On Tuesday, my CZ 550 American in 9.3x62 misfired when I was 15 meters from a band of feral cattle. I had two down, the dust was flying and my sights were on a third when I heard a click instead of a bang.

I snapped the bolt hard, kicking myself for short-stroking the action, and things started to happen in slow motion. I remember a live round spinning lazily in the air, and I remember thinking that something had gone wrong. I squeezed the trigger again. Another click-instead-of-a-bang. Very soon five live rounds with progressively lighter firing pin strikes lay on the ground and I was approaching my target heart rate for the day. Fortunately, the cattle ran off and I didn't get hurt.

The S&B factory ammo and handloads I tried later had no firing pin strike at all. Upon field stripping the bolt, I found what looks like a wire C-clip on the shaft of the firing pin just forward of the knurled ring that retains the firing pin spring. I think this clip keeps the ring in place but it broke and the ring came unscrewed, reducing firing pin spring tension so much that my rifle now fails to fire. But that's just a guess.

When this happened I was in thick forest and hogs were also on license, so things could have been a lot worse. I thought about retightening the ring and carrying on, but my confidence in this particular rifle was somewhat diminished, so I borrowed a Model 95 Winchester in 30-06 and got four more cattle despite the open sights.

I'm thinking of scrapping the CZ and going back to a pure 98 Mauser, but I had my CZ perfectly set up and I really liked it until this happened. To open this up a little, the airline can't seem to find my CZ right now, so I may be due for a completely new rifle. Any thoughts, O my brothers?

Thanks, Okie John.

Okie,

I would not give up on CZ's. I would send the said rifle to a smith you trust and have him fix the problem.

I am not sure what went wrong that is beyond my breadth of knowledge and I am sure others who are competent in this area will offer advice.

As far as I know the CZ is "neally" of pure mauser hertitage but contains some good attributes from the model 70 winchester as well. Once agin others might want to clarify that point.

All in all I still feel cz's are excellent value and you can use this failure as a reference point for ironing out this rifles bugs.

Regards PC.

Bump this thread. Thanks, Okie John.

Deeply spooky. I'd call CZ-USA and give them an earful.

I never liked the way they use that little clip. Seems like the kind of thing that might save them 10 cents but could get someone stomped on someday. Now I need to worry about my two CZs having the same problem

Best,
Joe

okie john,

Sorry to hear about your problem with the CZ. I have one also and I will keep an eye on that clip. Just hope it doesn't give way at the wrong time. By the way. Where were you hunting feral cattle. I'm looking for one of those hunts.