I have a owned couple of both over the last 20 years, still have a model 70 in pre 64 form and my go to DGR is a 550 in 416 Rigby.
I agree completely that to make a CZ what it ought to be often requires a bit of TLC. Mine has been re-worked quite a bit and is featured in an article I wrote and was published in African Hunter Magazine a few years ago called "converting the CZ 550 into a world class Dangerous Game rifle" Basically what I did was turn my CZ into an overgrown Model 70 with upgrades to the safety, trigger, etc and some polishing and tuning by a good gunsmith. I am now looking into the feasability of having the breechface coned a la model 70 so that it will feed better with pointy nosed projectiles. I wanted a 416 Rigby and the Winchesters are not big enough for cartridges of this size but if one wants to just go buy a nice DGR and hunt with it pretty much out of the box I would point them to a Model 70 or Kimber Caprivi or perhpas a Ruger African and be done with it. Now that we have cartidges like the 416 Remington, Ruger and similar getting one's hands on a ready to rock mid bore DGR is much easier and simpler than when I went down the CZ road about 20 years ago. To be sure, I really love my CZ now, and dig the integral scope bases and its beefiness and love the old 416 Rigby cartridge which I can handload to exceed what the other 416's are capable of but the CZ is not, in my opinion, as good of an out of the box ready to rock and roll option as a model 70 or Kimber.
Last edited by safariman; 02/01/12.
