Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles cz-550 opinions

am getting ready to order my b-day present (b-day in mid jan.), and have decided i can no longer live w/o a 375 h&h.

i'm contemplating the cz-550. am wondering if anybody has any idea of how suitable a rifle the cz is for dangerous game?

any reason i should forego the cz, and look into something else? appreciate any input.

over 4600 registered users and not a one has any opinion on a cz 550 in 375 h&h???

TheHighRoad.com

Jaywalker

I looked at the CZs a while back. They may not be up to the standards of the "pre-psychedelia" euro rifles (what is today?) but they look like an excellent value. I've fired one or two at the range and the ones I've tried seem to do everything they're supposed to do.

I read [color:"blue"][b]this report[/b][/color] here on the Fire and they kinda went off my radar. I'm glad CZ has fixed the bolt problem. I doubt I'll ever hunt anything more dangerous than a rut-crazed bull moose, but I've worked pretty hard for the few scraps of game meat that I've gotten and I don't want a rifle that goes "click" when it's supposed to go "bang". Even if life and limb does not hang in the balance.

I'll have to check those out again.

Although not a big bore I had the CZ 550 FS and with it's european style stock the drop at comb made me shoot the gun without a good cheek weld. It guess it was an OK gun, I had a 308, with detachable magazine. I did not like the fact that the magazine made noise if I touched it in the stand. The length of pull was rather long as well. I did not like the scope rings supplied with the gun, too high. The 308 I had was heavy for a 308. I also had to do some work on the saftey to make it more silent. The trigger was good however. I sold mine and bought a weatherby 30-06, more money but it shoots better for me, it is lighter, and I like it. The CZ's are good guns for the money, but you might consider a Winchester model 70 which seems to be a bit more refined. JimmyP

Welp I have a CZ 527 . 223. And its a nice rifle and shoots Dime sixed groups at 100 yards real easy. Several people on other boards have 550s and are happyer than a fart in a wirl wind with the accuracy. They shoot

Several people strip the stock finish too find a nice figured piece of turkish walnut and refinish with tung oil.
You can slim down the foreend wood too.

They say the machine tolerences are real tight and its a well made rifle. And did i say accurate,

It is a Mauser type action. Think most people on this forum are push feed remington fans .

I will be getting a cz 550 next .

BigTime: If what I got in my CZ 550 American in 7x57mm and my CZ 527 Lux in .223 Remington are any indication of how well a line of rifles CZ produces, I'd say get one before the rest of the shooting public finds out just how good they really are and the price skyrockets. My 7x57 is a rifle that will put three rounds into a sub-half minute of angle spot on the target at 100 yards with a 162 grain Hornady SST scooting along at 2,855 fps. I cannot speak for the magnum rifles, but for the standard ones in the CZ 550 American, for my money, you can't beat them. The wood on both mine are exceptional examples of Turkish Walnut, however, CZ likes to hide the fine figured wood under a finish that one custom riflesmith likes to call elephant snot. I notice there isn't a lot of talk about CZ rifles on this forum, which is kind of a puzzle because of the quaqlity of workmanship one gets for a lot less money than most other companies charge for their products. The trigger, called a single-set trigger, is an absolute job. The trigger is highly adjustable. I have mine set right at 3# and left the set feature at 12 ounces, just as it came from the factory. I've got to be honest, if I won a rifle tomorrow in a contest and the MC asked me to pick out which one I wanted, and the rack had a Remington, Winchester, Weatherby, Savage , Ruger, and a CZ 550 American to select from, the CZ would go home with me no questions asked. Of the hundreds of posts I've seen on CZ in some of the other forums (HuntAmerica and AccurateReloading) I have seen very, very few negative ones about the rifles. Granted, the scope rings are more heavy than I like, which is why I have a set of Talley Rings on my CX 550 American now, but good Lord, the things come with the rifle at no additional charge, just like a set of Ruger Rings. Well, that is my five cents worth. Tom Purdom <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

IMHO, Dollar for dollar, I would put them up against any of the Big rifle manufacturers here in the USA. I like the fit and finish, and all steel and quarter sawn Turkish walnut. I have about nine of them from my 22 rim fire to my 30-06, and have no complaints. I don't care for the European stocks though. All mine are the American.

Hey big time,

I listened to the guys over on Accurate Reloading until I just had to have a CZ 550 FS in caliber 9.3x62. No, I really don't blame anyone but myself. The gun was absolutely beautiful! It had fiddleback from buttpad to forend cap. The blued steel was highly polished and deeply blued. BUT, I absolutely hated the way the action operated and felt. The ejector is spring loaded (a rather stout spring, I might add) and presses/rides against the bottom of the bolt for it's entire travel, making the bolt feel heavy and requiring extra effort to operate. Also, the bolt tended to bind badly in it's rearward-most position. In order to make the bolt close reliably I had to work consciously to not push the bolt into a blind. I sold the gun to one of the guys on the AR forum.

There are some smooth, easy-operating bolt rifles out there, including Weatherby, Remington, several foreign made guns, and the 1903 Springfield. But in my opinion, the CZ don't make the cut.

Live well

I've had a couple sent to me for adjusting the triggers and I own a .223 heavy barrel and a 452 American. The fit of the .22 is a little funny looking with wood hard against the barrel channel on one side and quite a gap on the other. The really funny thing is it shoots like a champ, easily 1/2" at 50 yards. My neighbor has shot some groups with it that are not much more than one hole.
The .223 is also a shooter, big time and the fit looks much better. It didn't want to feed from the clip in the beginning, so I took the clip apart and polished the inside of the feed lips and now it feeds pretty well. It really just needs shot more and it will smooth right up.
The trigger on the 527 is awesome, it can be set light in the unset pull and super light in the set pull. They are simply the finest factory trigger offered today, nuff said.
My shootin' partner has several CZ, in both .22 and big bore and they all shoot very well. He did have a .22 hornet that he got rid of claiming it didn't shoot well, but Ruger has also had problems with their hornet not shooting well so I'm not convinced that it's the gun's fault.
Go for it, they're fine guns and well made of steel. I recently saw one with a stock that would knock your socks off, it was beautiful, but I didn't buy it as I already had the caliber in a Ruger 77 that I like very much.