I just picked up a new CZ 527 chambered for the 221 Fireball and I wanted to share some initial observations and impressions for anyone interested. After doing quite a bit of reading regarding CZ's quality, I decided to give it a go, and I must say that I'm impressed. The walnut stock is quite nice with some decent fiddleback and quite a bit of grain showing through. Definitely a cut above most things I've seen. The checkering was mediocre at best. The metal work was good, not excellent, but for $500, I easily got what I paid for, a nicely finished gloss blue. The action was ever so slightly rough, but I can already feel it slicking up with each bolt cycle. I topped it off with a Bushnell Elite 3200 10x fixed mil-dot scope. Quite a nice match. The rings that come standard are on the high side as I expected, but it's easily shootable. The adjustable trigger is nothing short of excellent!! The set trigger is nice, but I didn't want to set it every time I want a good trigger. So, per the instructions, I adjusted the normal trigger mode down to about a pound with virtually zero take-up and travel. A quick session at the reloading bench generated 10 rounds using 40gr V-Max and 16gr of H4227. At the range, velocity was running right at 3275fps with 5 shot groups running 0.7". Not bad for "out-of-the-box", first ten rounds!! Copper fouling was virtually non-existant, telling of a quality made barrel. Overall, would I buy another? In a heartbeat!! A very, very well made rifle in a really neat caliber. If you haven't experienced a CZ yet, you owe it to yourself to pick one up. This one has definitely earned it's place as one of my all time favorite rifles.

I have one too and was very pleasantly surprised by the wood when I opened the box.

Love the set trigger. Mine likes a 50 grain Sierra Blitz and 14.5 grains of Lil Gun over a CCI Small Rifle Primer.

Great for crows out to about 300 yards.

Everytime I hear or talk with others about the CZ bolt guns, they have the same praise. 2 Years ago my 2 buddies and I bought 3, 527's, 2 Fireballs, and one 223. I got the 223. It has already shot several 3 shot groups in the .3's. The fireballs do as well. Both of my friends have killed numerous coyotes, one, 18 I think. They also like lil gun.

Jerry

I am a proud CZ 527 204 owner. I will purchase another, maybe two more. One can never have enough ammo and rifles...




Make every shot count!!!

My 527 in 22 Hornet was .5 out of the box with factory ammo.
Pete

How deep are you fellows seating the bullets on the .221s. My brother has one and complains constantly about how high the ammunition is for them, yet refuses to get into handloading. I thought maybe I could get some dies, powder, cases and bullets and load some up for him. As far as CZs, they are tops in my humble opinion. I own a CZ 527 that originally was a lux model with the 23.6 inch barrel. I glassbedded the action area of the stock, but just could not get used to that humpback stock with my scope, so, I bought one of CZ-USAs fancy grade American Walnut aftermarket stocks for it. I had to do some minor inletting on the barrel channel as the lux model has a rear sight barrel band and the American models do not. I did some slight inletting in the barrel channel for the sight band, then glassbedded the action area. That rifle just spits out half inch groups. Then, a gunsmith bud wanted to see if he could pillar bed it, so I gave it to him and he did. It didn't improve accuracy any, which tells me I must have been spot-on with my glassbedding in the first place. I have a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm that is amazingly accurate with 160 grain bullets and H414. I know that CZ has got to turn out lemons like any other company does, but man, they must be far and few between. They are just plain fun, and accurate. By the way, that aftermarket stock is absolutely beautiful. Well, there's my four cents worth. Have a nice day. Tom Purdomj

CZ seating seems to be dictated by the length of the magazine.
Pete

I have an early 221 and my original clip came through with a filler piece. That wouldn't let me seat bullets out as far as I wanted to so I simply went an bought a 223 clip. That fixed the limited seating depth.

Someone else told me that the ones now don't have the filler block. So not sure that's even an issue anymore.

BB

The magazine that came with my rifle has more than enough room to seat most bullets to your liking. I'm only using 40gr bullets, but if I were to take up all the room I have in the magazine, the bullets would fall out of the cases.