Questions About the CZ 550

My CZ550 American 9.3x62 is a superb rifle. It was initially a bit rough when cycling but I fixed that by cycling the bolt hundreds of times while watching TV. I love this rifle. It just feels right when shouldered, aimed & fired. My new FN Winchester Model 70 sporter in 30.06 & Safari Express 375 are superb. I believe them to be the best Model 70s ever.
Boatman was full of crap & there are many innacurate statements in his writings. I think it was he who started the myth that O'Connor was recoil shy. Jack often used a 375 H&H & sometimes used a 300 Weatherby. He said he prefers a 270 over a 30.06 because it shot a little flatter & kicked a little less. That statement tells us the 30.06 kicks more than the 270. It doesn't make the great man recoil shy. Damn, I really miss Jack n Elmer punchin' on. The older I get I tend to think old Elmer knew what he was talking about.
 
My CZ550 American 9.3x62 is a superb rifle. It was initially a bit rough when cycling but I fixed that by cycling the bolt hundreds of times while watching TV. I love this rifle. It just feels right when shouldered, aimed & fired. My new FN Winchester Model 70 sporter in 30.06 & Safari Express 375 are superb. I believe them to be the best Model 70s ever.
Boatman was full of crap & there are many innacurate statements in his writings. I think it was he who started the myth that O'Connor was recoil shy. Jack often used a 375 H&H & sometimes used a 300 Weatherby. He said he prefers a 270 over a 30.06 because it shot a little flatter & kicked a little less. That statement tells us the 30.06 kicks more than the 270. It doesn't make the great man recoil shy. Damn, I really miss Jack n Elmer punchin' on. The older I get I tend to think old Elmer knew what he was talking about.

Jack also liked the 416 rigby and published some good handloads for it. It is kind of like Jack always said he had nothing against a guy being fulled with eurphoria hunting plains game with 375 H&H just don't tell him that a 30-06 is inadequate.
 
CZ are outstanding rifles and the " go to" for many professional hunters, game rangers, etc over here
I have never owned one in a small, high precision calibre so cant comment on those.
However my own guiding/back up rifle is a 602 in 458WM . The action could use a longer cartridge ( like the Lott or the Rigby) , but .458WM works for my application, and the rifle itself cant be criticized.
My son and I also each own one in 9.3 × 62
If there is a better all round Bush rifle then I have yet to stumble across it
A little known fact is that many Rigbys were built on CZ barrelled actions
What greater
 
My CZ 550 in 500 Jeffery is my favorite rifle bar none. We have M70s and Rem 700s which we like too, but the CZ is in a class by itself. It's massive action is machined from billet (no investment cast here). It's bolt has no "wiggle" yet is smooth and locks down tight. It points like a fine shotgun and shoots 1/2 MOA with either 570g TSX's or 570g Swift A-Frames. It's solid, accurate, feeds and extracts flawlessly. Not bad to look at either.

full
 
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good after buying many weapons for hunting dangerous in the last 16 years I can say that I shot with good and bad guns, rifles CZ I bought just needed a bit of JB in the bolt and maneuver through a 100-fold and the action is very soft!

I had some famous weapons, rather than when placed in cituações hunting land real bad and unmaintained for a few days proved problematic, I know I go against what the market says, it had a bad experience with Blaser R93 (it opened during a training and cut my face), other weapon was a horrible remington safari KS 375HH (I had problems feeding and extraction twice and then broke the extractor), also bought a Kimber which was very poor precision, and other weapons that I do not see much advantage and do not use them more as sauer, steyr, browning.

3 years I only to hunting with CZ and I am very happy!

soon want to buy a good double in 460Weatherby for hunting dangerous, more to this I have to sell some weapons, because here in Brazil a hunter can only have 12 weapons, and only 4 can be of great calibers.

Blessed are the Americans who may have any weapon! cheap and still pay for them, here in Brazil a CZ550 priced at $ 6000.00! nonsense!

