Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 3 position safety for CZ550

PS great to see you posting here again, not so many real and experienced African hands on here as once was.

So do I.

As a matter of preference, muscle memory, etc. I prefer the M70 style 3-posi safety. Even had Gentry install his 3-posi safety on a couple Remington 700's.

For the CZ550, AHR is the way I went.

Thanks Mark,
I've been around a bit, just didn't have much to say lately.

The CZ 550 safety,unlike the BRNO 602, is back for safe,which locks the bolt and firing mech., and forward to fire.Unfortunately it does not have the safety feature of a third position to cycle live rounds without risk of discharge.

Thanks ,you just saved me $400 . The stock safety works well and is arguably more convenient than the mod. 70's.The bolt shroud on the other hand is too great a departure from the Mauser or Mod. 70 shapes we have grown accustomed to and detracts from an otherwise great looking action. Ditto for the weird bend of the bolt handle.

OK, I'm gonna ask this again. Do the new CZ's not have a 3 posiotion safety? My pre CZ-USA does. All the way back is safe and locks the bolt. Middle position is safe and can cycle action. Forward is fire. It is called a CZ 550 Minnisota, made in 1996, not modified

There's enough oddball on the CZ-550 safety without it working backwards. On mine, safe locks the bolt handle down. Lift the bolt handle and you can put the safety back on safe and then work the bolt in the "safe" position without it locking up again.Thats the third position if you want one. You could argue that that makes it a "3 position" with the positions being "safe and locked", "fire" and "WTF just happened" if you found a way to knock it back while working the bolt.

Believeing that a CZ safety is the equal of a M70 or Mauser safety is the equivilent of believeing that a dead bolt on your front door is the same as propping a chair against it.Locked versus blocked. A M700 safety cams the striker back too.
I find the M70 style a comfort because of the way it locks the striker. I would be just as happy if it were 2 position, "on" or "off" with "on" locking the bolt handle down.

i don't know whats up with my CZ 550, but it has a 3 position safety.

I'd like to second Pete E's earlier question about the safety of the rimfires.

I really like my 22mag CZ I have but I really don't like the safety. Any mods possible?

On the centerfire 550 I find no problems with using it.

CZ made some rifles with a 3 position safety. These rifles have an additional white dot on the shroud.



In this picture of their Battue rifle (from their website), you can barely see the white dot. In the middle/white position, it locks the firing pin while still allowing the bolt to be manipulated.



In this picture of their 550 American rifle, it has their standard 2 position safety, with the white dot missing. The 2 position safety can be jimmied as such so that it does enable the bolt to be opened while still locking the firing pin, but not in a consistent manner (ie, it likes to fall back into it's default position).

Hope that clears up the two different safeties.

(Bring up an old thread here.)

I never realised that they made them with 3 position safeties.

Both my CZ550 magnums have the two position saftey (there is no distinct third position) but I discovered that if you put the safety on when the bolt is open, and then close the bolt, the rifle won't fire. You can continue to cycle the action and it still won't fire. You can't find this mid position if you try to put it on when the bolt is closed.

I thought this was a fault, but I guess this may be deliberate. The reason I thought it was a fault, was because if you somehow accidently managed to knock the safety on as you opened the bolt (maybe hastily reloading for the second shot at that angry cape buffalo that didn't like the first shot and is headed your way to discuss) it wouldn't go bang after you closed the bolt and pulled the trigger.

My CZ550 has a factory three position safety. If you call CZ-USA maybe they can say when CZ started putting three position safety on which models.

I had AHR put on a 3 pos safety for me and love it. That being said, the CZ550 two position safetly is very similar (back = safety on, forward = safety off) to both my Rem 700s and my Weatherby Mark V. I got the 3 pos safety because I wanted it, not because I needed it.