For you CZ 550 owners. What sort of accuracy do you typically see out of this rifle. I realize this is a big bore forum and MOA is not necessary for shooting at a buffalo at 50 yards. However are these rifles on par with a winchester or other commercial made rifles in large caliber offerings?
Has anyone seen a AHR overhaul increase accuracy?
At one time I had heard that the barrels were not always treaded into the receiver squarely on some of these rifles. That could be just a rumor.

EZ

Mine have all be stock factory rifles and have shot extremely accurately. In fact I had a .416 Rigby CZ 550 at the range on Sunday. With a load of 90 grains of IMR4350, a F215M primer and a 400 grain Nosler Partition it put 4 shots in the same hole with a fifth shot that was less than a half an inch from the other 4.

eeridr:

I have had a number of CZ rifles and IMHO they are very accurate right out of the box. I have a 9.3X62 that shoots tiny little cluster with 270 grain Speer bullets and my .404 will shoot three shots well under an inch if I do my part. I think on average you can expect excellent accuracy.

Just curious as what to expect. I bought a 458 win mag. for a hell of a deal (under $500.00) new over a year ago. The magazine was way to large for the cartridge so I sent it off to my favored local gun smith to essentilly do a AHR grade 2 type upgrade and rechamber to 458 Lott.
I did have the barrel cut to 22.5" I could actually fit 5 rounds of 458 Lott into that magazine.
I think I will not mount a scope on this rascal. I did have mercury tubes installed in the forend and the butt stock.
Anxious to get it back!

My experience agrees with the others above.
They can be accurate.
Like about 0.3 MOA with factory ammo (Norma Vulcan 232-grainers) with the 9.3x62mm 550 Medium FS I have, rifle right out of the box.
That came with 2 crossbolts and I will not mess with it.

All the big bore 550 Magnums need good glass bedding and crossbolts and pillars ...
or the new synthetic stock with aluminum bedding block by B&C.
I have over a dozen of them and all were in the 0.75 to 1.5 MOA range right out of the box, 3-shots 100 yards.
Then they get bedded and get better.

I once bought a .416 Rigby and a .458 WinMag, complete rifles, for $350 each, straight from CZ to a local dealer, as parts guns.

Those barrels were said to have the sights canted or barrel not square on the final headspacing screw-up.
I could not tell there was anything wrong with them.
I swapped one to my smith for his work in rebarreling the other for me, cross bolting and bedding, etc.

Harry McGowen told me that he used to get batches of CZ barrels (hammer forged in Czechoslovakia) that were found to need some smoothing of the rifling finish, and he would polish them up, and send them back to CZ.
This may be the source of the occasional over-sized CZ barrel?

But "re-polishing" would not explain any over-sized .404 or .505 or .510 barrels out there,
as those were made from scratch by Harry McGowen or his successors in the KC, USA CZ output.

I have two CZs. A 550 American in 9,3x62. Is box stock. I chose to optimize for velocity at reasonable pressures with 286 gr Noslers. Got 2425 fps and slightly smaller than 1 MOA groups ... good to go for hunting.

The other rifle is a pretty heavily worked over .416 Rigby Hump back 550 Safari Mag. It has the forearm stiffened, all-thread in the wrist, two hidden cross bolts, and full bedding. I push a 350 gr Barnes X at 2700 fps. Shoots just over an inch at 200 yards. Again, more than good enough to hunt.

I have a CZ 550 in 416 rigby. I got it for a deal at a SCI dinner.

It is bedded, has two crossbolts, and a recoil reducer. Using 350 gr barnes tsx and solids (2500 fps) it shoots three shot groups that just about touch one another, either solids or softs.

It is a pleasure to shoot and will be using it on buffalo in 20 days.

All of my CZs have been scary accurate.

Way more accurate than I am capable of benefiting from in the real world of me hanging onto the rifle and shooting!

That includes stock models and custom rifles based on the action only.

I have a CZ 550 Safari in .375 H&H. It shoots 270 grain TSX's at 2650 f.p.s. and 300 grain Woodleigh solids at 2525 f.p.s. to the same point of aim and the worse group of dozens was 1.5" with both rounds mixed. That'll do!

I have full-length bedded the action, added another cross-bolt, etc, btw.

My CZ 416 Rigby is a 1-MOA shooter. So is my CZ 527 in 7.62X39mm.

These CZ's appear to be very precision rifles.

Judge,

Can you provide detailson what you have done to the rifle in the photo including the stock? PM if you wish.

Jeff

mine all stay right around an inch, except the 505 Gibbs I had. It was about an inch and a half for three shots at one hundred yards. Might have been me by then.

Rich
Buff Killer

I've shown the details before, but couldn't find a reference... so..

It was a CZ hogback upon which Roger Ferrell of Fayette, GA was used to reshape the stock with contrasting forend cap, put a smaller bolt on, reblue, modify the trigger to conventional at 2.5 lbs, rechecker, ad a grip cap, grind off the deep CZ logo, barrel band swivels and some other stuff like bed and extra cross-bolt.








AHR can do about the same stuff, too... and do a fine job at that... but it's fun to have a one of a kind rifle.

Nice looking rig..Judge
My 550 is .375h&h very accurate with 300gr TSX

Thanks, Judge. Most rifles do not seem to have quite that much drop at the heel; do you find it increases perceived recoil?

Today, in a gunshop I visited I held three rifles a gentleman had built; he, like I, is LH but lost the use of the eye and had to seel the rifles. All havily re-worked Remington 700 actions. 264 WM, 338-06 and 458 WM made the battery. All of the stocks were well executed with some cast carved right into the stocks. Just enough so that when the rifle was shouldered I was dead on middle. The stocks had maybe a 1/2 inch of crop between the heel and the nose of the comb. Yet, I still had to scooch down to totally get on the scope.

Hence, my desire to have a stock built for me and me alone. Just not sure how to make the right compromises so I can use the scope and the irons to effect.

Jeff

I had a pair of Bavarian stocked CZ 550's both chambered .416 Rigby. One had a test target with a .5" group and one had a .75" group. Both rifles shot the same as the respective factory targets.

The Gilbert Theory:

Drop in the stock makes an iron-sighted rifle quicker to bear. Quicker is better when something wants to eat or squash you.

Being old as snot, I grew up with rifles built with stocks for which using scopes was an afterthought. It is very natural for me to keep my head a bit more vertical using a scope on such a rifle. JMHO

My 550FS 9.3X62 shot handloads 1" or less right out of the box and nearly that well with cheap PRVI factory loads.