I believe that all bolt rifles for hunting should be based on the Mauser 98! as CZ, Ruger, Dakota, Kimber, FN, Winchester, Zastava, and more!
Beto,
I'm an American who may be able to HAVE any weapon of my choice. But, I am an American (like many others) who CAN'T afford any weapon of my choice. I, like probably most, have a budget for things that are nice/fun to have, but that I don't make my living with. I bought a new CZ 550 in .458WM about a month ago, BECAUSE it was one of the few large bore rifle brands I could afford. I've only fired about dozen rounds through it so far. But the action is smooth (with a little lube on the bolt and rails), it's nicely balanced and comes up to point nicely. My only complaint so far, is the trigger has a little bit of creep in it. Send it to AHR for an upgrade? Ha! I can't afford that and pay close to twice what I paid for the rifle new? I'll have to have a local gunsmith smooth the creep out of the trigger somehow. Anyway, I've never owned a CZ rifle or any CRF before. But so far, it seems to be a well built rifle for MY money! Thanks!
 
I've owned two. A .308W which I took to Africa for my first paid hunt and a .416Rigby which is now shooting buff in the Northern Territory of Australia with another owner. Great guns. The standard triggers are fine and the bedding is fine (if inspected by a competent gunsmith who knows what they are doing). Don't get sucked into spending extra $ if not needed by people trying to part you with your money. The only fault I found with the .308W was the action would seize up with fine grit because the tolerances were too tight for rough hunting. (yes we got off the truck). My son's .243W Mauser '98 continued to function in the same conditions. I would not hesitate to recommend the CZ550 but only if there wasn't a suitable Mauser '98 for rebuilding in a standard length cartridge.
 
I've owned two. A .308W which I took to Africa for my first paid hunt and a .416Rigby which is now shooting buff in the Northern Territory of Australia with another owner. Great guns. The standard triggers are fine and the bedding is fine (if inspected by a competent gunsmith who knows what they are doing). Don't get sucked into spending extra $ if not needed by people trying to part you with your money. The only fault I found with the .308W was the action would seize up with fine grit because the tolerances were too tight for rough hunting. (yes we got off the truck). My son's .243W Mauser '98 continued to function in the same conditions. I would not hesitate to recommend the CZ550 but only if there wasn't a suitable Mauser '98 for rebuilding in a standard length cartridge.
Thanks for your perspective on this!
 
CZ are outstanding rifles and the " go to" for many professional hunters, game rangers, etc over here
I have never owned one in a small, high precision calibre so cant comment on those.
However my own guiding/back up rifle is a 602 in 458WM . The action could use a longer cartridge ( like the Lott or the Rigby) , but .458WM works for my application, and the rifle itself cant be criticized.
My son and I also each own one in 9.3 × 62
If there is a better all round Bush rifle then I have yet to stumble across it
A little known fact is that many Rigbys were built on CZ barrelled actions
What greater
Way off the subject here, but can I load 550gr Woodleighs in my CZ 550 .458WM? I found some for a little over $1.00us a piece. Your a .458WM guy, so I thought I would ask. Thanks!
 
CZ are outstanding rifles and the " go to" for many professional hunters, game rangers, etc over here
I have never owned one in a small, high precision calibre so cant comment on those.
However my own guiding/back up rifle is a 602 in 458WM . The action could use a longer cartridge ( like the Lott or the Rigby) , but .458WM works for my application, and the rifle itself cant be criticized.
My son and I also each own one in 9.3 × 62
If there is a better all round Bush rifle then I have yet to stumble across it
A little known fact is that many Rigbys were built on CZ barrelled actions
What greater

I've owned CZ rifles in .17 Hornet, .22 Hornet, .223 and .243 as well as my latest .416 Rigby. All shot thumbnail groups at 100m. Had I front and rear bagged them to really test them, I suspect they would have pulled those groups in a little more. I put 7000 rounds down my .22 Hornet before I shot it out, it was one of my favourite rifles and less than 10% of those shots were on targets...
 
