Few days ago I visited gunshop in my native city. I know owner well. There was always big selection of CZ rifles. Now, there was no CZ, only Berettas, Blasers, some russian stuff and more luxury rifles. I asked why you not sell CZ anymore ? They told me CZ are going rapidly down with quality. Seller's friend, ex chief design engineer of CZ told him : "If we made guns the same way in time of WW2 (we was occupated by Nazis), they will kill us for sabotage". Seller's friend bought CZ550 in 7mm Remington magnum. Barrel was killed after 200 shots of factory ammunition !!! Maybe stuff exported to USA is selected, but . . . I asked about rifles made in Zbrojovka Brno too. (ZH300 series etc.). They told me they was good but 13yers ago, now, it is junk. From another source (pistol shooters): CZ pistols was very good to 1997, from this time they are very poor, they use mild steel or so . . .

(apologize my bad English please)

Jiri

CZ's quality is excellent - your gun dealer friend is in error and appears to be proud of his lack of knowledge.

I bought a CZ 550 American in 9.3x92 last week and it is an excellent rifle--maybe better than American rifles. I hope you can get good rifles like we can. Okie John

Jiri---

It might be so there, but I doubt it. The quality of the CZs in the USA is quite a bit better than some rifles costing twice as much.

It sounds like a BS story to me, but if you compare what is made now to what was made before 1950 there is a VAST difference.

Barrel gone after 200 shots? Even the worst barrels out there don't shoot out that fast. That in itself makes me suspicious. I've had a CZ 527 for 2 yrs and am very happy. The wood is a little soft for my liking, but still fairly nice, not that birch stuff you see at times. Very accurate rifle, barrel is very smooth and cleans up easily. I'd buy another one if I needed a new rifle.

My experience with a CZ 550 in 9.3x62 has been the opposite of Jiri's post. The rifle is well made and now has 460 rounds fired through it with ZERO problems. It is quite accurate with a variety of bullets. I will certainly purchase another CZ based on my experience and a number of others that frequent this board.

I own two and they are SPECTACULAR! Many thanks to JBelk for letting the likes of me know what wonderfully made rifles they are.

I love the CZ's they are great value rifles. I am happy with mine.

My vote goes for CZ as well. I own a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm Mauser and would not get rid of it for the world. It replaced a Ruger Mark II in 7x57mm. I also own a CZ 527 and am pleased with that rifle as well. I have glassbedded the actions of both, but do that now as a matter of routine. Compared to what I've seen in the new Winchesters, Rugers and Remingtons, CZ is the only way to go. Tom Purdom

Alas, it's true, the rifles CZ is shipping to the U.S. have got Remington, Ruger, and even Winchester beat in the bangs for the bucks department. One can love their stocks, as I do, or replace them, as I do too, for variety.
The trigger and safety are serviceable, but a three position replacement safety will sure make a swell gun out of them.

After rereading the orginal post, I think we have been baited into all of this well deserved praise for CZ.....

What was your first clue? Perhaps his email address: tokarev@hotmail.com, and ocupation...



s

Still, CZ's pretty much rock...
452 Training rifle, one hole, 209 dollars. Amazing.

550 for a 550 Magnum Safari, 375. Shoots better then I do

I like mine also. I have heard a number of complaints regarding their waranty work.

Well, I guess I could complain a little. Bought a CZ without a firing pin(display gun, they forgot to put it in).

Mike, that's the CZUSA guy, thought my gunsmith, who retired from remmington IIRC, didn't know what he was doing. Guess they sent the wrong firing pin the first time. Anyway, took over a month to get the pin, and get it installed.

I suspect Mike shipped it out asap, and my smith might have took his time putting it in...
But whatever. It now goes boom everytime, and is a very nice rifle.

s

Socrates:

Any problem with my email or what ?

Maybe we in Europe are used to higher standards in rifle quality, maybe not. What I wrote about pistol production from 1997 is true. What I wrote about rifles is what I heard from gun seller and shooters here in my country. They buy first Blasers, Berettas or Heym etc. if they can afford it. And what is wrong with my studying ?

[ 10-14-2002, 17:44: Message edited by: Jiri ]

Have a CZ527 American and it is really nice. Good wood and shoots great. But, it has the sorriest feeding clip I,ve ever had in a rifle.

Jiri,

I have CZ550 Safari Mag in .458 Winnie, this is only made for the US market. I have never had problem with the barrel, but the weakest part of CZ is the barrel.

I have chande the CZ one into a Lothar Walther match grade, not to avoid problems with CZ barrel just to improve the accuracy, nothing more.

HI JIRI,

I am from Czech rep. as well. You are partly right, our rifles used to have better standard till 1997 (better source of material) at this moment it is not aviable anymore so the best barrels are from 1997 and older. Same with pistols. But still comparingwith other NON-EUROPEAN PRODUCERS its quality is perfect. Problem with CZ guns and rifles in our country is that for domestic market CZ-Uhersky Brod allways sells on domestic market II.class, you must go to some gunsmiths located nearby the factory, they have excellent barrels for their own guns, I have one custom made CZ-550 in 6,5x55 and I am extremly happy with it (Mr.Lenikus made it).
If you or anybody will have questions to me please use my email mjancik@post.cz

I have looked at CZ rifles a number of times recently. Afterall, there are some individuals from the USA that rave about them in very glowing terms.

