CZ 550 Buy. How bad did I just mess up?

[MS 9x56]

How many of you have had modified your 550s with a 3 position safety, action/follower tuning and or adding a sling barrel band?

My 550 came with a 3 position safety, and I bought it new in the box.

 

[cajunchefray]

I will post pics as soon as it comes in. I ordered some of the trash cans with bullets seated in them that are .416 Rigby cartridges lol

I suggest not overthinking recoil. Recoil control is a learned response.

When shooting off the bench (for sighting in only!), use bags to elevate your rest so that your torso is upright, a firm but not death grip, and just let your body roll with it.
In the book Rifles for Africa Gregor Woods has a good chapter,
Recoil: Learn to Manage It. It is a very good read.

Personally, I find the CZ American stock design really helps tame recoil. It works for me up to .500 Jeffery.
The Ruger RSM 416 Rigby I owned, while beautiful, just beat me up. Other people's results vary, but I liked the CZ 416 Rigby.

My CZ 416 Rigby was not bad at all. I loaded faster powders (H4350) rather than large charges of slower powder (RL-22). I didn't chase top velocity just accuracy at around 2300 fps.

As @krish stated, if you don't currently reload, now is the time to do it. You can optimize your loads for your rifle, keep the recoil velocity and muzzle blast minimized and shoot more for less money.

Good Luck!

 

[Maskell Shotgun academy]

you got a great rifle, get a competent small to install a Kick-Ezz recoil Pad and a recoil reducer. I wouldn't shoot it without those additions unless your good with heavy recoil.
Mike

 

[Bwgunslinger]

I suggest not overthinking recoil. Recoil control is a learned response.

When shooting off the bench (for sighting in only!), use bags to elevate your rest so that your torso is upright, a firm but not death grip, and just let your body roll with it.
In the book Rifles for Africa Gregor Woods has a good chapter,
Recoil: Learn to Manage It. It is a very good read.

Personally, I find the CZ American stock design really helps tame recoil. It works for me up to .500 Jeffery.
The Ruger RSM 416 Rigby I owned, while beautiful, just beat me up. Other people's results vary, but I liked the CZ 416 Rigby.

My CZ 416 Rigby was not bad at all. I loaded faster powders (H4350) rather than large charges of slower powder (RL-22). I didn't chase top velocity just accuracy at around 2300 fps.

As @krish stated, if you don't currently reload, now is the time to do it. You can optimize your loads for your rifle, keep the recoil velocity and muzzle blast minimized and shoot more for less money.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the good info. My dad does reload for every rifle he shoots so I think if I get some North Fork bullets and some brass we should be in business. Maybe I will shoot the 4 boxes of Hornady I have coming and then use that brass for some 430 grain loads in the 2150 to 2200 range.

 

[Bwgunslinger]

I notice that with 350 grain loads in the .375 at 2300 fps, it slows the recoil velocity down and has more of a push than a punch. At least compared to factory 300 grain going faster. Hits everything I have killed with it really hard.

That makes me wonder if I could tame the 416 the same way. Maybe not

 

[Bwgunslinger]

Another thing my dad has done to his Caprivi's is have the gunsmith add lead in a channel in the fore-stock and then add weight in the back of the stock as well. Makes a great soft shooting .375 but not worth the added weight for all day carry imo. At least not for 375.

I may be taping a brick to the 416 after saying all that lol

 

[samson7x]

I have the same, CZ 550 in .416 Rigby. You made a good choice but I have to ask at that time of day and with GunBroker was alcohol involved in the decision making?

Once upon a time, I was indulging in some bourbon and surfing GB. Thought it would be cool to have a dirty harry 44 mag. Ended up finding one, placing a bid that I didn't think would win and passed out. Woke up the next morning to find that I had won the auction! Today it's one of my favorite firearms...

 

[Peter Radekevich]

Remember recoil is a matter of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it don’t matter. Good choice on a great gun.

I think it’s if you don’t have a mind it don’t matter

 

[375Ruger416]

Thanks for the good info. My dad does reload for every rifle he shoots so I think if I get some North Fork bullets and some brass we should be in business. Maybe I will shoot the 4 boxes of Hornady I have coming and then use that brass for some 430 grain loads in the 2150 to 2200 range.

I don’t hand load, but will have to help my brother in law get his stuff set back up in office above the new barn. This big stuff is expensive, but even more importantly hard to find!

Loaded Aframe ammo is nearly impossible to find here in Canada and I’ve always been impressed with what I’ve heard about North Fork’s softs and cup nose solids. The ability to download ammo for recoil is a huge advantage too.

 

[Bwgunslinger]

I don’t hand load, but will have to help my brother in law get his stuff set back up in office above the new barn. This big stuff is expensive, but even more importantly hard to find!

Loaded Aframe ammo is nearly impossible to find here in Canada and I’ve always been impressed with what I’ve heard about North Fork’s softs and cup nose solids. The ability to download ammo for recoil is a huge advantage too.

Absolutely. Now that you say that, another added expense I didn't think of was getting a set of dies and a crimper die. Not too much in the big picture cost wise

 

[bigborelover]

Good choice especially for the price. Will kill anything on planet earth.

 

[AZDAVE]

You bought well. It is a rifle that will serve your needs for a long time.

I would advise your first couple shots be off sticks. I have bought a very good number of 338 and bigger rifles that have one or two rounds out of the first box of shells shot. Some one stepped up from a 243-308 and shot HIS or Her bigger bore off the bench and put it in the safe and sold it for half price a couple years later to me.