I own 3 CZ550s
a 308 Männlicher
a 7x57 Euro stocked
a 404Jeff with an American
all great rifles
 
I have some CZ550 Safari Magnum, a good buffing action is the only thing to do, are very accurate weapons in any caliber, all of my CZ rifles are the stocks of kevlar HSprecision, the sizes I use are 458LOTT, 338Lapua , 375HH, I can say that you will have a great weapon for a fair price!

sent a gunsmithing make a CZ550 in 460Weatherby to my subistituir 375HH which showed a caliber little insurance in case of attack by buffalo.

is a great weapon!

Here is an article that appeared in a publication that despite being paid by a text CZ reports and their qualities;



For one thing, even though Paul Mauser had done his good deed for the world more than a decade earlier, Roosevelt's idea of an elephant gun was a Mod-1895 lever-action Winchester in .405 WCF, the rifle and chambering never seen before and seldom seen since on the entire African continent.

Whenever possible, however, "Big Stick" Roosevelt preferred to use one of his other Winchester lever guns in the decidedly 'Little Stick' 30-03, a cartridge designed to punch small holes in half-dressed soldiers.

Roosevelt arranged for 15 cases of Winchester rifles to be shipped to Mombasa and he used them to shoot up most things in British East Africa, the Belgian Congo and all the way up to Khartoum. He managed to bag more than 500 animals in a year, but his safari was not noted for a high incidence of clean, one-shot kills. Not only did Roosevelt know nothing about guns, he was half blind and a poor shot to boot.

One after the other, American writers Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark eventually followed in Roosevelt's bloody footsteps, talking a lot about using 'enough gun' but mostly using the small-bore 30-06. Hemingway and Ruark, both of whose sporting backgrounds consisted mainly of fishing and shotgunning small birds, were apparently unaware that chasing a wounded animal all over the countryside and shooting it a dozen times in order to kill it, usually meant you were not a very good shot or you were shooting the animal with an inadequate cartridge, or both.

As their reports, a selective mixture of fact and fiction writerly, filtered back to American hunters of limited experience and American Gunwriters of limited mental faculties, gross misunderstandings naturally followed.

Because Roosevelt, Hemingway and Ruark did not know any better than to press the 30-06 well beyond its design parameters, the idea sprouted in America that the 30-06 was a proper cartridge for Africa had anything to
offer.

This undeserved promotion of a mediocre cartridge reached its peak with the safaris of CJ McElroy, founder of Safari Club International, who attempted to shock and awe half of Africa with his barely functional pump-action Remington 30-06, and Jack O'Connor, the recoil-allergic journalism teacher and small-bore writer who even considered his wife's little ladylike 30-06 too much gun for most uses.

The herds of shot-up, angry and wounded animals left behind in the bush to terrorize the locals was not reported by these megalomaniacs, and more ignorant gun-shooters were encouraged to continue to follow in their footsteps sub-caliber.

Before long, the large quantities of cheap American-made rifles and easily obtainable 30-06 ammo had seduced even a surprising number of Africans who could not or would not spend the money for more suitable equipment.

The .30-06 has its limits in Africa.

Eventually, more experienced American hunters in Africa began to realize that they did, indeed, need more than any American gun cartridge could provide.

Unfortunately, the response of American gun and ammunition companies, rather than offering a Mauser action chambered in the African cartridges already perfected by Germany and Britain during their African-nization, was to design (or steal) something different proprietary and which they could market the 'new and improved' and which was actually either redundant or inappropriate.
Thus Roy Weatherby's crackpot theories applying rodent-killing techniques to pachyderms, Winchester's poorly designed and marketed dishonestly .458 Winchester Magnum, Remington's long line of kidnapped and abandoned wildcats.

Even Ruger (who was wise enough when Bill Ruger Sr. was running things to the chamber Safari Ruger rifle in .416 Rigby - thus forcing companies to manufacture ammo the grand old cartridge) now sees a burning need to introduce a proprietary .375 Ruger cartridge that has absolutely no benefits over the timeless .375 Holland & Holland.

Your editor wanted me to take a softer line on us Americans and our insight into African rifles and cartridges, but the truth is - very few of us have progressed beyond the Theodore Roosevelt - Jack O'Connor indoctrination and it is a truth to be told.

