I am considering getting a Mod.70 type 3 position safety installed on my CZ 550 Magnum American in .416 Rigby. Has anyone tried the Gentry or the LaPour. I would like to get the better one as the price is very close.
I would also like to know if this mod is worth the money.
Thanks

I cannot see how the third position would make a better setup than the factory 2 position. If you're looking to hunt dangerous game with it, then you want a safety that is either on or off, not hung in the middle ground somewhere.

I got the LaPour for my ZKK 602 and like it -- no longer backwards. However, my 'smith had to do a BUNCH of re-cutting.
$260.00 for the kit and I ain't saying how much for the install.

I have a CZ550 Safari Magnum and don't like how sharp the edges are. My 7x64 is also forwards to fire but not as sharp. FWIW.

The three position from Ed LaPour is much more robust and Rugged than the original safety and I am a big fan of a mans rifles all having the same safety mechanism so that he does not find himslef reaching or fumbling around on a tang, or triggerguard or..... when the safety is on the bolt shroud and a size XXX toothy critter is bearing down! Thus, for me the decision was easy. My other big game rifles are model 70;s or an FN with a three position model 70 style safety so it had to be the same on my DGR. As a plus, Ed Lapour is a first rate perfectionist gunsmith and will make the rifle work exactly right if asked to do so.

Not so bad of an idea to be able to put the safety in the middle position for unloading with the trigger still blocked. Contact Ed LaPour and tell him I sent you and said hello.

No need for a three position. Just something else to have to think about. On or Off.

You see it often enough on commercial African DVD's, the client is fumbling with his rifle, looking down at it while the game looks at them deciding when to take off.

Spend the money on practise ammo instead and practice without looking at your rifle, just the target.

Check out www.hunting-rifles.com AHR makes a good three position safety and has a good track record of working on the CZ 550.

Personally, I prefer the factory safety on my 9.3x62 CZ 550. It is easy to use, unobtrusive and well positioned for manipulation with my right thumb. I prefer it to my Winchester Model 70 safeties, of which I have about a half dozen or so in varying calibers.

I completely agree with this........that said I think a guy should stick with what he is accustomed to....I grew up with the M70 safety and even this year,on a moving buck and about 4 seconds to react and kill him, I have no conscious memory of moving the safety off.Happens every time.....and should if you are focused on making the shot.

I have never looked down to release a safety.....doing so simply demontsrates a complete lack of familiarity with your rifle.....practice and familiarity are the key.

Have no knowledge of the LaPour. But as I'm planning to have a 3-position safety installed on my CZ 550 9.3x62 inquired of my GS and he offered that his experience with the Gentry had been that it required a very significant amount of work and that he would not recommend it.

As my other DGRs are M-70s and Ruger MKIIs with 3-position safeties I plan on a similar install on my CZ but I'm leaning toward an AHR model installed by them as I've heard good reports.

I've gotten used to using the middle position when action is imminent and find it very useful. Strongly believe in practice with identical mechanisms in all DGRs is the best insurance.

The CZ safety works very well, but apparently many hunters don't know that when on safe it blocks the firing pin from falling.

In 99% of the instance where somebody feels comepelled to change the CZ fety for a M70 type, the reason is totally knee-jerk, not based on any real knowledge of how safeties work. We have simply been told over and over again about the fantastic M70 safety (which is just a horizontal modification of the old 98 Mauser safety) that we're willing to spend several hundred dollars to replace a CZ safety that works just as well, if not better.

The CZ safety's are ass backwards compared to other US makers of rifles past and present. I will concure that I believe in having all my bolt guns used for hunting big game animals, should have the same type safety......as in model 70 Winchesters!!!

Tonk,

Evidently you haven't shot a CZ 550 in a while. The safeties on the 550 work in the same direction as "American" safeties: push forward to go.

Now, if they would just change the .22 rimfire safeties to "American" style, they'd have a new customer in me.

Just bought a CZ rimfire, and its a cracking rifle, but I hate the safety with a passion!

Better not use it on Cape buffalo, then!

Yeah, I know....Bought the thing but after trying the safety I just know it will never be any good for DG...Have to go back to the .17HMR...

Am I missing something? I have a CZ 550 Minnisota, it was sold here prior to CZ-USA, and it has a 3 position safety. Looks exactly like the current CZ 550. I assumed the new ones were just like my old one.

Same for me with the 527's. I cannot stomach the safety being the wrong direction. Had one in 204 and it was accurate enough, just hated the safety so sold it. For a while Calhoun rifles was putting 3 position safeties on 527's when they re-barrelled them to .19 calhoun. Anyone know if they still do that or if the kit to change these out is available as a componnent from them?

BlairVT, The US CZ's are all push forward to fire, unlike the BRNO's from years past, but the shape of the safety and function is different enough from a model 70 that some of us feel the need to change them out. Others do not and I must admit here that the CZ's as they come from the factory do have a good record in PH firing trials as well as in the hands of many hunters and PH's in Africa.

It is more of a prefereence thing than a need for the most part but I still very much prefer, and feel it safer overall, for the safties on a mans rifles to be as similar and alike as can be made possible. My .02, others equally educated and well established opinions may differ.

safariman,

Jim Calhoon is still converting safeties on 527's, but I dunno if he does it on rifles aside from the ones he turns into .19's. You can contact him at www.jamescalhoon.com or
406-395-4079.