 

[PARA45]

Like others have said, you got a great deal, congrats. I'm a fairly short man (5'5") and I don't have any issues shooting my Ruger RSM-416 Rigby. Get comfortable with the rifle, and put it to work. I've known 4 PHs and all four had CZ-550s in 416 Rigby, and they swear by them.

The only issue I've found, is finding factory ammo. Luckily, I reload, so I'm ok. I've purchased brass from Raven Rocks (sponsor here). Good luck and please post pictures when you get her.

 

[Bwgunslinger]

Like others have said, you got a great deal, congrats. I'm a fairly short man (5'5") and I don't have any issues shooting my Ruger RSM-416 Rigby. Get comfortable with the rifle, and put it to work. I've known 4 PHs and all four had CZ-550s in 416 Rigby, and they swear by them.

The only issue I've found, is finding factory ammo. Luckily, I reload, so I'm ok. I've purchased brass from Raven Rocks (sponsor here). Good luck and please post pictures when you get her.

I definitely will. Looks like it should be delivered Monday. I work for the company the gun will be delivered to so I’ll get it soon as it comes off the truck and gets checked in.

(Not mentioning the name of the company because I’m not sure if it’s bad form to promote non-sponsors to this site that are in the industry).

 

[Beck]

Tell me more haha

Thread 'Cz 550 Safari Magnum - .416 Rigby'

Apr 17, 2025

For Sale a Cz-550 Safari Magnum in .416 Rigby. I bought this gun recently, and have never fired it. I had been planning to re-barrel it into a .505 Gibbs, but after talking to several gunsmiths, with little luck, I ended up buying a .505 Gibbs. The gun itself is in impeccable condition, it appears to have spent it's entire life in a safe. I can only find two small marks on either side of the stock, and I have done my best to show that in the photos below. Asking $3k, will give it a week or two before listing on gun broker...

• Beck
• Replies: 8
• Forum: Classifieds

• 

Check it out in the classifieds - I bought if off of gunbroker, I don't think it has ever been fired. I can take photos of the barrel and the bolt head if needed

 

[RAVEN ROCKS PRECISION]

I.n the wee night hours, you made a good choice for the CZ 550 416 Rigby. These won’t be around for long.
My first love for a big rifle was a CZ 550 American, I polished and tuned up.

@RAVEN ROCKS PRECISION can help you with ammo and brass.

Redding dies, some bullets and slow burning powder and you are off to the races.

Pictures please

Indeed, that's one I want.. unless I find something in 416 Taylor just because of how much brass we have already...

Norma 416 Rigby Brass

416 Rigby brass casings. This is not loaded ammo. Quantities: 25 ct: Bulk Packaged 50 ct: Factory Box NORMA BRASS KEY FEATURES: Neck – Annealed to achieve proper elasticity and prevent splitting, NORMA cases are then put through a final polish process to ensure superior appearance in addition to...

ravenrocksprecision.com

 

[Bwgunslinger]

Indeed, that's one I want.. unless I find something in 416 Taylor just because of how much brass we have already...

Norma 416 Rigby Brass

416 Rigby brass casings. This is not loaded ammo. Quantities: 25 ct: Bulk Packaged 50 ct: Factory Box NORMA BRASS KEY FEATURES: Neck – Annealed to achieve proper elasticity and prevent splitting, NORMA cases are then put through a final polish process to ensure superior appearance in addition to...

ravenrocksprecision.com

Thank you for the link!

 

[One Day...]

You have bought one of the most respected "workhorse" rifles in Africa, [B]Bwgunslinger[/B], and in one of the greatest calibers. As others have already said, you will likely not regret it.

Because it is a "proper" weight rifle with substantial barrel, .416 Rigby recoil is not too punishing in them. I speak of experience.

Keep in mind that from the 1990' to the 2010's Rigby of London themselves built their five-figure rifles on the CZ550 actions, after pre-WW II Mauser magnum actions all but disappeared from the market, and before Mauser restarted producing them in 2015. This is no faint praise for the action.

Yes, they can be rough, but they are diamonds in the rough. Keep reading here under if you need to address that.

I have owned over half a dozen, and still own ZKK 602 / CZ 550 (same basic action, with evolutions on the safety and trigger) in .375 H&H, .416 Rigby, .458 Win and Lott. I hold the CZ 550 in great esteem.

In my judgement, it is a true:
- double square bridge,
- magnum-length,
- controlled round feed (CRF),
- deep belly magazine,
- 100% forged steel,
- appropriate barrel contour,
- integral rear sight base,
- barrel-band front sight base,
tough as nails "Mauser system" rifle; the true workhorse of Africa for the last 50 years.

Compared to other DG rifles, a few of the CZ 550 strong points deserve a few lines:

