This rifle followed me home--Can I keep it? Pretty please

[Bigslug]

Ya done good. REAL GOOD. It's a close to a Winchester 52 as you're likely to find these days. I purchased the exact same rifle new while working as a counter drone at the LGS - probably about the same time yours was made. Employee discount worked out to about $150 then. Incredible little gun. I've often said I'd be willing to trade straight across for a heavy Anschutz 54. . .but I'd want to see how the Anschutz groups first.

As I recall, I went with an Automation Solutions sear to clean up the trigger (about the only area where these guns are lacking). There are probably better options now. The iron sight mechanism, front and rear, is excellent, though the rear will necessitate a little taller scope ring than the sightless American model might. The BKL air rifle scopes are the ticket if you need more altitude than the factory rings provide.

I started with a Weaver V7 RF (2-7x28) thinking it was going to just be a nice quality small game rifle, but the consistent, sub-dime 50 yard clusters proved I had something special. Tried an A/O V16 (4-16x42), but that ended up needing too tall a mount, and the glass quality didn't really cope with the magnification. Currently sporting a Leupold EFR 3-9x33 A/O with CDS knobs, and all is right with the world.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The one thing I am not too wild about is the direction the safety works, it is different enough that I am always conscious (and cautious) about it.

Robert

Yes, yes, yes! It wouldn't be that difficult to make a safety in that style (actually a very good one), which would move backward to safe, and forward to shoot. There is surely an aftermarket niche for one. So many people use (or own and nearly use) a large number of guns, that not enough of gets said about having controls that work the same way. Still, this is unlikely to be the rifle with which you get seized up with buck fever with the head of a lifetime looking at you.

[Petrol & Powder]

I would have spent $150 over the price you paid and not even blinked.

The CZ's are great .22 rifles. And on top of that, yours looks like it will shoot just fine.

Yes, you may keep it

[Bigslug]

I think you did remarkably well on the price. If you can still see well enough to use the iron sights; the yardage markings actually coincide with bullet impact, at least mine did.

Robert

Take a look at the FRONT blade: it's on a ramp with a set screw that allows you to dial it in for a specific yardage with the rear sight set AT that yardage.

[Bigslug]

The one thing I am not too wild about is the direction the safety works, it is different enough that I am always conscious (and cautious) about it.

My understanding of that (which may or may not be correct) is that they reasoned pulling backwards to fire is similar to cocking back the hammer or striker on guns so equipped. If you think of it in those terms, it's less mind-bending than trying to relate it to your American Rifle That Starts With the Number 7

Might be a European thing, or a cultural brain thing. When I put an Anschutz sight on my Marlin 2000 years ago, it gave me absolute fits: The markings were what you'd expect - U for Up and R for Right (or something to that effect), but the movement of the bullet strike was OPPOSITE of what an American would consider intuitively obvious. I came to learn that we think in terms of moving the point of impact relative to the position of the gun. The Germans, OTOH, think in terms of moving the target relative to a fixed position o shooter and rifle - "Making the world revolve around you" in effect. Once I realized the knobs were Righty Tighty / Lefty Loosey and that the aperture followed the threads, I started ignoring the markings.

[tazman]

Take a look at the FRONT blade: it's on a ramp with a set screw that allows you to dial it in for a specific yardage with the rear sight set AT that yardage.

That is an excellent piece of information to have. I wasn't aware of anything like that.
I didn't get a manual with it. Is there anything in there that is tricky or that I need to know specific to this rifle?

[Bigslug]

That is an excellent piece of information to have. I wasn't aware of anything like that.
I didn't get a manual with it. Is there anything in there that is tricky or that I need to know specific to this rifle?

You can download the manual from www.cz-usa.com

The windage on the rear sight is pretty straightforward: loosen one side and tighten the other. How much you get out of a turn, you'd have to look up - I haven't touched mine in over 15 years. Pretty much the only open sights on a rimfire I'm aware of that aren't a cheesy afterthought.

[Texas by God]

You should have picked up a Powerball ticket on the way home from the gun store.........

[PB234]

Below is a link to all the information you could hope for concerning CZ rimfire rifles. Very friendly posters willing to share knowledge and stickies that will interest you. The question about the sights and standard or HV ammo is addressed in a sticky and be sure to read about YoDave trigger kits that I think are about $15 and many think are great improvements for the trigger - also a sticky but I could not find YoDave on Fleabay when I just looked. With the exception of one 452 that I have shot all had very nice triggers right out of the box. One could have used some help, but it was very usable.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums...splay.php?f=18

If you are trying 100 yards just for the fun of it get a box of Wolf Match Target. A few dollars more than other rimfire per box, but a treat. Most CZ tend to love it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Mine, the same rifle but bearing the name Zbrojovka Brno (which just just the "Z" part of Česká Zbrojovka) has the front sight non-adjustable but sliding in a longitudinal dovetail. It is held not by friction but by a spring-loaded plunger, and you are meant to adjust it by substituting one of a different height. I have never heard of different heights being on the market, and mine has been in a little cavity under the buttplate for forty years.

[Forrest r]

I use loooonnnngggg bodied scopes on my cz lux, it puts the scope lower which is a good thing with the hogs back stock. I use a lyman 20x for silhouettes.
[IMG][/IMG]

The bolts/fp's on the cz's are rural at best, lots of tool marks. I re-worked the bolt on my cz lux and reshaped the firing pin and put in an extra power striker spring. Cut the groups down 40% +. Typical 5-shot groups @ 25yds after the bolt work with mid-grade match ammo. Note the 10mhp winds and 31* temps when this target was shot.
[IMG][/IMG]

Same lux/ammo combo @ 50yds. On rimfire central there's a 13mm game. It seemed everyone was posting they could take their favorite $100 beater and shoot 1/2" groups all day long @ 50yds with walmart bulk packs. So them made a 13mm/50yd game and low and behold a lot of those people quit posting the 1/2" all day long thing.
[IMG][/IMG]

They are hard to come buy but the front sights on the cz's ar inner changeable with the 1920's/30's mausers and the the MAS-45's. There are different front sight heights #'d from 00 to 30. Different heights ='s different ammo velocities, anything from shorts to hv ammo.
[IMG][/IMG]

The cz lux's have an 18mm chamber (european sporter chamber). The "C" measurement.
[IMG][/IMG]

Lower grade match ammo tends to be longer than the higher prices match grades of ammo. Which is a good thing for the cz's. They tend to shoot the sk standard + and the wolf match ammo extremely well.

[IMG][/IMG]

Good luck with your cz, had mine since 1996 and finely took it serous a decade ago and did the bolt work on it. Consistent ignition ='s accuracy. This is the fp hit from the cz lux after the bolt work/reshape of the fp. That's Vostok match ammo that extremely hard, bought a couple cases of it to use in the russian free pistol and to test fp hits in rimfire firearms. A lot of people over on rimfire centeral bought this ammo and couldn't use it because their firearms couldn't set it off.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Ballistics in Scotland]

In the 70s there were imports of Soviet steel-cased sporting rimfire ammunition, and my rifle gave an unacceptable level of misfires with those. The accuracy with those that did go off was pretty good, though.

[Bowhunter73]

What a sweet deal ans rifle I have one in 22magnum I bought from a friend a few years ago with a bunch of ammo for $150 have to love friends like that.

[jsizemore]

That friend should be on your Christmas card list.