of a company that repaired guns etc. but they also did special work on cz by doing all the things listed and more. they listed package prices for different work. maybe someone reading this can fill in the blank. good luck.

That would be AHR Ed Plummer and Wayne ...

http://www.hunting-rifles.com/CZ/CZowners.htm


They did a nice job on upgrading my already nice CZ Safari Classic. Here's an image.




Chuck