• True magnum length action. It is sized for the .416 Rigby and bigger cases. Most others are not, and are .375 H&H length. Yes, I know, one can cut about half the feeding ramp of a .375 H&H action to lengthen the magazine well, and modify the bolt face, just like Rigby did on Harry Selby's standard length Mauser action, to shoehorn a .416 Rigby in it, but fundamentally the .375 H&H actions are too short for anything bigger than the H&H parent case. For a .416 Rigby, no contest, CZ 550 wins over most DG actions
• The CZ 550 has a true double square bridge action with machined dovetails for scope mounts. It does not require to screw bases on top of the action to install a scope. The .375 H&H may be still OK, but many owners of .458 Lott and .416 Rem (and .450 Watts, .416 Hoffman, .416 Taylor, etc. before them) have lamented that however tight the bases are screwed on the action, even after re-drilling and tapping the holes to 8x40 and dabbing the screws liberally with Loctite, some are coming loose after 100 rounds or so. Dovetails machined in the bridge will never come loose.
• The CZ 550 has a deep magazine with 5 rounds capacity in .375 H&H and 4 in .416 Rigby (if memory serves). Most other commercial actions have 3 rounds magazine capacity, or even only 2 in Rigby calibers. Oceans of ink have been spilled over this issue, including righteous (?) arguments about 'who could ever need more than 3 rounds in a DG magazine' etc. There is no rational arguing about it: deep belly high-capacity magazines are better on DG rifles.
• The CZ 550 barrel has an appropriately heavy contour that soaks up recoil, an integral base for the rear sight, and a barrel-band mounted front sight. These will never fall of the barrel. Screwed-on rear sights and front sights can come loose, and even fall off the barrel. Oh yes, it happens...
• The only weakness, in my view, of the CZ550 is that it does not have a true Win 70-type bolt-mounted firing pin-blocking safety. The CZ/ZKK have an action mounted sear-blocking safety. Whether it is pull to fire, or push to fire does not matter much. The bottom line is that sear-blocking safeties are not as safe as firing pin-blocking safeties. In a hard fall the cocking piece could jump the sear and the rifle could fire. It has happened... The CZ / ZKK saving grace here is that one can easily retrofit a Winchester type safety on a CZ / ZKK (see below).
• It is also quite beyond me why CZ put set triggers on DG rifles, but here again, no worry, the trigger is easy to replace (see below).

There is simply nothing better in its price range, or even at five times its price, when it comes to combining functionality, reliability and safety for African hunting far from repair shops and with potentially dangerous animals. Every "modernization" that came after the Mauser 98 design, so far, has - in my opinion - generally compromised either functionality, reliability or safety, or all three of them.

A few thoughts re. purchasing a CZ 550...

1) Do not worry about the stock at all. CZ stocks do not use very high quality wood anyway; it is generally not dense enough. My recommendation is to replace the factory stock with a Bell & Carlson Kevlar stock with a full length aluminum bedding block. These are $300 well spent and you can do it when budget allows. It will never break or split (this happens relatively often with the CZ factory stocks) and it will never warp and loose zero. I have 6 or 8 of them on various rifles and have nothing but praises for them. By the way, the CZ "Aramid" factory stock is nothing else than ... the B&C stock...

Broken stock on a CZ 550 .404 Jeffery (Picture: Ronald Berry).

The B&C “American Safari” stock is a drop-in fit for the CZ 550 magnum action.
This is the stock B&C makes for CZ as the factory Aramid stock (Picture: Bell & Carlson).

2) Do not worry about the action not being smooth. They never are from the factory. If you are observant of contact points on the rifle, and willing to spend a few hours with the appropriate miniature files, fine and very fine grit sandpaper, and valve grinding compound, you will be positively amazed at how slick a standard 550 will become within a few hours.

Check specifically:

• how the central edge of the follower plate binds inside the grove for the ejector blade in the underside of the bolt (solved by rounding the central edge of the follower);
• how the burrs of the ejector blade grind inside the ejector grove of the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the ejector blade);
• how the burrs of the lower rear bridge machining grind against the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the machining of the lower rear bridge);
• how the forward edge of the extractor collar binds inside the upper rear bridge (solved by rounding the edges of the extractor collar and polishing the inside of the rear bridge);
• how the machining burrs on the inside and lower faces of the feeding rails grind against the feeding cartridges (solved by polishing carefully - but NOT removing material from - the feeding rails undersides).
• how the edges and the flats of the undersides of the front locking lugs drag on the action rails (solved by polishing the undersides of the locking lugs).

There never was any "magic" in Rigby of London turning the $1,000 CZ 550 barreled actions into their $15,000 rifles for the decades when the original Mauser magnum action was out of production, they simply spent hours polishing and smoothing them. You can do (or have someone do) exactly the same...

Here is an easy tip: dunk the bolt in valve grinding compound, sit in front of a TV show for an hour, and work endlessly the action open and close. Just that will do miracles...

3) I would advise four other things on CZ 550’s:

1- As stated above, the CZ comes from the factory with an action-mounted safety that blocks the sear. This is not the best safety. In a hard fall, the cocking piece of the bolt could conceivably jump over the sear and fire. 90% of the ZKK 602 and CZ 550 in the field have this safety, and it is OK, but a true safety needs to be bolt-mounted and must mechanically block the firing pin, like the old "flag" Mauser safety did. It is easy to replace on the CZ 550 (and ZKK 602 previously) the factory safety with a three-position, bolt-mounted, firing pin-blocking safety (the so-called "Winchester" safety in America). It is not too expensive ($300 from Gentry or AHR) and you can do it yourself, but you have to know exactly what you are doing when adjusting the camming surface that pulls back the firing pin from the sear when engaging the safety. If you do not know what I am talking about, then you MUST have a qualified gunsmith do it. To me this is the ONLY mandatory upgrade on the ZKK / CZ.

But the following upgrades are also nice to have...

2- Replace the factory set trigger with a Timney direct trigger ($100). The factory trigger is not bad. I replace it mostly because I prefer a traditional rounded trigger shape and I like the trigger to be in the back of the trigger bow, not in the center.

3- Have a good gunsmith solder a barrel band front swivel stud ($100) and remove the front swivel stud from the stock (you can order the B&C stocks without a front stud). With a barrel mounted stud, you cannot cut your front hand on the stock forearm stud under recoil...

4- Have a good gunsmith weld full the bolt handle hole, and heat and straighten the bolt handle ($100). It makes it just a little more accessible.

Win 70 type safety; direct trigger; filled & straightened bolt handle. (Picture: American Hunting Rifles).