We can only be thankful that the indomitable Elmer Keith insisted that the Winchester Mod-70 rifle he helped develop be offered in .375 H & H, making it the first American factory rifle ever chambered in a proven African big game caliber. In fact, this was the only decent choice in American factory rifles until 1964, when the idiots running the company replaced the Winchester Mod-70's Mauser-type action with a cheap-to-make push-feed contraption no better than the lowly Remington Mod -700, thus relegating America's only Africa-class production rifle to the dustbin of history.

Thereafter, every proper African hunting rifle made in America had to be custom-built by the talented few gunsmiths who knew what an African rifle was, and the guns were priced accordingly.
It would be many years before a moderately priced factory-made rifle suitable for African hunting would be available in America.

And it would not be America that produced it, but a new-old country called the Czech Republic finally emerging free and independent from the toxic swamp of Soviet communism where America's left-wing politicians had cast it in the aftermath of World War II.

A few CZ-550 Magnum rifles had been trickling into the U.S. since 1991, but few shooters paid much attention until 1998 when Ceská established Zbrojovka CZ-USA in Kansas City.

The CZ-550 was, in fact, the latest iteration of the Brno ZKK 602, the true Africa-class-type action Mauser rifle and famous all over the world. The Brno name was little known in the U.S., however, and even the CZ name was associated almost exclusively with handguns.

It took us a while to Americans realize that the proven-controlled-round feed rifle in real African calibers was available for the price of the common 'Remchester' at our local gun shop.

Eventually, shooters and hunters began to discover and understand this amazing fact on their own with no help from the Gunwriters and magazine editors who, in this country, are genetically incapable of conceiving a story that does not begin: "The new home-grown super-duper perfect rifle for whitetail deer unveiled at the SHOT Show is ... 'The authorities who unraveled presumed to inform the American hunter do not really believe in their heart of hearts that smokeless-powder rifles larger than .30 caliber exist in the real world outside of literary fiction, and they were shocked to discover how many of their readers were far ahead of them.

Pretty soon, American game from deer to elk were falling to hammer blows from Bavarian CZs stocked in 9.3 x62mm Mauser, .375 Holland & Holland, .416 Rigby, .458 Winchester Magnum and .458 Lott. Even jackrabbits and ground squirrels were being blown to bits by the big guns.
Having discovered too late that shooting big-bores quickly becomes an incurable addiction, Americans started joining Safari Club International by the tens of thousands and boarding jets to Africa.

The rich ones packed Mausers custom hand-made by the best American gunmakers who are, quite ironically considering the low quality of American factory rifles, among the best custom gunmakers in the world.

The not-so-rich ones mostly packed CZs, off-the-shelf or customized moderately, and were just as proud.

Alice Poluchova is recognized as the architect of CZ's successful invasion of America. She went to work for CZ in her native Czech Republic as Export Sales Manager while she was still working on her Master's Degree from Silesian University.

After graduating with honors, she was soon on her way to Kansas City to open the new American arm of CZ as Vice President and Chief Financial Offi cer. She expected to work six months, the offi ce get up and running and then go home. But Alice fell in love with America, and Americans soon started falling in love with CZ.

When Alice was named President of czus, big-bore rifle lines utilizing the CZ-550 action started growing even faster.

A medium size CZ-550 action is ideal for the 9.3x62mm Mauser cartridge, and this classic African loading from CZ is available in a full-length Mannlicher-style stock that's handy, elegant and uncannily accurate. The large-CZ 550 Magnum action is used for the bigger cartridges - .375 H & H, .416 Rigby, 458 Winchester Magnum and .458 Lott.

These 'Safari Magnum' rifles are available with CZ's famous schweinsrucken or 'hogs back' the stock with Bavarian cheekpiece, or with a straight-combed 'American-style' stock.

The recent line of CZ 'Safari Classics,' with upgraded walnut and a variety of custom options and features, are available in .300 Holland & Holland, .404 Jeffery, .450 Rigby Rimless, .500 Jeffery and .505 Gibbs.

