505 Gibbs

Just ordered myself a new CZ550 in .505 and was wondering if anyone else owns one?

No, but I am considering one. I looked at one pretty closely at the SCI show. It is a very substantial gun in all respects. Heavy enough to maybe tame the recoil. It is a better cartridge for a reloader than the 500 Jeffery. I was impressed by the fit and finish of the CZ....and although not cheap by any means, it is one of the most economical ways to get the big 505...hope you get to use the rifle on something BIG.....FWB

canuck505 said:

Just ordered myself a new CZ550 in .505 and was wondering if anyone else owns one?

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Be warned Canuck505,

I have several CZ rifles in various calibers, including one in .500 Jeffery (because .511 diameter projectiles in various weights are easier to find than .505 diameter here where I live).
Incidentally, the standard CZ 550s I own all work perfectly and I am very happy with them.

Even though the .500 cost me 3 times what any one of the others cost, it does not feed live Kynoch brand cartridges from the magazine and the chamber is either too short or too small in some way.
Also, A-Zoom brand snap caps would not fit in the chamber either.
A friend here (www.calpappas.com) owns an original Schuler and it fed/chambered them both as smooth as butter.

I called CZ's so called "Custom Shop" and their so called "Gunsmith" said both A-Zoom and Kynoch were out of spec but, he suggested I send my rifle to him with some live Kynoch cartridges and he would "have a look at it" (What sort of "Custom Shop" does not maintain cartridges to fit the rifles they are building, so they can check for function before they sell them?)
Therefore, I decided that I would let himself and such others who presumably assembled it in the first place, "have a look at it" when monkeys fly out of my butt.

The only other .50 caliber CZ 550 I know of here (Anchorage) is a .505 like yours and it had the exact issues that my .500 has.
The owner did send his back to CZ's so called "Custom Shop" but it returned still quite non-functional (!)
A proper Gunsmith here in town fixed that .505 and I have left my .500 with him for the same treatment.
Have to pay out my pocket but also will save many $$$ in the long run.
Because I had planned to eventually order a .300 H&H, a .404 Jeffery and a .425 Westley Richards from them, one at a time over the years.

Turns out, they can keep their so called "Custom Shop" rather expensive rifles (that don't even work) and I can keep my approximately $10,000. I would have otherwise sent to them in the form of three thousand, some hundred-odd dollars for each rifle.

The's a sucker born every minute and that was evidently my minute.

Regards,
Velo Dog.

i almost bought a CZ 550 in 505 Gibbs but i decided not to when i read Velo Dogs report as well as a few others online which had similar experiences. CZ rifles just dont seem to feed round nose bullets well. my 550 in 375 H&H doesnt like RN bullets such as PPU factory ammunition and Hornady DGS/DGX ammunition. my CZ will feed them fine if i take it slow but if i need to operate the bolt quickly it will jam.

you will likely need work to get your 550 in 505 Gibbs to feed reliably. make sure your able to cycle the gun rapidly without failure as a jam could cost you your life!

-matt

matt85 said:

i almost bought a CZ 550 in 505 Gibbs but i decided not to when i read Velo Dogs report as well as a few others online which had similar experiences. CZ rifles just dont seem to feed round nose bullets well. my 550 in 375 H&H doesnt like RN bullets such as PPU factory ammunition and Hornady DGS/DGX ammunition. my CZ will feed them fine if i take it slow but if i need to operate the bolt quickly it will jam.

you will likely need work to get your 550 in 505 Gibbs to feed reliably. make sure your able to cycle the gun rapidly without failure as a jam could cost you your life!

-matt

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Matt how old is your CZ? Mate of mine just purchased one and it feeds like butter!

ive had it for maybe 2-3 months and it was purchased new.

-matt

my 550 in .500 jeff that i bought as they were on a low price deal 15 mins before SCI closed this year is at pauls, and first thing i asked him on the phone was how does it feed, and he went off and put some dummy rounds through it and came back and said it was feeding fine, so the main worry after reading some of the others experiences on here is removed . here is a photo so Mr VD and ses can have apoplexy at the 20inch barrel . going to have the sight cover removed and either the rear v opened up or a new one fitted and poss a fibre optic front fitted, as long as they arent too chunky as i like quite a small bead. a steel grip cap fitted and the hole in the bolt knob filled in. paul said the wood looks quite nice in the flesh so will have to wait on that one..........

Word up Mr. T,

You were smarter than I by making sure your .500 worked correctly prior to plopping down the money.

The thought never occurred to me that a rifle from anything called a "Custom Shop", no matter what brand, would not feed or chamber cartridges .. I was truly amazed.

Then I was doubly amazed when I called them and the persom who answered the phone said Kynoch ammunition and A-Zoom snap caps were both out of spec .. especially after I told him they feed like butter in my friend's (Cal Pappas) original Shuler built Pre-War .500 Jeffery.

My .500 has a 24" barrel because I will shoot it way more than I will carry it unfortunately.

For PH work though, I can see why you would prefer the 20" version, that makes perfect sense.

Just received notification from the Gunsmith that my .500 is now feeding properly, the larger front sight bead is installed and the new (larger) bolt handle is welded on but the Model-70 type safety is not here yet.

Evidently the safety manufacturer (Gentry) is running behind with production.

Hope to fetch it home one of these days and actually fire it.

Eventually I will have the forend slimmed, re-checkered, plus an ebony forend cap installed and the cheek piece reshaped from a teardrop to an oval.

Cheers,
Venereal Dog.

i had paid for it before i read these posts by yourself and others about the feeding probs so i was worried about it, but i seem to have either been lucky or maybe they have read the criticism and jacked up things...hopefully the latter . sounds nice what you are going to have done to yours.

spike.t said:

i had paid for it before i read these posts by yourself and others about the feeding probs so i was worried about it, but i seem to have either been lucky or maybe they have read the criticism and jacked up things...hopefully the latter . sounds nice what you are going to have done to yours.

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Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
But, I hope you are correct in that perhaps CZ's so called "Custom Shop" has heard the drums and is correcting their grievous error.
It seems so weird to me that I had never heard of a regular production model CZ 550, in any caliber, not being about perfect for function and accuracy, and the several of them I own, from 6.5 through .458 are just right.

Yet their most expensive so called "Custom Shop" versions, possibly more often than not, seem to have serious function problems.
The Gunsmith who is repairing mine here in Anchorage (Andy Hawk) said he believes whomever is assembling the .500's and .505's possibly does not understand that repeaters for these two massive cartridges need extra milling (follower) and hand filing (rails) work before they will feed properly.

I will say that, nobody is worthy of the title "Custom Shop Gunsmith" or even "Gunsmith" of any sort, if they are slapping together components just willy nilly and not checking them for function prior to sending them off to customers.