CZ 550 Safari Magnum 300 Win Mag?

[WAB]

Very nice rifle Brandon. I hope you have many great days afield with it.

As to all the CZ bashing, the number of PH’s carrying CZ’s in heavy calibers speaks volumes to me. They have them tuned up, but this would be true of any rifle for DG.

 

[Fastrig]

Picked up a CZ 550 Safari Magnum in .300 win mag at my local gun shop (for a song at $600.....) a few weeks ago. I'm having a really hard time finding any information on the Safari Magnums in this caliber. I seem to recall some being made in 300 win mag and 7mm rem mag. Can anyone comment on the prevalence of this rifle in these medium bore chamberings?

Thanks,

I just bought the same rifle this past weekend at our local gun shop with rings and a nice scope for $900, thought that was a good buy. Took it to the range on Sunday and it shoots great. Have been looking all over the Internet for information on it but haven't had much luck either.

 

[Graham Hunter]

I have 2 CZ 550's One is 7X64 the other is 9.3X62. Both work flawlessly. Have 2 friends with 416 Rigby's that are flawless. I think the newer production work better with the big calibers.

 

[Milan]

.300 WM and 7mm RM used to be made on the ZKK 602 action. I would assume not much has changed when CZ550 was introduced. As to the feeding issues, I have owned about 5 ZKKs and 4 CZ 550s. My dad owned a ZKK, my friend also. None of us had any feeding issues, as a matter of fact some of them were the smoothest Mauser style rifles ever. Now as I understand, the issues are mostly with the big calibers and seem to be confined to US market or is that not true? Regardless, I feel the new CZs are cranked out faster to fill US market which probably is one of their largest. This means many more guns produced compared to commie market during the ZKK era. As a result quality/QA suffers. Coincidentally I had a new Sako Grizzly that needed a lot of work to make feed smoothly. I went back to CZ 550 Safari after that.

 

[gizmo]

To be honest , I have never seen ONE CZ rifle that worked properly out of the box. You need to have some work done to them to make them work right.
You would be better off getting one on an older ZKK602 action.

I own a stock CZ 550 American Safari in 375 H&H. I’ve shot hundreds of rounds through it and never had a single issue. It’s my favorite bolt action hunting rifle I own and 10000% reliable. I also own several other CZ’s from shotguns to rifles and zero problems with any of them. Maybe I’m lucky but I highly doubt lightning strikes 6x. Most of the hubbub about CZ issues is utter BS.

 

[One Day...]

... Now as I understand, the issues are mostly with the big calibers and seem to be confined to US market or is that not true?

Bingo! Big difference between the factory CZ and the American custom gun shop CZ that had the greatest difficulties apparently in profiling correctly the feeding ramp on their custom built .500 Jeffery (which, truth be told, has always been a difficult cartridge to feed, to the point that the original German and British makers ended up using a single stack magazine for them!) and .505 Gibbs (which, truth be told again, is simply too fat for the box magazine of the CZ and does not present itself at the proper angle under the feeding ramps).

The CZ feeding issue legend started there and took off nicely thanks to the almighty internet and its legions of CZ experts who do not own or have ever handled a CZ

Let's see if the CZ feeding legend will live as long as the .458 Win ammo legend lived. Still going on occasionally although the issue was solved 50 years ago when Olin stopped loading compressed charges with its early ball powder that tended to agglomerate in high heat.

Yes CZ 550 coming from the factory can benefit from a few hours of rounding edges and deburring some machine tool marks, but so can most makers' hardware. I have a Remington 700 with military 5R barrel that had a chamber "cut" with such a dull reamer that it could not extract (I still wonder how they fired the test shots to proof the rifle ;-); I had a Winchester 70 classic on which the safety could not engage; I had a Sako coming from the factory that threw up in their air all the .375 H&H rounds from its magazine when the bolt was opened; I had a Steyr Mannlicher (Luxus, no less) whose bolt came out of the action every time it was handled quickly; etc.

Pushing a finishing reamer in the Rem 700; beveling slightly the camming surface on the Win 70 safety; deburing the underside of the Sako feeding ramps, and squaring a rounded edge on the Steyr Mannlicher bolt stop, solved the issue all in minutes. So will polishing for a few minutes the under side edges of some CZ feeding ramps (read polishing; not removing material and re profiling )...

I dunno, maybe I am the one who needs fixing, but it seems that modern quality control and its endless failings struggle to replace good old fashion pride in quality work...

 

[Fastrig]

I own a stock CZ 550 American Safari in 375 H&H. I’ve shot hundreds of rounds through it and never had a single issue. It’s my favorite bolt action hunting rifle I own and 10000% reliable. I also own several other CZ’s from shotguns to rifles and zero problems with any of them. Maybe I’m lucky but I highly doubt lightning strikes 6x. Most of the hubbub about CZ issues is utter BS.

Own three myself, CZ 550 300 win mag, CZ side by side 12 gauge with external hammers, and CZ Shadow 2 9mm handgun. All very good firearms. No complaints whatsoever and all three accurate.

 

[gizmo]

Own three myself, CZ 550 300 win mag, CZ side by side 12 gauge with external hammers, and CZ Shadow 2 9mm handgun. All very good firearms. No complaints whatsoever and all three accurate.

I love CZ’s and will likely end up with several more.

 

[sestoppelman]

I only still have a 550 in 7x64 which works perfectly and is extremely accurate as well. Had two in 9.3x62 and they both were fine. I did have a .404 Jeff that needed tweaking to feed properly, sent it to Triple River and they fixed it. I once had a BRNO 602 in .300 Win but have never seen a 550 in that chambering. Nice find.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

To be honest , I have never seen ONE CZ rifle that worked properly out of the box. You need to have some work done to them to make them work right.
You would be better off getting one on an older ZKK602 action.

