Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Silencing the safety on a ZKK 600

I have been using this rifle since the early 70's. Grew old with it but I have never been able to make peace with the loud snapping safety mechanism. When I was younger I used to hold it pointing the barrel in a safe direction with the safety off.
As years are passing I find it more and more difficult to hold it in my hands all the time. I have missed a large bore this past February. He snuck up on me in the shadow of a hedge row. When I was ready to shoot he was about 30 yards away. I have tried to slide the safety off slowly but the snap was still loud enough to spoke him. Is there an easy fix to reduce the loud nature of the safety on this gun?

Sounds like a Remington trigger

I am wondering whether the new CZ 550 triggers are better and interchangeable with the old ZKK rifles?

A safety lever will have some sort of spring and plunger arrangement (I'm not specifically familiar with the ZZK's arrangement). There should be a notch that the safety moves into and out of, and a spring that holds it into place. To make it quieter, generally you take a needle file to the notch or the section on the lever that fits into the notch and make the edges less severe so it sort of slides into place instead of snaps into place. Depending on the gun, this can be a very easy fix. With sealed triggers that have an integral safety, it can be a real bear.

You said easy, but fooling around with a safety gives me the heebie jeebies. An Ed Lapour replacement isn't "easy" but would be another approach. That's pushing 300 bucks these days. Do you have another rifle that doesn't snap? 2 cents

Well whether it gives you the heebie jeebies, it really is a very simple affair. Safeties in general tend to be a very simple device, and a quick look and it will seem intuitive because of its simplicity. If I were taking the job, it would be about $50.00 and that mostly due to the time spent unpacking, packing, and disassembly which is twice the time spent on the actual safety itself.

The thing with doing work on a safety is you want to make the change, check, file a little, check, file a little, check. It's never a one and done sort of thing, but something you take your time on and go slow. But it's really quite easy (for most guns - again, I'm not familiar with the safety on the ZKK)

I do have other rifles here in the States. The ZKK resides in Hungary where I do most of my hunting. I am working on exporting one of my rifles permanently but it seems to be a daunting process.
My Sako A7 30-06 SS Syn would be the perfect choice. I have a Sauer 90 in 308 which was built for night hunting from a high stand.It has a dead silent tang safety + loaded chamber indicator. I wouldn't want to expose it to all kinds of foul weather conditions, it's too pretty for that.

Not sure about the ZKK 600, but with the CZ 550, I merely put a weaker spring in the roller assembly that indents the safety notches. I also smoothed up the safety notches for a less abrupt transition from safe to fire. I can put thumb pressure on the safety lever and disengage the safety without any sound. And, I still have positive safety engagement.

DF