The most popular size in this line, perhaps surprisingly, is the .505 Gibbs, and virtually any other size is available on custom order. The Safari Classics McGowan typically use barrels, and are stocked, fit and fi nished in CZ's Kansas City Custom Shop rather than the Czech Republic.
While many consider Czech superior workmanship, the level of customization offered in this line of rifles would not be possible without utilizing local talent. Each rifle is built to the customer's specs.
Jason Morton, head of CZ Marketing and Public Relations, says: "Our Custom Shop really does offer anything that's technically possible. It's just a matter of time and money.

Our Safari Classics are meant to show what can be done, but there are an unlimited number of options that are possible. We provide a list of standard options and we can go well beyond that. We'll do that to any of our rifles, not just the Safari Classics. We've always included fancy-grade American walnut, barrel-band sling mount, mercury recoil reducer and glass bedding in the .505 Gibbs.

Throughout this year we've added glass bedding to all those rifles, and we're going to double crossbolts on all those rifles. We're offering more services from simple things like smoothing up the action, shortening barrels, making stock from customers' blanks, to all kinds of customizing across the whole line. '' It feels good to build something, "says Poluchova. 'When we started, most Americans had little idea what a CZ was or where it came from. That's really changed. I'm very proud of the heritage CZ and I really believe our guns are superior. Our big-bore rifles account for as much as 70 percent of the market in some African countries. When we go to the Safari Club International convention in Reno there is always an extremely high level of awareness and interest in our guns. It is very exciting. "CZ's impact on the American market has been tremendous. I am not alone in giving CZ much of the credit for making the quality control problems of Winchester painfully clear and bringing about the discontinuation of the Mod-70 and the final demise of that company, is forcing to import Remington Mauser-type actions from Zastava Oruzjem in Serbia as a last resort before selling the company off to private investors, for the money and asset haemorrhaging of Ruger, and for the bankruptcy of Dakota which was temporarily saved from total extinction only by financial sleight-of-hand.

CZ has been a contributing factor in the American hunter's realization that there is more to life than whitetail deer and 30-06 push-feed rifles, that Africa and African hunting are accessible, and that Africa-worthy rifles can be affordable and are fun to shoot even in your own backyard.

If this expansion and intensification of the market has led to the downfall of non-competitive manufacturers of medium and lowend American rifles, it has had the opposite effect on the high end.

Shooters who can afford to have custom hand-built rifles on Mauser-precision design actions such as those from Granite Mountain Arms, Stuart Satterlee, and Hein Waffenfabrik are doing so.
The custom rifle business in the United States is more vibrant than at any time in history. Hunting by African Americans is on a powerful upswing with no end in sight.

Classic cartridges are being recognized for their excellence of design and are seeing use in the hunting fields again.

Safari Club International, the most sophisticated and influential hunting organization in the United States - and the world - has a membership of 50,000. None of these exhilarating developments would have such a sharp edge to them had it not been for CZ's swashbuckling entry into the market a decade in August 'I was born in a communist country,' says Alice Poluchova, 'so of course we were not allowed to own guns. We were not even allowed to protect ourselves. There were no shooting sports. Hunting was forbidden. It was exactly the way the communists and leftists and anti-gun people all over the world want it to be, and that makes me shudder. When the Czech Republic became a free and independent country in 1993, legislation was passed so that citizens could once again own firearms, and I became much more involved in shooting. "Indeed, CZ does not make a handgun, shotgun or rifle Alice Poluchova does not shoot - on a serious, regular, competitive, sporting basis.

'One of the nicest parts of my jobs is that I get to shoot every gun we make. That includes IPSC and trap and skeet and taking all of the guns safari to Africa. I've been to Zimbabwe and South Africa three times, for both plains game and dangerous game. I have two of the Big Five so far - a lion with the .450 Rigby, and a buffalo with the .458 Lott.