+1

 

[Milan]

+1

Witold, Are you doing +1 on the "never seen CZ 550 work out of the box" or "you're better off with a 602?

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Milan, I think it's better to hawe ZKK 602.

 

[Milan]

OK. I was just wondering...

 

[Fastrig]

I only still have a 550 in 7x64 which works perfectly and is extremely accurate as well. Had two in 9.3x62 and they both were fine. I did have a .404 Jeff that needed tweaking to feed properly, sent it to Triple River and they fixed it. I once had a BRNO 602 in .300 Win but have never seen a 550 in that chambering. Nice find.

It's a sweet rifle...22" heavy barrel with flip up iron sites...100/200/300 rear flips.....only problem with it is that it's heavy...my son wants it, but he's big, young and strong so he doesn't even notice the weight. Giving it to him, his first hunting rifle. He shot 5 into a silver dollar sized grouping at 100 his first time out with it...the rugrat is a better shot than his old man LOL

 

[sestoppelman]

22"? Get chopped a couple? I would prefer the full normal 24" on any mag.

 

[Fastrig]

22"? Get chopped a couple? I would prefer the full normal 24" on any mag.

Not that I can tell...haven’t actually measured it but that’s what the tag on it said when I bought it...now you got me wondering so will put a tape to it

 

[8x68]

To be honest , I have never seen ONE CZ rifle that worked properly out of the box. You need to have some work done to them to make them work right.
You would be better off getting one on an older ZKK602 action.

I have several CZ's and yet to have any issues. The BRNO's (ZKK series) needed to be worked as they were rough out of the box. I used to sit in front of the TV watching hockey, working the action for a period or two. Used to drive my mum nuts! Actions smoothed out pretty good after watching a couple of games.

 

[Hoss Delgado]

I have several CZ's and yet to have any issues. The BRNO's (ZKK series) needed to be worked as they were rough out of the box. I used to sit in front of the TV watching hockey, working the action for a period or two. Used to drive my mum nuts! Actions smoothed out pretty good after watching a couple of games.

Now , Now. I love CZ rifles too. They are really good working rifles. It's just that in the larger caliber model 550s like .500 Jeffery and .458 Winchester Magnum and .375 H &H Magnum , l noticed that when you buy them out of the box , a little work needs to be done to many of them ( such as work to the feed ramp , trigger , etc ) to get them to shoot satisfactorily . I'm not the only one who has come across this phenomenon. After a little gunsmithing was done to each of these models , they all functioned perfectly .

 

[Hoss Delgado]

This is my .350 Rigby Magnum . It's a custom piece built on a ZKK602 action... An early BRNO action ( pre '76 ) with the little peep sight. It functions as smooth as butter and shoots less than 1 inch groups out to 100 yards with factory loaded Kynoch 225 grain round nose fmj solids. I personally like it more than the CZ action. That's not to say l dislike CZ . I just like the ZKK602 comparatively more. And yes , you are right about the BRNO actions being a little rough sometimes. I saw a .458 Winchester Magnum BRNO rifle which simply couldn't reliably feed soft nose ammunition until it's feed ramp was modified . A little reading told me that many of the .458 Win Mag BRNO zkk602 rifles had the same flaw.
I suppose it come down to personal preference.
I'd say that if l was building a .458 Win Mag , l would opt for a CZ action. If l was opting for a .500 Jeffery or .375 H&H Magnum , l would opt for a BRNO action

 

[One Day...]

... I personally like it (ZKK602) more than the CZ action. That's not to say l dislike CZ. I just like the ZKK602 comparatively more ... l would opt for a CZ action. If l was opting for a .500 Jeffery or .375 H&H Magnum , l would opt for a BRNO action

This is fascinating reading....

Actually, the ZKK 602 and the CZ 550 are exactly the same action, made in the same CZ factory, with the same machine tools.

The CZ factory used the Brno trade name during the communist years because it had accrued a good reputation in Europe before WWII. After the communist era CZ was privatized and used its own trade name. They are apparently starting to use the Brno trade name again for some product lines. Not all ZKK 602 had the fold down peep sight, and those that did not are indistinguishable (save the brand) from the CZ 550, although through the successive generations, the bolt handle profile has changed a little, and the bottom metal has changed, replacing the ZKK trigger that is articulated on the trigger guard, with the current trigger unit. Some prefer the old trigger, some prefer the new trigger. I had both, both work.

Because these are not cast actions, and they are not CNC machined, but still made on machine tools, they tend to have a few machining marks and burrs here or there, which need to be cleaned up for perfection. I certainly do not understand why they do not deburr at the factory, but I can personally live with it and do it myself considering the tremendous value and the uniqueness of the value.

Rigby of London used in succession the Brno-marked and CZ-marked actions to build their own Rigby rifles (and removed the Brno or CZ markings) during the long time before Mauser very recently restarted building magnum length actions. Whether one uses a Brno-marked ZKK602 or a CZ-marked 550 action to build a rifle makes zero difference whatsoever.

The imaginary CZ "issue" is perpetuated by folks who visibly have never held a CZ 550 and are mostly repeating each others. This is regrettable. It personally makes me smile when folks bash the $950 factory CZ for not being as smooth as rifles that cost twice or three times as much, while not realizing the incredible value they have in their hands (true magnum length, double square bridge, build in scope mounts, integral rear sight island dovetail, barrel band front sight, steel bottom metal, 5 + 1 capacity in most calibers, etc.).

To each his own, I guess...