viva CZ. Hey we all had the same reservations about CZ the backward saftey, the magazine. But all these are a non issue to me, The backward saftey actually makes me be more aware of where the saftey is and its posisiton, which either hunting or shooting is a good thing if you ask me. If you can't get past the mag, these can be modded to fit mostly inside the gun. Although I have found it doesn't bother me. I have carried mine across my back bouncing around on my 4 wheeler and never noticed the clip even being there.

Finally horse-traded (swindled) my way into this rig that I've been scheming on for almost a year. Almost-nice wood, good bluing but coulda used a bit more polishing beforehand HOWEVER
holy smoke does this thing shoot!

Before firing it, I scrubbed and soaked buckets of carbon out of the barrel and got it down to bare, clean metal. I loaded combinations of Berger 20's and 30's, mollied over various charges of Blue Dot, IMR4227, AA2015 and AA4064 and ventured out to the range Sunday.

I got a rough zero then launched a couple rounds of each load over the chrono before the battery crapped out in the cold. Speeds were on average about 200 fps slower than what's listed, probably due to the moly. Here's the good part - NO load of seven tried went over half-minute at 100 or 200 yards! Not one! Holy guacamole!

This was out-of-the-bag new brass (not fireformed), ballpark SWAG extrapolation loads and bullets seated by calibrated, Mark 1 eyeball. Holy shit. I'm a position shooter - I suck at bench shooting. Most 100 groups were in the .2's and .3's. All groups were roughly the same size, shape, etc at the given distances. The set-trigger helped a bit, given my numb fingers and some trouble with barrel mirage.

I'm going to attempt to moydah some coyotes & foxes in the coming months but come Spring, I'm going to lay waste to the local gophers! Stand by...

Redial

I must sound like a broken record, but mine has shot just about everything into an average of .5 (5shot) groups. and yes 5 shot groups are much harder than 3 shot. This has been mostly with factory ammo. I am now wanting a 527 carbine in 223 in the worst kinda way

Redial: Congratulations on the nifty new Varminting rig! Good for you and I am happy that it got to shooting right away obviously without any "tinkering"!
Mark, is your Rifle the heavy barrel or the standard weight barrel?
How about scope power?
I have had the best of luck with the Berger 25 gr. bullets in my 17 Remingtons! I have not tried either the 20 or 30 gr. Bergers as yet.
Well it just about sounds unanimous out there in cyber talk land and with the folks I know personally that have CZ's - they are just about universally accurate!
I am gonna hafta get over that hangup I have with the hang down clip they use!
Wow those are great groups!
Many happy returns there!
Mark I am guessing here but I wonder if a little trick I have up my sleeve might help your barrel heat wave problems on the finger numbing cold days! I am guessing but I'll bet there was very little or no wind that day! Maybe gray and foggy? Anyway I keep a small battery operated fan in my shooting box and it is set up alongside the barrel in these type conditions and when the barrel heat waves on cold days blurs my sight picture the fan will move the waves carefully away from the scopes view! It works slick and the little fans are cheap!
A strong long puff of wind from ones mouth will clear the view for about long enough to get settled back in and taking up the trigger slack and then the waves will return just in time to usually spoil things a bit! The fan works really well though.
Continued good luck with your 527!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Congrats redial. I have the same rifle and it too is a shooter. The most accurate load in mine is a 25 grain Berger with Varget, 5 shot groups agg in the mid .5's.
Another real accurate load in mine uses the 30 grain Berger and WW760.
You mention Blue Dot as a powder you tried, seems awful fast for a .17 to me. There has been a lot of talk of reduced loads with it in various rounds here on the site so I called Hodgdon about it, their tech said no way for what it's worth.
I know there's a guy on another site I frequent that was almost blinded using reduced loads of Blue Dot with a .17, sub calibers spike pressure way different than rounds with bigger holes down the tube makes things happen awful fast.
Sure don't mean to tell you your business but I followed the story on this other guy as he got his surgeries and it was sure scary.
Have a good one.

redail



I have the same rifle and like yours , it just shot little bitty groups right out of the box. Also like you , I am interested in concocting some loads that are quite a bit below the max , hell-for-leather speed demons , for shooting gophers and other small pests.



So I am curious as to what sort of loads you have come up with for the 4227 ? I've had some success with IMR 4198 , but that stuff is so bulky it is a pain in the rear to pour down the tiny .17 caliber neck .



And like montdoug , I think it's best to stay away from the Blue Dot . That powder is designed for shotgun or handgun applications and as such , it may or may not be stable at over 40000 cup . Despite the Blue Dot type loads being reduced speed , they may not be reduced pressure.



I know there's alotta folks all gaga over the Blue Dot loads for many calibers , but I think they're way off the map in uncharted territory.......

sd, the IMR4227 data I have indicates a charge of 16.5 gr with a bare 25 Hornady for 3600 fps. I topped the same charge with a mollied 20 gr Berger and it went 3705 and clustered three in 3/4" at 200, which is at the limits of my bench shooting ability. I can't hold any better than that so that's where I'm calling it good! Primers looked bored to death - same as unfired except for that dimple in the middle. Got a little soot on the cases fireforming with that load. Oughta shred gophers, by my reckoning but it's louder than I want. But not much - I'll suffer through it!

My Blue Dot load was 9 grains with the same bullet that went 2885 and shot under 1/2" at 100. Didn't try it at 200. Recoil was LESS than the 17HMR and made only as much noise as the rimfire. Another friend who shall remain nameless has ventured into the uncharted and come up with loads using the Horn 20 gr V-Max and TiteGroup and LilGun. They shoot well by his account but I'm not inclined to try them. Besides, I'm the beneficiary on his life insurance....

All data was gathered at 20 -25 degrees, high humidity so adjust accordingly if used under differing conditions.

Cheers!

Redial

Holy crap! This just gets better and better, I swear.

I just got done monkeying with the takeup and overtravel adjustments, done in strict accordance with the factory directions (when's the last time you saw THAT?) and now have a truly amazing trigger. Gee-zus!

I've been a Service Rifle shooter for a couple decades so I wasn't interested in bringing the pull weight down. Just taking the fore & aft movement to a minimum was enough to make this so sweet. Now I need excuses to buy more CZ's! More money too, of course..

Has anyone had trouble with the last round not feeding? By that, I mean the bolt overrides and closes on an empty chamber as though the mag isn't fully seated. This happens often on the one mag I have. Strange.

Cheers

Redial