My CZ American in 9.3x62 shoots ok. the stock is pretty clubby, but my gunsmith will whittle that down some.

For $459.00 +$25.00 S&H it is a great deal. It is also a little rough, mainly in the form of some machine marks with tool heads in need of sharpening.

I have lightly touched up the tops and bottoms of the lugs with an Arkansas stone (synthetic, made in Taiwan). Not enough to make them loose in the racewys, just enough to knock down the high spots that are grabbing.

I have two questions for the peanut gallery:
What is the best way to smooth the raceways? Again, not enough to make things wobbly, just enough to ease bolt movement.

Also, is there a good way to lightly smooth the lug to lug seat engagement? Ditto for the bolt handle cam.

Not enough to loosen things; just enough to smooth thing some. This rifle will always be ugly on the outside; I just want to make it functional on the inside.

Muchos Gracias.

lawndart

You're in an area that I have heard many different opinions about the preferred methods.
I would first be inclined to run my finger over the affected surfaces where practical to find any obvious rough spots and stone them very carefully rather than apply a general stone treatment to the whole area. Next I would cycle the action many times to put a tiny bit of wear into the equation. See if that is suitable.

One factor that is often overlooked when people try to smooth metal surfaces is the heat treatment of the surfaces. You always run the risk of cutting throught the surface hardening to softer metal. If you do this, then you may have the situation where you will get real wear and an undesireable result.

Most guys will stone a raceway and then polish the bolt lug surface where it contacts the raceway. As for the other surfaces of the bolt lugs and the actual lug abutments in the receiver I would be reluctant to do much unless I was re-fitting the barrel to remove any slack I created. Some lug to lug abutment areas can be very rough or there could be no actual contact at all if the lugs were not lapped into the reciever when the rifle was barreled. The tolerances used for factory hunting rifles can be very loose.

I would make sure the lug raceways and reciever abutment areas are clean of all grit/junk and procede with caution. I also would shoot the rifle a bit to make sure there are no problems with the rifle before I did any alterations. The factories can be reluctant to honor any claim on a rifle if they detect signs of home gunsmithing.

Let us know what you do and the final results.
The CZ's seem to be a good value. I have many CZ 527's and like them so far.

Ugly and rough? My condolences. You must have the American version with straight comb and no sights on the barrel? Mine is the Full Stock Lux model 550 Medium and it has tiger striped wood like your .416 Rigby CZ stock. And mine is pretty smooth and very accurate.

Maybe you just need to use that rifle enough to break it in, but not as a boat paddle for white water rafting trips. Get it dirty and cycle it a bunch.

Brownells has some honing material in 800 and 600 grit. I got some and applied it to the bolt raceways with a Qtip. Pushing the bolt back and forth slicked it right up. Be very careful fooling with the locking lugs though unless you know exactly what you are doing it is very easy to alter headspace.

The best way is a tool my gunsmith uses, which attaches to a flex shaft motor, it is a specialised grinder. This does the best and most consistant job. In leu of having that setup the next best for me, is start like you did with a stone and a jewelers file and get all the rough spots of the lugs. Then I use my polishing wheel.

For the action cleanup thiis works pretty good. Plug your chamber with cotton or something similiar. Use valve grinding compound on your bolt and action, make efforts to keep it out of the inside of your bolt. Then hand work your action several hundred times, until your action is smooth. After your done clean the valve gringing compound up completly, two cleanings is better. A word of caution be neat with the valve compound and tape up your bolt to keep it out of the inside or you will end up disassembling the bolt to clean it all up.

After everything is back clean I polish the bolt one last time, and oil and verify operation.

There are some stones that you can get from Brownells that will fit in the action on a stick which work well also but I have never found it mandatory to get them for most rifles.

I am sure there are other abrasive compounds and methods that work, but this is a cheap way that has always worked for me.

I wonder if JB compound would work for this?

Actually,

I was going to say if you don't have any valve grinding compound I wouldn't go out and buy it. Brownells has some water based aluminum oxide that would be my first choice, cause it cleans up with water so easy. My next choice would be JB compound. A jar of that will have several uses and it will last a long time.

One last note I did a clean up of my CZ last fall, and while all worked as I planned the CZ action/bolt isn't perfection cause it is missing the third lug and doesn't slick up as nice as and old mauser. Close is the best that you will get as the third lug prevents a bind condition in the bolt operation. It doesn't mean they don't benefit a lot from the cleaning this up, but the design is what it is, and this can't be changed.

quote:

Be very careful fooling with the locking lugs though unless you know exactly what you are doing it is very easy to alter headspace

This is sage advice, stay away from these surfaces. It isn't the surface that is causing a rough operation of the bolt anyway, and the only work I would do to these surfaces is lapping the lugs, which is a completely different operation.

Thanks Guys,
I stoned the lug tops and bottoms a bit last night, and took a few passes on the rails. I think I'll order some "stones on a stick" from Brownells for the rails, and use some of their water bases grinding/honing goop for the bolt cam area.

Rip,
If this rifle proves accurate I will put it in a McMillan 550 stock. If not, I will use a wood burning kit to put your name and a picture of Howdy Doody on the side and leave it leaning against a booth at the next SCI convention: I can hear the loudspeaker now: "Will Rip please come to the lost and found to pick up his Howdy Doody CZ rifle."

lawndart

I've used valve gringing compound on a few bolt action rifles and it works very well. I like to stop just short of being completely smooth, and let the action work itself in the last little bit. This method doesn't run the risk of taking too much off the action. Besides, if it takes too long to wear in, then you can always go back and give it a second treatment. Some CZ's come from the factory really rough, but they clean up nice and generally shoot very well, so in those cases, it's a fault I can definitely live with.

Sounds like some of the cowgirls around here.

lawndart

lawndart,
If you'll make that Arthur E. Neuman instead, I'll rechamber it to 9.3/.404 Jeffery Short, and turn the barrel down skinnier than Will's .416 Taylor.

Deal!

Done then. I meant Alfred E. Neuman, of course. Been a long time since I've seen a copy of _Mad_ magazine. Thanks for overlooking my typo.

My little cz lux 9.3x62 is a gem and the more I work the bolt the smoother she gets.

Love my hogsback !!