Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles CZ 527

Finally got around to ordering a Pic rail to fit the CZ527 16 MM dovetails. My Dad bought a 6.5 Grendel 527 (a "mini-Mauser") and he died before we could get around to working on it.

Just wanted to comment a bit, I am rather happy how this thing is set up overall, floated barrel, threaded muzzle, a recoil lug in the stock, and a sleeve for the back screw, I expect the bedding to go well. Have to laugh a little as the rear screw sleeve is just a roll-pin plunked in the hole. It's the right length, however. The action doesn't jump around when playing with the action screws, a good sign.

I have it boresighted, barrel cleaned, oil wiped down, and a couple boxes of 6.5 Hornady, so I'm ready for the "baseline" shoot, how it does straight out of the carton. Been a while since I've done up a new rifle, so I'm just a little excited.

Dave, I suspect you will really like the CZ, I certainly do mine. If you haven't worked with one before, it seems common that, with a full magazine, you have to push the bolt forward with your thumb pushing the bolt shroud rather than the bolt handle. Not a big deal once you understand it.

I love the cz527. All mine shoot very well, particularly my Hornet and Grendel. They are not , however, mini-mausers. I think you will really enjoy yours.

A 527 was my first 6.5 Grendel. Beautiful little rifle, but would only feed from the magazine, so dropping one on the follower was out. PITA at the range. Both Howas I’ve owned are much lighter, feed and shoot better. Not as handsome, but overall better. Still like them, but don’t want another, especially with two SS Howas on hand now.

I kind of think I'd prefer "bottom metal" and a conventional magazine box. Took some fiddling and bending to get the magazine latch to behave already, I'll see how it works when I go shoot, probably next week as we are getting blown, moistened and chilled for the next few days.

On the bright side of looks, the hogback comb on this thing is only a stubborn suggestion, not a travesty requiring eye bleach.

As I recall, when you pull it out of the stock the latch falls out. Had mine apart a few times futzing with the bedding, to no avail.

John Haviland did an article or two on a 527 in 6.5. Like me, IIRC, he never got the expected velocity, but what you get is enough. The latest HANDLOADER has an article about Jeremiah’s experience with a carbon Howa, with some good loads.

That is because the CZ527 is a controlled round feed not a push feed action.
I have 3 and love them, will never sell and will end up with my son or my grandson's

Yes, I know that, but other CRFs allow single feeding, or can be modified slightly to allow it, or you can press on the extractor so it slips over the rim. On a CFR with a conventional internal box and follower, it’s easy to just press one down for pickup, but if that’s possible with the 527 mag, I don’t see it. I have a Howa Mini with a 527 mag setup, and you can drop one on top, no problem because it doesn’t have to slip under a claw. When I get a new CRF rifle, I test to see if one of those tricks will work, mainly in case I forget, but my usual practice is to push the round into the mag box.

Someone else here told me a while back that his 527 could be single-fed, but I don’t remember the details.

Interesting. Mine is an irritant to single feed, but the extractor will snap over the rim, it's just that the bullet point always seems to catch somewhere rather than going smoothly into the chamber. Maybe if I used RN bullets it would work better.

This thread had me all ready to Dremel either the claw, or an insert for the top of the magazine.....
Also was gonna attack the extractor, I have done that to 98 Mausers to good effect. But the extractor already has a decent bevel.
So when I tried laying a round on the follower, it fed and chambered just fine.

Penny, you are right about the latch lever, it just falls out when you take the bottom metal out. The issue I had was that funny looking spring was too springy and I could not slip the mag box in between that and the stock. So, I pried until I got a result, now the latch works great and everything goes together easy. Click in, click out, no rattle.

Did shoot the thing. Got on paper in three rounds, four "groups" -- three at 1.65 and the last at 1.85. Not super impressed, but I have not benched a rifle in over a year, maybe even 16 months plus, I did not shoot ANY rifles last year. Lots of trap, no rifles. Trigger is Euro single-set, gritty on full pull, weird on set. Again, it's been a long time.
I was focused mostly on shoot-and-clean anyway, scrub a dub dub and the good news is, the bore didn't have anything I could feel, and cleaned up normally.

So now I'm "broke in" a bit and decided to measure the throating and mag box length in prep for handloading. Mag box is a fuzz over 2.20. HDY Black 123s were loaded to 2.20. So where is the throat? Um....
darn.....
I pulled a couple of unfired Blacks and rod-measured them. Both agreed, 2.340. So that's O.140 minimum jump on a brand new gun if you want to use the magazine AND fitted cartridges, which I do. Also gaged some HDY 100s, those are 2.310 to throat.

Now I have 20 rounds left. Ten have been left alone, the other ten, I pulled and re-seated to 2.340. Because I can just "tray" single rounds, I will try to shoot four groups without making any stupid mistakes, see if the groups change. Probably should slick the trigger a bit, stone and adjust. Not bad now, but I prefer "awesome."

I have 50 more HDY cases in the retail bag, so we'll see.

My first impression after the first shoot is, this 527 in 6.5 GDL is a real nice deer setup as it is. Totally classic metal and walnut with a few updates, but I don't like the need for special bases. Rather would have CZ just drill mounting screws like everyone else, it took me three years before I found a flat Pic rail not on backorder.