'The African hunting market in the U.S. is stronger than it ever has been. I think what's happening is that it's still relatively reasonable to hunt in Africa. You can pay X amount of dollars in the U.S. for a single elk hunt, or you can spend the same money and, once you're over the fear of the long flight, you can hunt five or ten animals in South Africa. Thanks to SCI and the world community of hunters and the stability we're seeing in RSA and the fact that other African countries are opening up, the people who have always dreamed of hunting in Africa can now do that. "I'm happy to hear that Alice's favorite rifle is the .450 Rigby, because it's certainly one of mine as well, and I believe it was a brilliant and courageous move by CZ to offer the .450 Rigby as a standard chambering. Another thing I'm happy to hear is Alice's talk of plans for CZ's future.

'There are people who can afford to spend $ 50,000 on a full custom gun that's a work of art,' she says, 'but most of us work hard for our money and are conscious of value and want to get the most gun for the money . When we go to Africa, we'd rather spend say $ 2,000 or $ 3,000 on a perfectly working gun and the rest of the money on hunting more animals. 'We're going to introduce a left-handed-CZ 550 magnum action, and we've talked about bringing back some of the CZ over / under rifle. "Back in the old days, during the communist time, the state-owned company in the city of Brno was one of the l largest small arms manufacturers in the world. In terms of sporting guns, the Brno ZKK-602 bolt-action rifles were actually made by CZ in Uherské Brod but they were called Brno anyway. That all changed when the Cold War ended and the company historically known as Zbrojovka Brno eventually went bankrupt. This year, the owners of the CZ factory in Uherské Brod bought them out and now we can use the name Brno again. That factory is producing sporting guns for the European market and will begin producing guns for the world market in 2008.

'The last ten years we worked hard to change the name of Brno to CZ and now we can use it again.' 'Our plan for the next few years is to reestablish the Brno name along with the CZ name in the U.S. in the dangerous rifle-game market. I go to Africa and see the ZKK-602S in the hands of outfitters and PHs've used them for 10 or 20 years, and it makes me proud. No product is perfect, but the historical record shows that our guns work year after year in the most demanding conditions. Dangerous-game hunting is one of the markets where we have long been one of the top in the world. "Indeed, those of us for whom the dangerous-game rifle represents the absolute pinnacle and quintessence of sporting arms have always known that you can never have too many CZ / Brnos.

So on those occasions cocktail party when somebody tries to tell me all about how Theodore Roosevelt and his 15 cases of Winchesters opened up Africa for American hunters, I usually take the opportunity to point out what Alice Poluchova has been up to in the Kansas City last few years.
Wow, thank you for posting this, all good info, and a great history!
 
My CZ550 is named "Barack" after the greatest gun salesman in American history. I've been hunting with Barack since 2009 and couldn't be more satisfied. I agree with Code4 that the factory trigger and bedding are fine. I've actually used the set trigger on a couple of longish shots on moose and caribou.
 
My CZ550 is named "Barack" after the greatest gun salesman in American history. I've been hunting with Barack since 2009 and couldn't be more satisfied. I agree with Code4 that the factory trigger and bedding are fine. I've actually used the set trigger on a couple of longish shots on moose and caribou.

My CZ550 in 375 H&H is named Hennie, after the toughest, meanest and funniest PH I ever met is SA...

My buff, plenty of African & Australian game have been taken and it’s my favourite rifle without question.

Ado
 
Maybe someone can help me here-but the best rifle report I have read is the Zimbabwe ph shooting exam article here on AH. It is an older post, just as this one is but worth finding and reading again.
 
Maybe a different perspective. Years ago I was in a position to really get serious about Africa. I tried both a NOS CZ 550 in 416 Rigby and a NOS late model New Haven Win 70 in 416 Remington that were side by side in the rack at a friend's gun shop. Hands down, the Win 70 felt better and handled better. I traded for the Win 70 and never regretted the decision. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I found a CZ BRNO 602 in 375 HH in near unfired condition for a very reasonable price. Not the first BRNO I had owned but the first big one in a DG caliber. Maybe some of this about the BRNO 602 will also apply to the 550 subject in this thread.