Barrel band front swivel stud (Picture: American Hunting Rifles).

All of this is what the people in the know refer to when they speak about AHR (American Hunting Rifles) upgrade #1. The $800 Upgrade #1 gets you a 3-position safety, single-stage trigger, straightened and filled bolt handle, and an action job.

Whether you do it yourself, or have it done by a specialized gunsmith, if you spend $300 on a B&C stock; $300 on a safety; $100 on a trigger; $100 on a front barrel band swivel; $100 to fill & straighten the bolt handle, and $200 (or your own few hours) to smooth the action, or $800 on a AHR (American Hunting Rifles) upgrade #1, you get the functional equivalent to a $15,000 Rigby Big Game rifle!

You certainly do not get the visual aesthetics equivalent, nor the prestige equivalent of a $15,000 Rigby rifle, but "functional equivalent" is good enough for real life Africa. Actually, it is even better because you are not constantly worried about scratching or damaging the rifle when hunting. Those who have seen $10,000 rifles' rust-blue turn to rust, and hand-oiled Bastogne walnut turn into a warped gray plank over the course of a non-stop rain hunt understand this very, very well...

A few words regarding scope rings...

Regarding scope mounts, the double square bridge of the CZ 550 has a dovetail machined into it. You need neither swing mounts nor claw mounts, nor extra bases, etc. The strongest, tightest and safest scope mounts - detachable with levers, or not - (also the cheapest at $100) are those that clamp directly into the dovetails.

Alaska Arms have a major design flaw in my view: their recoil lug is on the moving clamp. This makes their return to zero less consistent.

Warnes are good but I prefer Talley. The rear ring recoil lug is located at the front edge of the ring on the Talley, so the Talley ring does not overhang over the magazine from the front face of the rear bridge, it is flush with it. The recoil lug is located in the middle of the ring on the Warnes, so the rear ring's front edge overhangs a bit over the bolt and the magazine. It has no bearing on strength, but I find the Talley mount a little cleaner.

Picture: Talley Manufacturing

The other big advantage of NOT adding swing or claw mounts, etc. to the CZ 550, and using the bridge dovetail for the rings, besides strength, is that it keeps the scope low over the bore.

A few words of caution regarding scope selection (especially for .375 H&H owners)...

However, there is a difficulty with true magnum-length actions. They are too long for the traditional 1.5-6x42 scopes. The length of the action bridge is longer than the section of 30 mm tube on these scopes, and the scopes do not fit over the bridge; they are too short.

I have spared a lot of time and frustration to .375 H&H CZ550 wanting to mount a scope with a forward objective bell, by sharing this little drawing I put together regarding the scopes requirements for the CZ 550 magnum-length action:

If the tube length "B" is not at least 5.31”/13.5 cm long, the scope is too short to mount over the CZ 550 magnum-length action with rings that clamp directly into the bridge dovetails. If the objective bell length "C" is longer than 4.9”/12.5 cm it will collide with the rear iron sights, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the objective bell diameter "D" is wider than 2.25”/57 mm it will collide with the barrel, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the ocular length "A" is significantly longer than ~4”/~10 cm, the risk increases for the scope to hit you under recoil.

The classic way to eliminate the challenge is to mount a straight tube scope that does not have an objective bell at the front, they all fit, but until recently, these scopes did not offer more than 4x magnification, which is a little low for the .375 H&H or even .416 when used on PG. Variable scopes now exist with straight tubes and 1x to 6x variable magnification, so this solves this problem.

Straight tube desirable scopes for the CZ 550 magnum-length action include all straight tube scopes with ~1x magnification at the lower end of the variable range: Zeiss Conquest V6 1.1-6x24; Swarovski Z6 1-6x24; Swarovski Z8 1-8x24; Leica Magnus 1−6x24; Schmidt & Bender 1.1-5x24 Stratos; Schmidt & Bender 1-8x24 Exos; as well as a number of Leupold, Vortex, etc. scopes.

Welcome to the CZ550 world, I hope this helps

 

[PCC600]

You have bought one of the most respected "workhorse" rifles in Africa, [B]Bwgunslinger[/B], and in one of the greatest calibers. As others have already said, you will likely not regret it.

Because it is a "proper" weight rifle with substantial barrel, .416 Rigby recoil is not too punishing in them. I speak of experience.

Keep in mind that from the 1990' to the 2010's Rigby of London themselves built their five-figure rifles on the CZ550 actions, after pre-WW II Mauser magnum actions all but disappeared from the market, and before Mauser restarted producing them in 2015. This is no faint praise for the action.

Yes, they can be rough, but they are diamonds in the rough. Keep reading here under if you need to address that.

I have owned over half a dozen, and still own ZKK 602 / CZ 550 (same basic action, with evolutions on the safety and trigger) in .375 H&H, .416 Rigby, .458 Win and Lott. I hold the CZ 550 in great esteem.

In my judgement, it is a true:
- double square bridge,
- magnum-length,
- controlled round feed (CRF),
- deep belly magazine,
- 100% forged steel,
- appropriate barrel contour,
- integral rear sight base,
- barrel-band front sight base,
tough as nails "Mauser system" rifle; the true workhorse of Africa for the last 50 years.