Trouble sleeping last night, so went to the bench and had at the trigger.

I was lazy and only worked on the trigger, which is a normal adjustable trigger with a push-forward "set." Only the set was usable when I shot it, pull was just chitty gritty.

I left the action sear alone, hoping I could do the whole job in the lower half. Not quite, but close.

Overall, I'm impressed with how adjustable the trigger turned out to be, there are adjustment screws everywhere, none glued shut. Only bad thing was the lower trigger bow has this bitty positioning spring that is a total BEAR to re-install. I ended up drilling the spring pocket hole on the bow somewhat deeper and used red grease as "glue." Works. Won't ever rust!

Trigger tension spring is way too stiff, I am going to order a replacement spring, but for now I whacked away a coil or two so it was actually "adjustable" on the side of reason. Factory setting was pretty close to the lightest attainable, at least two pounds. Good overtravel setting. Sear engagement itself was pretty long and gritty as heck, four distinct grits before bang. So, I stoned the sear lever, which pivots on the same pin as the bow (they sit side=by=side and work together). Put everything back together, checked the safety function for Rem 700 syndrome (ok), bang-closed the bolt a number of times cocked and fired, no slam fires. It might go off if I drop it on concrete, but not gonna.

There is still one "grit" left just before release. I could have less engagement (I tried slamming it, it never slamfired), but the engagement is pretty minimal to my eye. I turned in more engagement.

The "grit" is really loud, with the actual break immediately after the grit. I can "grit" to a set, and then just a perfect pull. If I can engage at the grit location without a grit, that will be just great.

I'm so happy with the "straight" trigger now (and it will get better with a bit more use and work) that I'm going to crank the Euro-set positioning screw to "no pushie." Not needed any more.

Penny? That’s a first!😜

I don’t think you can blame that on your spell-checker….

I bought a Bob’s Sled single-shot adapter to make my 527 more manageable at the bench. I think others (James Calhoon?) make a similar product, for those who need it. Looks like not everyone does.

Fired off the rest of the factory ammo to get at the cases.
The trigger is now a "mini grit set" trigger. Tiny grit, relax, then BANG. Almost there! A bit more stoning and it should be a real nice 1 pound trigger with no creep.

Factory length loads did terrible, wild diagonal strings, not even worth measuring. The pulled-to-throat rounds immediately tightened up, round groups. Still not impressive, but a real signal that the factory throat is way too far out there. I think the jump is over 150 thousandths for magazine length ammo.
As for the magazine, I tried that with the factory stuff and it would NOT feed and was dang hard to load in the first place. Fortunately, I can plop a round in the action and easily close the bolt over the rim without a feed issue.

Can't be a deer rifle without a magazine, right? COULD be a varmint rifle single fed, but it's a walkabout-weight gun. Work to do!

SO then I started case prep and busted the advance collar on my XL 650. It's 20 years old so was probably due. The "spare" was oddball shaped and wouldn't fit in my Dillon spares organizer kit, I've never needed a spare anything up to this point. Sure enough, while I tried to keep track of that collar over time, not "lose" it, it's gone without flipping the house over. Here I sit, waiting to hear from Dillon as I couldn't find a parts list on their site.

On the bright side, not being able to shoot means I'm deep-cleaning the barrel, it picked up some copper through 40 rounds of clean and shoot, I better get it down to nothing when I have a chance to start over.

Got the Dillon fixed but now the weather skunks, has for at least ten days in a row. Tomorrow there might be less wind.
I've got some gopher loads for my 223 I want to re-test before I run off the whole batch, and want to run that batch off (the year's supply) before changing

I got out the Steel Bed and bedded the front ring and tang, went well, action clicks in and out with no fuss, screws down with no movement.

I have the dies for the 6.5 in my range-testing case, all the cases prepped, trimmed sized and primed. Bullets measured for throating in case. Scale in windproof case with clear front door, measure, calipers. Can't wait.

Rode up to Libby with my shooting buddy, he shot 500 doubles and I packed the reloading junk with the 527. Almost successful. I remembered everything EXCEPT A FUNNEL but figured out how to use a 22 bore guide in a 6.5. I settled on doing a minimal ladder test with Benchmark and enjoyed watching the holes happen in the paper. The charge range for the "group" of eight shots was over a grain (all inside an inch at 100), meaning I might not have to be super precise, and pressure was barely showing at about a half grain below book max.
These were the first handloads with new brass, sized and chamfered, loaded right to the throat at 2.345 (magazine is 2.20) and single fed over the top of the magazine. Kind of a disappointment there, because 6.5 GDL is a good, deer-ish cartridge, but you want a usable magazine for deer, not a single shot. And I've had poor results with loads that fit the magazine, a total yawner that way AND the mag is super difficult to fill with more than 2 or 3 rounds.

So this thing has a good, varminty trigger, good stock shape, and gives every indication of being a solid varminter with the right loads. Too bad those right loads can't fit in the darn magazine. Why in tarnation don't rifles come with throats that can match the action openings? Geeze!

Next time I'll shoot at the "home range" at Whitefish. Our benches are way better than the "things" at Libby, had I brought a camera I would have photographed them. Solid, built by a welder, not a shooter. And my funnel is already packed in the range box.