I purchased a 550 Magnum 375 H&H last fall. The first time I took it to the range I noticed that the bolt was a little hard to close...just a little bit. Anyway, I fired a round or two and noticed that the brass was all scarred up.

I took the rifle to a smith and he said that there was a burr in the chamber and that the chamber was tight. For whatever reason, he refused to smooth it out. Instead, he smoothed the rails and called it a day. He said that the scratching on the cases was only superficial and to not worry about it.

Being me, I worried about it. I then sent the rifle back to CZ with an explanation of the problems. About two weeks later I got the rifle back and they had replaced the stock (why, I don't know...they did not explain) and had polished the chamber; or so they said. Well, I guess they did because now the brass only has little scars on it instead of the big ones before I sent it to them.

Anyway, I don't like the fact that the brass has any scars on it PERIOD so I've got to do something with the rifle. I don't think that reaming the chamber out to 375 WBY will help because the scarring occurs right off of the belt. I have, however, thought about having it rebarreled to something else. Maybe 458 Lott.

Doing that, though, messes with my plans to buy a Ruger in 458 Lott. To make a long story short (I know, it's late for that), what would you do with the rifle? Have a new barrel installed? Chamber it to some obscure bigbore wildcat? Use it as a tomato stake?

I need to have a 375 in my collection so if I do go another route, I will have to buy a new one. Damn it, why couldn't they get it right from the factory?

Oh well. Suggestions, please? Oh, and I am not sending it back to CZ.

Landrum

What is causing the scratches?

If it is just sharp or rough feed rails that can be corrected.

honest answer?

4 choice
send it back to CZ with a note stating that the attempt to repair was not acceptable.

Find another smith who will dismount the barrel, camberfer the edge a tiny hair,

sell it

live with it .. unless you do a 375 RUM, nothing common will recut the rear of the chamber

Jeffe,
A .375 Rum will not clean up a .375 H&H.
The .375 Rum has a longer neck than the .375 H&H, and same case length.
The .375 H&H shoulder will show above the the .375 RUM on fireformed brass.
A .375 Weatherby will fully clean up a .375 H&H shoulder.
.375 Wby is 2.860" max brass, compared to only 2.850" max brass length for .375 H&H.

Landrum,
The scratched brass is a minor broblem, as Jeffe said,
chamfering the chamber mouth edge and polishing the rails, ramp and chamber will take care of it.
I could do it myself, and have.

Your smith and CZ have both been lazy.
But maybe CZ discovered a cracked stock while they were at it, hence replaced your stock?

I finally had my .505 Gibbs and .404 Jeffery CZ rifles crossbolted and pillar bedded.
They were first editions that lacked the crossbolts and proper bedding from the factory.
In the process, the .505 Gibbs survived intact.
The .404 Jeffery was discovered to have a crack in the wrist.
I will try to repair it and/or see what CZ has to say about it.
Maybe Selous Sideplates?
Gotta be a defect in that fancy American black walnut.
Better discovered sooner than later.
It is the first bad stock in about 15 CZ's through my hands,
and it was one of the "pretty" ones.
The risks of termite food versus Kevlar.

I bet Dennis Olson can fix it.

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
A .375 Weatherby will fully clean up a .375 H&H chamber.

Okay ron .. a 375xlapua .. you KNOW what i mean.. and it's unlikely the shoulder is scratching the brass.. a 375 weatherby won't TOUCH the rear of the chamber, as its the same as the 375 HH from infront of the belt back ..which LIKELY means it aint gunna happen.

Set the barrel back and rechamber is the 5th option

I am going to make another suggestion. Sometimes there is not enough clearance between the bolt face and the claw extractor. The rim of the cartridge will not slide up onto the bolt face making the cartridge bind a bit entering the chamber (scratching the brass).
I change out all the cast extractors on my mod 70's to milled billet units. 90% of the time I experience the same issue you may be. I have my local gunsmith polish the inside of the extractor or take off a little material and problem solved.
Food for thought??

Jeffe,
Right.
Gotta set the barrel back by one thread to clean up the .375 H&H chamber with a .375 RUM.

I should have said a .375 Weatherby will fully clean up the .375 H&H shoulder, with out a set back.
It will match at the neck and belt,
and do some cleaning up between the belt and shoulder, on account of less case taper.
Worked perfectly for me without a setback.

RE: .375/.338 Lapua Magnum
Yep I have one of those,
and yep,
you would have to set a .375 H&H barrel back to clean up the shoulder on that one too,
more so than with a .375 RUM.

Some .375's I have known:
.375/.338WinMag: notice incipient casehead separation, trying too hard to equal a .375 H&H
.375 H&H
.375 WBY
.375 RUM: base to neck distance is shorter than on the .375 H&H, one thread will do 'er
.375/.338 Lapua Magnum: Simply mahvelous!
.378 Wby

missing: .375 Ruger: Obsoletes the .375/.338WinMag

quote:

Originally posted by eezridr:
I have my local gunsmith polish the inside of the extractor or take off a little material and problem solved.
Food for thought??

Always needs to be debugged there too.

Shoot the heck out of it, it will probably smooth out over time. CZ will make it right should it be neccessary.

Something must be wrong with the CZ quality control.

I have been helping a friend get ready for a buff hunt - he first bought a CZ in .375 and it was perfect right out of the box.

He decided to add a .458 Lott to his CZ collection - its a total nightmare.

Scratched up brass is common problem with the CZ in 375. eezridr has the answer. Notice when you slowly chamber a round, the rim will not slip up behind the claw easily. This forces the case against the top of the ramp (which is rough) and causes the scratching. A little stoning and polishing is all that is needed. Go slow.