Compared to other DG rifles, a few of the CZ 550 strong points deserve a few lines:

• True magnum length action. It is sized for the .416 Rigby and bigger cases. Most others are not, and are .375 H&H length. Yes, I know, one can cut about half the feeding ramp of a .375 H&H action to lengthen the magazine well, and modify the bolt face, just like Rigby did on Harry Selby's standard length Mauser action, to shoehorn a .416 Rigby in it, but fundamentally the .375 H&H actions are too short for anything bigger than the H&H parent case. For a .416 Rigby, no contest, CZ 550 wins over most DG actions
• The CZ 550 has a true double square bridge action with machined dovetails for scope mounts. It does not require to screw bases on top of the action to install a scope. The .375 H&H may be still OK, but many owners of .458 Lott and .416 Rem (and .450 Watts, .416 Hoffman, .416 Taylor, etc. before them) have lamented that however tight the bases are screwed on the action, even after re-drilling and tapping the holes to 8x40 and dabbing the screws liberally with Loctite, some are coming loose after 100 rounds or so. Dovetails machined in the bridge will never come loose.
• The CZ 550 has a deep magazine with 5 rounds capacity in .375 H&H and 4 in .416 Rigby (if memory serves). Most other commercial actions have 3 rounds magazine capacity, or even only 2 in Rigby calibers. Oceans of ink have been spilled over this issue, including righteous (?) arguments about 'who could ever need more than 3 rounds in a DG magazine' etc. There is no rational arguing about it: deep belly high-capacity magazines are better on DG rifles.
• The CZ 550 barrel has an appropriately heavy contour that soaks up recoil, an integral base for the rear sight, and a barrel-band mounted front sight. These will never fall of the barrel. Screwed-on rear sights and front sights can come loose, and even fall off the barrel. Oh yes, it happens...
• The only weakness, in my view, of the CZ550 is that it does not have a true Win 70-type bolt-mounted firing pin-blocking safety. The CZ/ZKK have an action mounted sear-blocking safety. Whether it is pull to fire, or push to fire does not matter much. The bottom line is that sear-blocking safeties are not as safe as firing pin-blocking safeties. In a hard fall the cocking piece could jump the sear and the rifle could fire. It has happened... The CZ / ZKK saving grace here is that one can easily retrofit a Winchester type safety on a CZ / ZKK (see below).
• It is also quite beyond me why CZ put set triggers on DG rifles, but here again, no worry, the trigger is easy to replace (see below).

There is simply nothing better in its price range, or even at five times its price, when it comes to combining functionality, reliability and safety for African hunting far from repair shops and with potentially dangerous animals. Every "modernization" that came after the Mauser 98 design, so far, has - in my opinion - generally compromised either functionality, reliability or safety, or all three of them.

A few thoughts re. purchasing a CZ 550...

1) Do not worry about the stock at all. CZ stocks do not use very high quality wood anyway; it is generally not dense enough. My recommendation is to replace the factory stock with a Bell & Carlson Kevlar stock with a full length aluminum bedding block. These are $300 well spent and you can do it when budget allows. It will never break or split (this happens relatively often with the CZ factory stocks) and it will never warp and loose zero. I have 6 or 8 of them on various rifles and have nothing but praises for them. By the way, the CZ "Aramid" factory stock is nothing else than ... the B&C stock...

Broken stock on a CZ 550 .404 Jeffery (Picture: Ronald Berry).

The B&C “American Safari” stock is a drop-in fit for the CZ 550 magnum action.
This is the stock B&C makes for CZ as the factory Aramid stock (Picture: Bell & Carlson).

2) Do not worry about the action not being smooth. They never are from the factory. If you are observant of contact points on the rifle, and willing to spend a few hours with the appropriate miniature files, fine and very fine grit sandpaper, and valve grinding compound, you will be positively amazed at how slick a standard 550 will become within a few hours.

Check specifically:

• how the central edge of the follower plate binds inside the grove for the ejector blade in the underside of the bolt (solved by rounding the central edge of the follower);
• how the burrs of the ejector blade grind inside the ejector grove of the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the ejector blade);
• how the burrs of the lower rear bridge machining grind against the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the machining of the lower rear bridge);
• how the forward edge of the extractor collar binds inside the upper rear bridge (solved by rounding the edges of the extractor collar and polishing the inside of the rear bridge);
• how the machining burrs on the inside and lower faces of the feeding rails grind against the feeding cartridges (solved by polishing carefully - but NOT removing material from - the feeding rails undersides).
• how the edges and the flats of the undersides of the front locking lugs drag on the action rails (solved by polishing the undersides of the locking lugs).

There never was any "magic" in Rigby of London turning the $1,000 CZ 550 barreled actions into their $15,000 rifles for the decades when the original Mauser magnum action was out of production, they simply spent hours polishing and smoothing them. You can do (or have someone do) exactly the same...

Here is an easy tip: dunk the bolt in valve grinding compound, sit in front of a TV show for an hour, and work endlessly the action open and close. Just that will do miracles...

3) I would advise four other things on CZ 550’s:

1- As stated above, the CZ comes from the factory with an action-mounted safety that blocks the sear. This is not a true safety. In a hard fall, the cocking piece of the bolt could conceivably jump over the sear and fire. 90% of the ZKK 602 and CZ 550 in the field have this safety, and it is OK, but a true safety needs to be bolt-mounted and to mechanically block the firing pin, like the old "flag" Mauser safety did. I replace on my CZ 550 (and ZKK 602 previously) the factory safety with a three-position, bolt-mounted, firing pin-blocking safety (the so-called "Winchester" safety in America). It is not too expensive ($300 from Gentry or AHR) and you can do it yourself, but you have to know exactly what you are doing when adjusting the camming surface that pulls back the firing pin from the sear when engaging the safety. If you do not know what I am talking about, then you MUST have a qualified gunsmith do it. To me this is the ONLY mandatory upgrade on the ZKK / CZ.
But the following upgrades are also nice to have...

