I want a Winchester .375 H&H Safari Express; but none of the retailers have the rifle in stock. USRAC says that the rifle has been backordered so long that even its shipment to dealers in early October and its planned shipment in December will only fill 75% of the back orders. The next shipment after that is currently planned for February 2005. In the meantime, CZ has not been sitting idle. People who want a .375 apparently have no difficulty in buying a CZ 550 in that caliber, for about $350 less. It seems that by its sluggish response to demand, USRAC is allowing allow CZ to displace it in the big-bore market.

i guess that's good...
for the remainder of the 350 on that cz you can have a model 70 safety added, the stock rebedded, and slicked up, and still have a couple bucks for ammo

jeffe

The situasion is the same here in Norway...
According to a major dealer, it�s impossible to tell when the next batch of M70 Safari Express will reach our shores.
Hopefully during 2005 they state, but.........

The CZ Magnum by the way is in abundance.

I have to add that I love the cz's and intend to purchase more in the future. My cz's all shoot well......certainly better than the hunk of junk ruger 30/06 that I own

BB:

I will PM you Roger's contact information. I think he may post here under the name Rogersgunworks.

On my Lott I had the stock bed and reinforced (cross bolted, ss action pillars), barrel band swivel installed, slow rust blued barreled action, installed NECG sights, adjust travel and pull of trigger (disengaged set trigger), adjust, polish and smooth the action. Based upon what others here have outlined in terms of a DGR I was more concerned with the stock holding up to the recoil and ensuring the action is slick and feeds well. This gun functions extremely well.

On my 375 I had just had it bedded and reinforced...the thing shot so well I did not want to mess with it anymore!
While the action was very tight working it over time has smoothed it out. May be one day I will get up the courage to have more work done on this rifle...but that would prove a difficult choice

On the 416 Rigby I most likely will have it done up like the Lott.

Have you handled a CZ yet? May be if someone was near you that would let you shoot one...I would.... You may want to do that before purchasing....

it would be interesting to see what percentage of the market is big bore, I would bet is quite small within a large product line like Winchester has.

On the other hand I would think that big bore would make up a fair amount of CZ's rifle sales. They are no doubt going after that market.

They both make good guns, I have both. Can be a hard choice to make in buying a rifle.

I use czs brnos for years daily as im a ph most phs here uses czs or argentina customs mausers .cz are accurate,strong and reliables i even use a 308 with set trigger in tournaments winning most of them against custom rifles my 308 has thousands of shots because i use it in the army daily to shoot hundreds of ammo sometimes i use excellent argentina fal sometimes my scoped cz308.today it shoot as new and it has 15 years of continued use.

.

I had similar difficulties locating a left hand Win70 in .375H&H. In the end I purchased a left hand .300Win Mag in the US and had the dealer send it to Shilen for re-barrelling. I also changed out the factory bottom metal for a Williams unit.

Winchester - Browning here in the UK were unable to obtain one for me from the States. The company was unable to obtain a "Special" order as their paperwork was not geared up for single units.

I have found it both quicker and cheaper to deal direct with makers in the US, having them send stuff to a British "FFL".

I would assume you are correct that the market for Big Bores is indeed rather small compared to the market overall and most likely a relatively small portion of Winchesters sales. Unfortunately, given the lack of availability, selection/calibers, inventory in the market, pricing strategies, etc Winchester portion of the "Big Bores" market is smaller than could be??

One thing I learned long ago was that if a business is serving a particular market (large production) that required choices were made as to the extent of offerings, pricing, etc that are just part of plain old market strategies .... if you do not cover a segment of that market someone else will ...maybe at a profit...maybe just to establish a position in the overall market. Sometimes it is best to cover all the segments so competition does not enter the market...or at least make it hard for them to establish a position...

I probably never would have consider a CZ (just did not know they existed), however, they had a product in the market that at some level provided what I was looking for...although I did have additional work done to it/them. So next time when I am looking for another rifle (always looking) I will consider a CZ...maybe a 9.3x62?? I saw an amazing looking CZ .22 that if I was in the market I would have purchased and a .223 that another guy purchased before I could...

So has Winchester or others, at some level, by its/their decision not to fully provide product to the Big Bore, assisted in further establishing CZ as a competitor?..only time will tell..

While the Big Bore market is small...many who purchase them buy other guns and provide feedback to others, etc... In my case it seems that way......

i have been really dissapointed with winchester recently. i have a model 70 in 416 rem mag that i wanted to rebarrel in 458 lott. their customer service people are rude and unhelpful( as i was going to get a barrel from krieger, and they messed something up and i would have had to wait another 3-4 months for one of their barrels). i contated winchester and asked if i could just purchase a 458 lott factory barrel. they said "we do not sell barreled actions" after a few times of explaining that all i wanted was a barrel, and getting the same response, she hung up. a few days later, i called and asked if i could send the rifle to their custom gun shop and have them do the smithing work and put on a barrel ( as i was po ed with the gunsmith here) "no we don't do that work here. we have it sent out. but what you're asking, we won't do. we don't sell barreled actions" the next big bore i buy, definetly will NOT be a winchester!!! i like their shotguns, and think the world of their ammo, but will never again purchase a rifle from them. sorry to rant, just my .02

Hey,
Feel lucky. It sounds like you got to talk to one of their friendlier and more helpful Customer Service reps. I guess the frog ambience has really soaked in.
JCN

-One thing leads to another-
My first CZ was a 416 Rigby. I had never heard of them. It was $525.00 New . I liked it so much that I bought a 452 in .22 Mag, then another 452 in .22 LR, then a 527 in .223, and just now a 9.3x62. Am also saving up to buy Old Sarge's CZ in 450 Rigby. Why? Good price, built like a brick shit-house, serviceable accuracy.
Winchester thought the world was going to storm their factory with fistfuls of money when they brought back the Controlled Round Feed actions. Well they forgot the workmanship part of the equation. They can't line up scope base holes to save their lives. The only thing they have going for them is that Remington can't get their bolt handles to stay on, and also have trouble with drilling holes straight.
I am having a couple rifles built up on Winchester actions, but when the dust settles the only thing original about them will be their serial numbers. Why? Because I want them built right and the factory can't do it.
JCN