Maybe you get better quality models south of our border but....they seem very roughly finished...almost reminds me of the crap that the Soviets used to turn out under that famous communist regime. Look at the trigger guard for an example....looks very crude and too wide. The stocks aren't anything to write home about either....fit and finish? The triggers need work. The actions on the ones I have seen were almost as bad as a new USRAC (Winchester), and that isn't a good thing unless you like the feel of sandpaper when you cycle the action. Then, I read time and again about people having feed problems from the magazines that require honing and so on. I don't want a rifle that isn't finished any more than I want a new truck that needs a full tune up before I can drive it. On top of all this, there is the issue of bad warranty service. Then there is the important issue of cost......perhaps in the USA these things are a bargain, but in Canada, they are the same money as a Tikka or any mainstream American rifle. In other words, there are better buys out there for the money.

I guess to summerize, I don't think our friend that started this string is very far off base.

I own two CZs, one a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm and the other is a CZ 527 in .223 Remington. That said, I think the CZ quality is very good, not tops, but very good, and one hell of a lot better than what the major manufacturers are now pouring out their doors.

When I bought the CZ 550 American the inletting was not good in the action area. The rifle shot 2.5 inch groups with 160 grain Noslers and a healthy dose of H414 powder. That is when I discovered that the action actually moved in the stock when I pushed the barrel to the right or the left. I could have said this was a piece-of-shit rifle for the bad inletting job, but rather than a problem, I looked upon it as an opportunity. I learned how to glass bed from Mr. J. Belk over the internet, so I glass bedded the action. I love the trigger as it is highly adjustable and if I don't want to use the set trigger, I just don't activate it. So, after glass bedding I took my opportunity-child out to the makeshift range and the groups with the same ammo dropped to just at one-inch groups (five shot by the way) with the bullet chronographed at 2,845 fps. I since tried the Hornady SST 162 grain bullets at 2,815 fps seated to .01 inch off the lands and the thing shots sub-half-minute with proper cooling between shots. What glass bedding did was get me to familiarize myself morewith the rifle. I have since re-finished the stock (it has smokey lines, regular grain and fiddleback) with 16 applications of Lindspeed Oil, put Talley Rings on a 4x12 Leupold I bought, had the bolt body jeweled with a small herringbone pattern and had the bolt handle polished from the black to the bright nickel. The bottom line is,I have a beautiful rifle capable of shooting sub-half-minute groups.

I glass bedded my CZ 527 and am in the process of working up loads for it. The rifle has a lot of promise and the stock is demanding a winter re-finish project.

I have found there are a few opportunities with the CZ line, but there are a whole lot more with the American majors. I have not owned Tikka brands, so cannot speak for them. I've read a few very unflattering remarks about the newer modles on the internet forums. There are, however a few things I don't like with the CZ line. For example, the Euro models seem to have a more poor fit and finish than the CZ 550 Americans. Go figure!

Would I buy another CZ. In a mili-second I would. I'd love to own a 9.3x62 in the full stock, but I don't need it.

For the money ($429-$449 in the CZ 550 American) I don't think there is another rifle that even comes close to comparison, American or otherwise.

Do my remarks mean anything? Just to me folks, but I felt compelled to reply with my two-cents worth. I am sorry for the very, very long post. Tom Purdom

Jiri may be talking about Brno rifles.

CZ and Brno are different companies.

Roger, maybe you are right. However, I have been told by my gunsmith that they are one and the same company. In fact, I saw a .22 rimfire the other day with both CZ and BRNO stamped on the barrel.

Nevertheless, my point that they need work to be made good shooters still stands. They may be a gunsmith's gold mine but I don't like paying him anything more after he asks a $900 for a sloppy rifle (and that is what they cost up here). The Tikka rifkles I have seen and shot were superb, "right out of the box" as were all the Sako's I have purchased. I have yet to hear of a CZ like that (that was manufactured in the last few years).

I find too often that people express their opinions on guns they bought or fired 30+ years ago (such as in the case of a pre-'64 Winchester) and in some cases they haven't even looked at or cycled the action on a new one lately. If they did, they would see what I am complaining about. They feel like they have sandpaper in the actions, have poor fit and finish, etc.

Eagle Eye

I think they're different. See the link for a explanation of the Brno Markings.
http://www.cz-usa.com/_p/p32.php

Here is the Brno website. http://www.zbrojovka.com/a_arms.htm

I've been planning on building a big bore in the spring but after all the good words I've heard about CZ on the forum I thought I better have look as they are much cheaper than building a new gun on a M98 action. I'm just not sure at this point, they look ok from 5' away but all four of the rifles I looked at had really poor quality checkering (these were all safari models in 375 and 416) and the wood to metal fit was marginal. I'm only comparing this to my Ruger RSI and Browning BAR which are probably comparable in price. The actions seemed to cycle OK but I think that stock would have to go.