2- I replace the factory set trigger with a Timney direct trigger ($100). The factory trigger is not bad. I replace it mostly because I prefer a traditional rounded trigger shape and I like the trigger to be in the back of the trigger bow, not in the center.

3- I also have a good gunsmith solder a barrel band front swivel stud ($100) and I remove the front swivel stud from the stock (I order the B&C stocks without a front stud). With a barrel mounted stud, you cannot cut your front hand on the stock forearm stud under recoil...

4- I have a good gunsmith weld full the bolt handle hole, and heat and straighten the bolt handle ($100). It makes it just a little more accessible.

Win 70 type safety; direct trigger; filled & straightened bolt handle; barrel band front swivel stud (Pictures: American Hunting Rifles).

All of this is what the people in the know refer to when they speak about AHR (American Hunting Rifles) upgrades #1. - Upgrade #1 gets you a 3-position safety, single-stage trigger, straightened and filled bolt handle, and an action job.

Whether you do it yourself, or have it done by a specialized gunsmith, if you spend $300 on a B&C stock; $300 on a safety; $100 on a trigger; $100 on a front barrel band swivel; $100 to fill & straighten the bolt handle, and $200 (or your own few hours) to smooth the action, you get the functional equivalent to a $15,000 Rigby Big Game rifle!

You certainly do not get the visual aesthetics equivalent, nor the prestige equivalent of a $15,000 Rigby rifle, but "functional equivalent" is good enough for real life Africa. Actually, it is even better because you are not constantly worried about scratching or damaging the rifle when hunting. Those who have seen $10,000 rifles' rust-blue turn to rust, and hand-oiled Bastogne walnut turn into a warped gray plank over the course of a non-stop rain hunt understand this very, very well...

A few words of caution regarding scope selection...

Regarding scope mounts, the double square bridge of the CZ 550 has a dovetail machined into it. You need neither swing mounts nor claw mounts, nor extra bases, etc. The strongest, tightest and safest scope mounts - detachable with levers, or not - (also the cheapest at $100) are those that clamp directly into the dovetails. Warnes are good but I prefer Talley. The rear ring recoil lug is located at the front edge of the ring on the Talley, so the Talley ring does not overhang over the magazine from the front face of the rear bridge, it is flush with it. The recoil lug is located in the middle of the ring on the Warnes, so the rear ring's front edge overhangs a bit over the bolt and the magazine. It has no bearing on strength, but I find the Talley mount a little cleaner.

Picture: Talley Manufacturing

The other big advantage of NOT adding swing or claw mounts, etc. to the CZ 550, and using the bridge dovetail for the rings, besides strength, is that it keeps the scope low over the bore.

However, there is a difficulty with true magnum-length actions. They are too long for the traditional 1.5-6x42 scopes. The length of the action bridge is longer than the section of 30 mm tube on these scopes, and the scopes do not fit over the bridge; they are too short. I will spare you a lot of time and frustration by sharing this little drawing I put together regarding the scopes requirements for the CZ 550 magnum-length action:

If the tube length "B" is not at least 5.31”/13.5 cm long, the scope is too short to mount over the CZ 550 magnum-length action with rings that clamp directly into the bridge dovetails. If the objective bell length "C" is longer than 4.9”/12.5 cm it will collide with the rear iron sights, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the objective bell diameter "D" is wider than 2.25”/57 mm it will collide with the barrel, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the ocular length "A" is significantly longer than ~4”/~10 cm, the risk increases for the scope to hit you under recoil.

The classic way to eliminate the challenge is to mount a straight tube scope that does not have an objective bell at the front, they all fit, but until recently, these scopes did not offer more than 4x magnification, which is a little low for the .375 H&H or even .416 when used on PG. Variable scopes now exist with straight tubes and 1x to 6x variable magnification, so this solves this problem.

Straight tube desirable scopes for the CZ 550 magnum-length action include all straight tube scopes with ~1x magnification at the lower end of the variable range: Zeiss Conquest V6 1.1-6x24; Swarovski Z6 1-6x24; Swarovski Z8 1-8x24; Leica Magnus 1−6x24; Schmidt & Bender 1.1-5x24 Stratos; Schmidt & Bender 1-8x24 Exos; as well as a number of Leupold, Vortex, etc. scopes.

A great post . My CZ 550 Safari Classic in 375 H&H is my go to water buff culling rifle . Talley scope mounts and a low magnification Leopold scope. It works perfectly and no problems . As a rifle it is functionally every bit as good as my Rigby Big Game 416 . I am a big big fan .

 

[Bwgunslinger]

You have bought one of the most respected "workhorse" rifles in Africa, [B]Bwgunslinger[/B], and in one of the greatest calibers. As others have already said, you will likely not regret it.

Because it is a "proper" weight rifle with substantial barrel, .416 Rigby recoil is not too punishing in them. I speak of experience.

Keep in mind that from the 1990' to the 2010's Rigby of London themselves built their five-figure rifles on the CZ550 actions, after pre-WW II Mauser magnum actions all but disappeared from the market, and before Mauser restarted producing them in 2015. This is no faint praise for the action.

Yes, they can be rough, but they are diamonds in the rough. Keep reading here under if you need to address that.

I have owned over half a dozen, and still own ZKK 602 / CZ 550 (same basic action, with evolutions on the safety and trigger) in .375 H&H, .416 Rigby, .458 Win and Lott. I hold the CZ 550 in great esteem.

In my judgement, it is a true:
- double square bridge,
- magnum-length,
- controlled round feed (CRF),
- deep belly magazine,
- 100% forged steel,
- appropriate barrel contour,
- integral rear sight base,
- barrel-band front sight base,
tough as nails "Mauser system" rifle; the true workhorse of Africa for the last 50 years.

