Hi All: It has been a long, long while since I last posted. I finally got my CZ550 American in 7x57mm Mauser. The wood is a lot prettier than I thought it would be. I used the proper breaking (at least proper to what some say I should do) and adjusted that wonderful little single-set trigger. The wood to metal fit seems to be good in the action area and the first few inches of the barrel. But then the barrel seems to lean on the left side of the barrel channel. The right side has a small, but noticable gap. A dollar bill could be passed all the way up from the receiver to the very end of the stock and then it would stop on the left side of the barrel and wood. I could take my thumb and push on the barrel and feel four "creeks" or jumps, where it feels like the barrel is being pushed over some rough highs. I called the distributor in Kansas City and the so-called technician refused to tell me if CZ free-floats or pressure-points its rifles in the CZ550 American. All he would say is you can "do" it either way. I feel like I got some janitor on a lunch break who happened to pick up the telephone. Now, the rifle has a very, very long throat, which makes shooting 162 grain boattail bullets hard when you try to touch the lands. What I've been doing is seating them to just below the canlures. As to powder I use H414, H4350 and IMR4350. With five=shot groups I get two rounds doing a figure eight with every group, which tells me this thing wants to shoot. The others however, are spread out, making about a three-inch group. That is with full-power loads. Drop the loads to low-velocity and the groups tighten to 1.5 or 2-inch groups. Now get this, with the full-power in both the H414 and H4350, when I pushed on the left side of the barrel over two of those "creeks" the groups tightened, not much, but enough where it was very noticable. When I leave the barrel alone, I get two bullets doing a figure 8 and the other three here and there. I took the barreled action out of the stock and smoothed the left side of the barrel channel and the middle of the barrel channel right at the end of the stock. When I tightened back up again, the whole barrel shifted to the left side of the stock so the ole dollar will not slip in to the end of the barrel. The barrel channel is very rough with a middle-ridge running for about three or four inches from the receiver straight up the barrel channel toward the end of the stock. I think this rifle is a candidate for glass bedding. But, one the action, do you glass-bed just the rear tang and recoil lug area and the chamber area of the barrel. There are serrated areas (one the metal and on the matching wood parts) that contact the wood on the rear tang and the front of the magazine box. I assume these would need to be glassed as well? Also, I plan to completely relieve the barrel channel so it is free-floated with three stips of masking tape from where the chamber ends to the end of the stock. After glass-bedding the action area I plan to come back and glass-bed the channel. When I strip the masking tape off this will give me about .01 inch of clearance. If I need to put some upward pressure I can always shim with a sliver of a matchbook cover and then use some glue to hold he shim in place. Now ... is this a doable plan, or does someone else have other advice? Thanks for any help. I have only glassed two other stocks and am a very, very rank amature! Tom Purdom

Tom,

I would say bed the action and the recoil lug and use a "pad" of glass out front to give you forend pressure.

I would also suggest have a professional do it. I had my ruger 77 done and it is now a 1/2 inch gun.

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Mike: I took your advice and had a gunsmith do the work. I have a Howa Lightning in .223 that I will do myself, but on the CZ, I just didn't feel comfortable. The rifle is done. Had to drive to Phoenix Thursday to cover a story about the Zuni Pueblo's fight to save a sacred lake from coal mining for my paper, the Gallup Independent, otherwise, would have already picked it up. Will go in the bedroom in a few moments to load up some 162 grain Hornady boattails, 48.2 grains of H414 in R/P cases seated to just below the canlures. This load gave me some promise before, and is a known basis for this rifle, so will be able to see how the glassbedding works. What surprised me was my gunsmith. It was the first CZ550 American he had worked on and he was really impressed with the rifle. Said he's going to get one in .30/06 now. Oh well, wish me luck on the range tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Hope well, cause I have a wild pig hunt coming up in South Texas with my little brother in January. Tom P

I've been looking at the CZ Lux manlicher in .308.

Hi Folks: I finally got out to do some shooting and was very pleasantly surprised. I posted on the reloading section about the very, very long throat of this rifle, so in reloads, I simply loaded with the 162 gr. Hornady and seated the bullets so that the entire canlure was showing plus a .015-inch ribbon below that. Also loaded some Hornady 139 gr. SSTs just for the heck of it with 52 grains of H4350, but these were loaded so the top of the case mouth just touched the bottom of the canlure. Went out to my favorite shooting spot and set up. Wind was blowing up to 15 miles per hour, but not all the time. Temperature was 43 degrees. After zeroing rifle in and shooting about 12 additional stock-settling shots, I shot and chronographed five shots with the 139 grainer and five with the 162 grainer and H414. The 139 grain rounds chronoed 2,840 fps five-shot average and grouped 1.16 inches. The 162 grain put five rounds into a .68 inch group (center to center) and chronographed 2,805 fps. AS per the posts on the reloading section here, I plan to play a bit with the seating depth, but am I ever impressed. By the way Ray A., you are the fella who turned me on to that H414 for the 7x57mm Mauser and I cannot thank you enough. I just wish I had gone out there with more loaded rounds. I will this next week, though. That glass bedding did wonders! Turns out the entire action before bedding was moving in the stock, not much, but then it don't take much. That was that little creeking feeling I could feel when I pushed on the barrel. The action rear tang has serrated areas and so does the wood. The creeking was the tang moving over the serrated wood. That is a thing of the past now. The barrel is now free-floated. I finally got through to someone who knew what they were taling about at the Kansas City, Kan., CZ offices and he said the factory free floats the barrel.Thanks for the advice all. Thanks Mike and GSF1200, good luck with that .308. I really do, however, think that these rifles do need glass bedding. Tom Purdom

I would also wan't to know this, Fritz. I've always been of the opinion that to have a free-floating barrel is the only way to guarantee that your rifle won't be affected by wet weather and such.