Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires CZ 457 American

Finally got around to getting some photo's of the mud rifle.

Figures you would like my boss's comments. Geesh!
Not sure when I will get out to shoot it, we keep running in the teens and that is very usual for here. Generally hit 40's during the day. It's not that I would be to cold to shoot, but who knows if the bullet wouldn't freeze in mid air before it hit the target.
And speaking of bullets, has anyone tried the new Remington Subsonic 40gr. coated load? Is Remington making that one or contracting it out?

Looks like there could be some figure underneath all that stain. A friend of mine picked one up and refinished it - it was spectacular under all that stain - not sure why a manufacturer would do that - it’s one thing if you have straight trained beech/birch or some other type of plain wood and your trying to hide it - but it seems as though some of these CZ stocks are pretty nice?!!

PennDog

And as you can see, they didn't get the pores of the wood filled in like they should be.
In bright light you can see some figure in the grain beneath that stain.

Now I see what you mean by muddy looking. Now I'm kicking myself in the azz, for not buying the ones I saw locally...

Your talking about a lot of work to make that stock look like wood.

The odd thing about it is that on the 452/455 models they used a nice finish that let the wood grain show, why they went to the mud finish on the 457 is beyond me. The only reason that I can come up with is that they are saving manhours by not filling pores ands hoping that the mud finish will make it less noticable.

I have looked at six 457 American models and they all exhibited the same finish as yours - it's too bad that they are cutting corners on the stock finish.

drover

If I find a Premium stock before start unmuddying this one, I won't even bother making this one look normal.

Today I braved the weather just to see how well this rifle would shoot. It was 22 degrees. Not normal temp. for this area, oh and that was the high for today. I only took out two loads. RWS Subsonics, my favorite, and Sellier and Bellot subsonic. I use the Sellier's to get on paper normally when setting up a scope because I never have much luck with it shooting small groups. First thing I noticed is cold fingers don't work so well inserting the magazine and the mag. is not very forgiving like the Sako or Kimbers are. Then that trigger I will definitely have to work on it ........a lot. It was so spongy and 3.5 - 3.25lbs. is way to heavy for me.
Now for the main event, accuracy........Nada. Could have been the weather, the trigger, or me, but my oh my this one has a long way to go. Feeding and ejecting were flawless so that is a plus.
I was shooting at 50yds. and only snapped a photo of the groups, so no writing on the paper. The left group was the Sellier and Bellot and the 2 groups right of it was the RWS. I shot 5 shot groups.

Probably a combination of everything going on there. Now you have a baseline. It can only get better from here on out. A little trigger work, a little bedding, warmer weather and finding some ammo it likes, and you'll get it dialed in.

I was at a longrange shoot today, that is east of me, and I stopped by a store there. They had a 22 magnum for $579.00, but the stock looked just like yours. Next time I head west and go to some of my favorite fun shops, I'm going to be looking for the ones I saw a while back. I might snag one of them, if they are still there.

Yep a lot going on and pressing didn’t help either. Also for what’s it’s worth I took a Remington 40X sporter to the range for the first time and my first several groups looked like these ones - I was thinking I spent what for THIS rifle - then after about 20-30 shots it started putting them in the same hole😎…..since then I’ve had this same thing happen with many a “new” rifle……this rifle will shoot for you!

PennDog

p.s. forgot to mention the “settling in” seems to be a longer process in colder temps - assuming the lube is an issue when very cold?

It better or it'll become kindlin'.

Hang in there - I haven’t had one or seen one that many friends have that didn’t shoot like you’d expect👍

PennDog

…….or maybe I can get a deal on CZ with a broken stock🤔

I wonder how many guys have seen issues with accuracy due to the lube not working properly when it is very cold outside? I was shooting the other day, in 20 degree temps and was getting some weird results with a new rifle and TAC22. It seemed to slow the velocity down too because I could see the bullet in flight. Almost like a slow BB gun.

There's always that possibility. I should have shot the Rem. to see, it would have told me.

That's pathetic, I've never had a 22lr that shot that bad. But I've always used copper plated ammo of some sort trying to smooth the rifling out. Hopefully you get that gun figured out.

No, not cutting corners at all. Pore filling is a non-issue also. They are using cheaper wood because it is very light, non-uniform in color, probably has sapwood, and does not make the grade. It often has lots of figure but that is actually a defect in that grade.

The mud is simply paint to make them all look the same. Just like the red in old model 70s.

Fairly easy to improve a lot. Formby's Furniture Refinisher used with a heavy hand and lots of rags to get rid of the mud will show you what you have pretty quickly. Repeat until it looks good enough for your taste.

Let it cure after rubbing the finish off. Add some spar varnish and cut it with pure, quality oil. Apply heavily, wait 15 minutes and rub dry. In a few coats it will look good.

Most 22lr "plated" ammo is actually copper washed.
When I decided to buy a CZ my intentions were to find out just how accurate they were and to make a few minor adjustments to wring out the best accuracy it had. Never anticipated a full blown project gun. At the moment it looks to be one of those "throw everything away but the action" project.
Never was much of a fan of CZ and this one isn't winning me over either. Time will tell.
Later this afternoon it is to be around 39 degrees so I may give it another try. If the results are the same then I'll shoot one of my proven rifles and see if it really is the temp.

Certainly sounds worth trying. I was told Simple Green and water works also.

Check the torque on the barrel screws, assuming you already checked the standard list of action screws, scope mounts etc.

Then consider testing it when the weather is better.