Compared to other DG rifles, a few of the CZ 550 strong points deserve a few lines:

• True magnum length action. It is sized for the .416 Rigby and bigger cases. Most others are not, and are .375 H&H length. Yes, I know, one can cut about half the feeding ramp of a .375 H&H action to lengthen the magazine well, and modify the bolt face, just like Rigby did on Harry Selby's standard length Mauser action, to shoehorn a .416 Rigby in it, but fundamentally the .375 H&H actions are too short for anything bigger than the H&H parent case. For a .416 Rigby, no contest, CZ 550 wins over most DG actions
• The CZ 550 has a true double square bridge action with machined dovetails for scope mounts. It does not require to screw bases on top of the action to install a scope. The .375 H&H may be still OK, but many owners of .458 Lott and .416 Rem (and .450 Watts, .416 Hoffman, .416 Taylor, etc. before them) have lamented that however tight the bases are screwed on the action, even after re-drilling and tapping the holes to 8x40 and dabbing the screws liberally with Loctite, some are coming loose after 100 rounds or so. Dovetails machined in the bridge will never come loose.
• The CZ 550 has a deep magazine with 5 rounds capacity in .375 H&H and 4 in .416 Rigby (if memory serves). Most other commercial actions have 3 rounds magazine capacity, or even only 2 in Rigby calibers. Oceans of ink have been spilled over this issue, including righteous (?) arguments about 'who could ever need more than 3 rounds in a DG magazine' etc. There is no rational arguing about it: deep belly high-capacity magazines are better on DG rifles.
• The CZ 550 barrel has an appropriately heavy contour that soaks up recoil, an integral base for the rear sight, and a barrel-band mounted front sight. These will never fall of the barrel. Screwed-on rear sights and front sights can come loose, and even fall off the barrel. Oh yes, it happens...
• The only weakness, in my view, of the CZ550 is that it does not have a true Win 70-type bolt-mounted firing pin-blocking safety. The CZ/ZKK have an action mounted sear-blocking safety. Whether it is pull to fire, or push to fire does not matter much. The bottom line is that sear-blocking safeties are not as safe as firing pin-blocking safeties. In a hard fall the cocking piece could jump the sear and the rifle could fire. It has happened... The CZ / ZKK saving grace here is that one can easily retrofit a Winchester type safety on a CZ / ZKK (see below).
• It is also quite beyond me why CZ put set triggers on DG rifles, but here again, no worry, the trigger is easy to replace (see below).

There is simply nothing better in its price range, or even at five times its price, when it comes to combining functionality, reliability and safety for African hunting far from repair shops and with potentially dangerous animals. Every "modernization" that came after the Mauser 98 design, so far, has - in my opinion - generally compromised either functionality, reliability or safety, or all three of them.

A few thoughts re. purchasing a CZ 550...

1) Do not worry about the stock at all. CZ stocks do not use very high quality wood anyway; it is generally not dense enough. My recommendation is to replace the factory stock with a Bell & Carlson Kevlar stock with a full length aluminum bedding block. These are $300 well spent and you can do it when budget allows. It will never break or split (this happens relatively often with the CZ factory stocks) and it will never warp and loose zero. I have 6 or 8 of them on various rifles and have nothing but praises for them. By the way, the CZ "Aramid" factory stock is nothing else than ... the B&C stock...

Broken stock on a CZ 550 .404 Jeffery (Picture: Ronald Berry).

The B&C “American Safari” stock is a drop-in fit for the CZ 550 magnum action.
This is the stock B&C makes for CZ as the factory Aramid stock (Picture: Bell & Carlson).

2) Do not worry about the action not being smooth. They never are from the factory. If you are observant of contact points on the rifle, and willing to spend a few hours with the appropriate miniature files, fine and very fine grit sandpaper, and valve grinding compound, you will be positively amazed at how slick a standard 550 will become within a few hours.

Check specifically:

• how the central edge of the follower plate binds inside the grove for the ejector blade in the underside of the bolt (solved by rounding the central edge of the follower);
• how the burrs of the ejector blade grind inside the ejector grove of the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the ejector blade);
• how the burrs of the lower rear bridge machining grind against the bolt (solved by deburring/polishing the machining of the lower rear bridge);
• how the forward edge of the extractor collar binds inside the upper rear bridge (solved by rounding the edges of the extractor collar and polishing the inside of the rear bridge);
• how the machining burrs on the inside and lower faces of the feeding rails grind against the feeding cartridges (solved by polishing carefully - but NOT removing material from - the feeding rails undersides).
• how the edges and the flats of the undersides of the front locking lugs drag on the action rails (solved by polishing the undersides of the locking lugs).

There never was any "magic" in Rigby of London turning the $1,000 CZ 550 barreled actions into their $15,000 rifles for the decades when the original Mauser magnum action was out of production, they simply spent hours polishing and smoothing them. You can do (or have someone do) exactly the same...

Here is an easy tip: dunk the bolt in valve grinding compound, sit in front of a TV show for an hour, and work endlessly the action open and close. Just that will do miracles...

3) I would advise four other things on CZ 550’s:

1- As stated above, the CZ comes from the factory with an action-mounted safety that blocks the sear. This is not the best safety. In a hard fall, the cocking piece of the bolt could conceivably jump over the sear and fire. 90% of the ZKK 602 and CZ 550 in the field have this safety, and it is OK, but a true safety needs to be bolt-mounted and must mechanically block the firing pin, like the old "flag" Mauser safety did. It is easy to replace on the CZ 550 (and ZKK 602 previously) the factory safety with a three-position, bolt-mounted, firing pin-blocking safety (the so-called "Winchester" safety in America). It is not too expensive ($300 from Gentry or AHR) and you can do it yourself, but you have to know exactly what you are doing when adjusting the camming surface that pulls back the firing pin from the sear when engaging the safety. If you do not know what I am talking about, then you MUST have a qualified gunsmith do it. To me this is the ONLY mandatory upgrade on the ZKK / CZ.