Excellent! Thanks for the link. If he would sell these conversions as kits I think he could make some good money.

I recon I am the odd man out here, and do not reccomend this practice to others. In most cases when shooting is imminent my safety is off on approach to game. My safety is my trigger finger being out of the trigger guard until sights are covering game.

I have various safeties to deal with but since I am familiar with them, moving them from safe to fire has never held me up.

Not intending to flame anybody here, but after years of reading things like this in magazines and here, am I the ONLY one who doesnt have trouble getting accustomed to different safeties on different rifles?
Ive read and heard so many stories of the safety not being pushed off cause the shooter "forgot" it wasnt his favorite rifle, and forgot how to work the safety...
I dunno, different safeties, different rifles, hammer on lever guns, yada, yada, yada...I just never had an issue with any of them...

No, you're not alone.I've never reached for a M70 safety when shooting grouse....

I've never had problem with different safeties.

From the standpoint of shooting firearms professionally in combat, over the last 23 years, its been continually hammered into my head that you will fall back onto your training. From my experiences, this has always proved true for myself and those I've been around, you kinda go on auto pilot and quite a few things that you may give conscious thought towards when things are calm, become muscle memory and auto pilot when the gunfire begins.

I can truly see where someone like a Phil Shoemaker, who must routinely go alone into a thicket after a huge bear wounded by one of his clients, and who may have a few different rifles that he may interchange throughout the season. I can see where things can go bad really quick in such a professional situation, and I can fully understand why someone like Phil would take his many years of experience to fine tune his tackle to interchange without straying too far from the same KISS operation. I could easily see where he may fall back on his years of experience and go on auto pilot where many of the small movements throughout the shooting process are done through muscle memory. Having a different operational safety system on each bolt rifle only adds to the complication and takes you further away from KISS.

Best:)

The 550's aren't backward. Rear/Safe, Forward/Fire. My son's .22 however is bassackwards. Anybody know of a conversion?

Oops. Posted before I noticed there were a couple of more pages.

My point exactly, but better said by you. Great post.

Me too... I have used the old Brno "backwards" safeties, and so-called "standard" safeties, without problems. I don't have the same concern about the odd safeties as others.
However, I have hunted many times with buddies who muffed good opportunities because their "safety was on" - All that means is that they have very little familiarity with their gun, combined with bad habits!

Actually, with an ass backwards safety, my real concern is the opposite, ie thinking the safety is applied when its not....

I've got the Gentry safety on my 550 in .375 H&H, and would have one my .416 if he still shipped them to Canada.
Moveing the safety to the bolt opens the door to eliminateing the overly complicated set trigger, though so far I haven't bothered.

I've hunted a lot with both a 9.3x62 and .416 Rigby 550, and all I did on each was adjust the "overly complicated" set trigger to fire without being set at around 3 pounds. That eliminates the set feature.

Have shot each rifle hundreds of times, perhaps 1000 for the 9.3x62, and haven't had the slight complication from either trigger or safety, in all sorts of weather from sub-zero in Montana to wet Alaska to dry and dusty Africa.

I like the set feature on the bench,but am tired of haveing to readjust the trigger continually as it wears.How soft is that metal anyway? I'd swap to a simple model 70 type trigger if I could find one.

It's not the setting of the trigger thats complicated, its haveing 50 parts when 3 would have worked.

M70Guy,
CZ had a bad batch of trigger sears, and IIRC, they will replace them for free.
I have shot several thousands of rounds through my '06 550 with no problems what so ever.

And if you want something simpler, Timney makes a very good replacement trigger.

Well said. I have a NECG trigger on mine with the LaPour safety installed by Ed LaPour himself. Stout and simple, plus completley encased in a steel housing with just a small sear inspection window opening. I am pretty sure Ed LaPour will ship his safeties up there. Great guy to deal with as well.

Well said. I have a NECG trigger on mine with the LaPour safety installed by Ed LaPour himself. Stout and simple, plus completley encased in a steel housing with just a small sear inspection window opening. I am pretty sure Ed LaPour will ship his safeties up there. Great guy to deal with as well.

Mark,
How have you been keeping?
Both triggers sound like they are worth looking into. I'm taking the .416 to Australia in July to look for a dozen buffalo, and theres a couple of things that aren't exactly what they could be. It's not like the old girl hasn't earned a trigger and/or a safety.

I have been mostly well, save for a recent and ongoing bout with 'chronic endemic bursitis'. Got a MRI Brain Scan done today.

Have not been back to africa since that last trip with our group. Hoping to get back over there with the new wifey (you know, the one who LOVES me...) in a couple of years as in when my alimoney payments aka home improvement loan pmts go away. Thaks for askikng!
Howz about youz? Still killin lots of stuff?

Yeah, still killing stuff. Went down to Argentina in April for stags and buffalo, shot 3 of each and some other stuff, then up to Alaska for grizzly. A few more months and it's off to the Territories for muskox, then Australia for buffalo and cull buffalo in July.
Got my 1/2 mile range built, and still ordering barrels by the handful. Life's good.

Life is good indeed!

Glad to hear of things going so well for you. I hope we can hunt together again some day, I genuinly enjoy your company and conversation, you are a great hunting partner.

Merry Christmas to ya!

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.