Wayne is "Da Man!!!".

quote:

Originally posted by Palmer:
Something must be wrong with the CZ quality control.

I have been helping a friend get ready for a buff hunt - he first bought a CZ in .375 and it was perfect right out of the box.

He decided to add a .458 Lott to his CZ collection - its a total nightmare.

Thou I've got the tip hairs. I have just buy a Ceska 550 Safari Magnum in 458 Lott rifle and with your comment I am concerned. The stock of ther rifle that I have bought has crossbolts, but I fear damage to it with the shot and I have no budget for an eventual settlement.

A greeting

Oscar.

The rough and sticky bolt face and extractor will be evident by watching the cartridge hang up in feeding.
Try a cartridge in the bolt face with bolt removed.
The extractor is removed to carefully reshape, deburr, and polish, slowly and carefully, as Wayne says. Extractors are replaceable, however, if you over do it.
I use a dremel tool and polishing spuds and polishing compound there. Emery paper,
Jeweler's files and stones too.
Sometimes the Dremel allows a quick deburr without even removing the extractor.

OK, all feed surfaces are now polished slick, including the extractor claw, bolt face, feed rails, feed ramp, breech edge, and chamber.
The rest will smooth up with use.

I recall, once upon a time, finding a new CZ 550 Magnum Safari Classic, a .505 Gibbs, with muzzle brake, mercury tube, crossbolts, and all,
sitting in a dealer rack with a crack through the grip area of the stock.
The dealer had just put it out, arrived via UPS that day.
Dealer had not noticed it until I mentioned it.
Me: "I didn't do it."
Dealer: "@#$% $%#@*!"
Of course Mr. UPS was suspected. It went back to CZ.

Now I have come to suspect that some of those fancy American walnut cracks are hiding inside, just waiting to bust out.

Now one has happened to me.

I wonder if the CZ bean counters make an alowance for estimated CZ stock replacement?
What percentage do they figure they are going to replace?

The Kevlar stock from CZ is going to be less of a problem than the termite food.

quote:

Originally posted by Landrum:
.........I need to have a 375 in my collection so if I do go another route, I will have to buy a new one. Damn it, why couldn't they get it right from the factory?.....Landrum

Because it is a CZ

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Landrum:
I purchased a 550 Magnum 375 H&H last fall. The first time I took it to the range I noticed that the bolt was a little hard to close...just a little bit. Anyway, I fired a round or two and noticed that the brass was all scarred up.(END OF QUOTE)

I bought a CZ 550 in a 375 H&H last December and it also has the exact same problem. I called a very well known accurizing Rifle outfit in my area. Get a load of this. They tell me the 550 action is too hard and smoothing it out is too difficult. There is nothing on this planet that is too hard with the right tools!
I sent an e-mail to CZ USA yesterday to see about sending it back to KC,MO. A good friend of mine stoned the claw extractor and it helped some but the big ugly scratches still show up.

CZ's are hit and miss. Trade it towards the Ruger in .458 Lott. Once you start re-barreling and repairing the CZ you will throw good money after bad. Cut your losses unless you are prepared to build a custom rifle.

If I were you I'd take it to a smith that builds
rifles and ask him to polish the action one more time. I figure if one polish helped why not
two polishs to solve the problem.

Another suggestion may be to add a stronger magazine spring from Brownells. I have a CZ 550 that was initially a 458 Winnie; I had it rechambered to a LOTT. The spring was so flimsy that the cartridges "swam" around in the magazine; especially the 458 winnie which were too short for that box anyway.
A little stronger spring along with some polishing may help you a little along the path to a solution.

EZ

By golly, another good suggestion from EZ.

Those springs are defective sometimes, weak or even broken.

A Dakota M76 African magazine spring and follower works great in a CZ with a weak spring.
That fixed a .375 RUM CZ 550 Magnum for me, after all the rest of the feed job and polishing.
The .416 Dakota follower and spring, and it makes the first round feed from the left side of the box instead of the right side.
Just a Dakota idiosyncracy,
but may be a help with some rifles.

Make sure that the insides of the box are slick too. Sometimes the ribs inside a CZ .375 H&H box can need some polishing.

Well, then, which gunsmith should I talk with? Any suggestions? I live in Chattanooga, TN if that makes any difference.

Landrum

Landrum,
Any gun smith can do this simple stuff.

Maybe you should show this thread to the first smith you took it to, and ask him to try again, and pay a little more attention to detail this time?

You could do it yourself, with proper tools, and a little elbow grease.

My smith is already back in medical school, summer break over, but I will ask him, maybe Saturday, if he is wanting some easy money for a weekend job. He is close to Knoxville, keeps his shop at Oak Ridge.

quote:

Any gun smith can do this simple stuff.

You could do it yourself, with proper tools, and a little elbow grease.

So if one were inclined to do this themselves, what are the proper tools, and their application?

I've heard much about 'slicking' up a Mauser action, but haven't been able to find much in the way of instruction that is aimed to an already built rifle that doesn't sound suspect.

One of the suspect instructions I've found says to slather the action in metal polish and then work the bolt 500 times.
The other end of advice that I've found is geared to an action still in the white and not yet barreled and requires fixtures for use on a milling machine.

I've got a new CZ so I've been following the thread with some interest. Mine is not scratching brass, but it certainly could use to be a bit smoother in how it functions/feeds.

So I've got good mechanical aptitude and a good selection of tools can someone point me in the right direction for smoothing out my CZ?

Don't under estimate stoning the bottom edge of the claw extractor as has been suggest by a couple of others on this post. When I purchased my Type A Mauser just opened up from 10.75x68 to the .404J round it did not feed smoothly and scratched the cases. A little stoning to round off the bottom lip of the extractor and it feeds (and extracts) like a hot knife through butter.