But the following upgrades are also nice to have...

2- Replace the factory set trigger with a Timney direct trigger ($100). The factory trigger is not bad. I replace it mostly because I prefer a traditional rounded trigger shape and I like the trigger to be in the back of the trigger bow, not in the center.

3- Have a good gunsmith solder a barrel band front swivel stud ($100) and remove the front swivel stud from the stock (you can order the B&C stocks without a front stud). With a barrel mounted stud, you cannot cut your front hand on the stock forearm stud under recoil...

4- Have a good gunsmith weld full the bolt handle hole, and heat and straighten the bolt handle ($100). It makes it just a little more accessible.

Win 70 type safety; direct trigger; filled & straightened bolt handle. (Picture: American Hunting Rifles).

Barrel band front swivel stud (Picture: American Hunting Rifles).

All of this is what the people in the know refer to when they speak about AHR (American Hunting Rifles) upgrade #1. The $800 Upgrade #1 gets you a 3-position safety, single-stage trigger, straightened and filled bolt handle, and an action job.

Whether you do it yourself, or have it done by a specialized gunsmith, if you spend $300 on a B&C stock; $300 on a safety; $100 on a trigger; $100 on a front barrel band swivel; $100 to fill & straighten the bolt handle, and $200 (or your own few hours) to smooth the action, or $800 on a AHR (American Hunting Rifles) upgrade #1, you get the functional equivalent to a $15,000 Rigby Big Game rifle!

You certainly do not get the visual aesthetics equivalent, nor the prestige equivalent of a $15,000 Rigby rifle, but "functional equivalent" is good enough for real life Africa. Actually, it is even better because you are not constantly worried about scratching or damaging the rifle when hunting. Those who have seen $10,000 rifles' rust-blue turn to rust, and hand-oiled Bastogne walnut turn into a warped gray plank over the course of a non-stop rain hunt understand this very, very well...

A few words regarding scope rings...

Regarding scope mounts, the double square bridge of the CZ 550 has a dovetail machined into it. You need neither swing mounts nor claw mounts, nor extra bases, etc. The strongest, tightest and safest scope mounts - detachable with levers, or not - (also the cheapest at $100) are those that clamp directly into the dovetails.

Alaska Arms have a major design flaw in my view: their recoil lug is on the moving clamp. This makes their return to zero less consistent.

Warnes are good but I prefer Talley. The rear ring recoil lug is located at the front edge of the ring on the Talley, so the Talley ring does not overhang over the magazine from the front face of the rear bridge, it is flush with it. The recoil lug is located in the middle of the ring on the Warnes, so the rear ring's front edge overhangs a bit over the bolt and the magazine. It has no bearing on strength, but I find the Talley mount a little cleaner.

Picture: Talley Manufacturing

The other big advantage of NOT adding swing or claw mounts, etc. to the CZ 550, and using the bridge dovetail for the rings, besides strength, is that it keeps the scope low over the bore.

A few words of caution regarding scope selection (especially for .375 H&H owners)...

However, there is a difficulty with true magnum-length actions. They are too long for the traditional 1.5-6x42 scopes. The length of the action bridge is longer than the section of 30 mm tube on these scopes, and the scopes do not fit over the bridge; they are too short.

I have spared a lot of time and frustration to .375 H&H CZ550 wanting to mount a scope with a forward objective bell, by sharing this little drawing I put together regarding the scopes requirements for the CZ 550 magnum-length action:

If the tube length "B" is not at least 5.31”/13.5 cm long, the scope is too short to mount over the CZ 550 magnum-length action with rings that clamp directly into the bridge dovetails. If the objective bell length "C" is longer than 4.9”/12.5 cm it will collide with the rear iron sights, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the objective bell diameter "D" is wider than 2.25”/57 mm it will collide with the barrel, with 1/2" high rings that keep the scope low over the barrel as desired. If the ocular length "A" is significantly longer than ~4”/~10 cm, the risk increases for the scope to hit you under recoil.

The classic way to eliminate the challenge is to mount a straight tube scope that does not have an objective bell at the front, they all fit, but until recently, these scopes did not offer more than 4x magnification, which is a little low for the .375 H&H or even .416 when used on PG. Variable scopes now exist with straight tubes and 1x to 6x variable magnification, so this solves this problem.

Straight tube desirable scopes for the CZ 550 magnum-length action include all straight tube scopes with ~1x magnification at the lower end of the variable range: Zeiss Conquest V6 1.1-6x24; Swarovski Z6 1-6x24; Swarovski Z8 1-8x24; Leica Magnus 1−6x24; Schmidt & Bender 1.1-5x24 Stratos; Schmidt & Bender 1-8x24 Exos; as well as a number of Leupold, Vortex, etc. scopes.

Welcome to the CZ550 world, I hope this helps

Wow! Thank you so much for the info. That bit about the safety is first thing to get attention. Had no idea.

I have a gunsmith buddy at Alamo Precision Rifles and he can definitely smooth out the action and used to do a lot of them.

I didn’t know the stocks were prone to damage. I’ll probably have him also glass bed it even though it isn’t needed.

I’ll be checking into the stocks and Safetys after dinner.

Thank you again!