I put a 4x scope on it and loaded a small variety of 270 gr and 300 gr loads. It had the odd ball, off side (left of tang) backwards trigger link safety of course and a set trigger. The trigger actually worked fairly well in both single stage and set condition. It wasn't as rough in cycling as the CZ 550 I had tried years earlier. It shot reasonably well with most loads and I had no issues with its function or reliability. While the bedding system and mechanical design on these is a little funky compared to some other bolt guns like the Mauser 98s and Win 70s, it seems to work pretty well and the POI doesn't change or drift over time- indicating proper and solid bedding. The only criticism I have in the cycling is a slight double hitch resistance I can feel and see as the round makes the double angled transition between the magazine and chamber as it rides over the ramp. I think the magazine level under the rails is slightly greater relative to the chamber in the BRNO than it is in the Win 70 so that double angled transition is more noticeable. And the actual purchase the extractor has on the case rim may be slightly tighter. I don't want to get too aggressive messing with the rails nor loosening the extractor purchase. It is critical that the cartridge makes that transition in a very controlled, consistent and precise way. If it pops out too early, before its under complete control of the bolt face/extractor it may never be under control nor be properly aligned for the chamber. Right now that transition is a little retarded as it enters full battery of the bolt face and extractor. I will continue to very judiciously polish the inside of the rails and inside surface of the extractor claw and bolt face guide opposite the extractor in between the next few range sessions. If not much change, I may decide to leave well enough alone. :)

I also added two stock cross bolts. I don't know that they are absolutely necessary but they certainly won't hurt and absolutely will help prevent any future splitting. I bought an inexpensive lace on leather cheek pad from a small "cottage" company in Eastern Europe/Russia. It works great and is of very good quality for the $. It adds about 1/4" height to the humpback stock, which now seems about right for the scope.

I decided to change out the set trigger to regular single stage. I purchased both the single stage trigger and the Win 70 type, 3 position safety parts kit from Wayne at AHR. Installing the trigger was pretty straight forward requiring minimal fitting. The 3 position safety does require more than casual tools especially for fitting to the BRNO 602. Not sure how straight forward it is for the CZ 550 though. Not complicated, but some milling needs to be done to the striker guide block rails. That requires a milling machine and small carbide side cutter because key parts of the striker are hardened. I hope the new company in CO that Wayne is helping get up to speed for these conversions, is able to provide that service. I added a VXIIIi 1.5-5 Leupold and kept the medium height, Leupold one piece ring base mounts for the scope. They are strong and simple- they seem perfect for the job.

I continue to shoot the rifle and it, with the two conversions, has turned out to be very accurate, reliable and enjoyable. It will likely never be as smooth as the Win 70s, but it's not unmanageable either. I would have no hesitation using it for serous big game or DG. IMO, the single stage trigger and the 3 position safety are very positive improvements to the basic rifle and well worth the investment.

BRNO 602.png
 
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BRNO602's and CZ550.s are amongst the commonest heavy calibre rifles you will come across in use over here. In standard trim a Win Mod 70 does handle better than the full length 602/550 , but the tendency is to reduce barrel length to 23", which makes the rifle "handier". The medium length 550 action can also be used to build a .458 Sabi - which makes for handy, fast handling big hitter. CZ all the way!
 
Wow! you guys sure have some great rifles, thanks for showing!
I'll bet your snowed in right about now? We have a blizzard going on here in the Springs.
 
When I got my CZ 550 FS in 9.3x62 the bolt was a little rough. For the next several weeks while sitting watching tv in the evenings I would sit and work the action and then the safety back and forth until the bolt was smooth as glass and the safety lost that annoying clicking sound. Both are now smooth and quiet. The best part for me is working the action and safety are second nature and I don’t have to search or feel for anything. The gun is now like an old friend handling wise. These are honest hard working hunters rifles. They are not light or dainty or pretentious. What they are is accurate, well built rugged and reliable. Of course this coming from a know nothing no shooting American so take it for what it’s worth. Opinions are like a** holes everybody has one. One should never paint any nationality with such broad strokes. Good hunting all.
 

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