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

[tazman]

I was looking through the racks of one of the semi-local gun stores yesterday and found a CZ 452-2E ZKM, manufacture date 99 according to the stamp on the barrel. 24 inch barrel.
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It was marked used, but I can't find a scratch or even a rubbed mark on it anywhere. It could have been sold for new and I would not be able to tell.
It came home with me today.
I got it for $225 out the door. I think it was a bit under priced. How good did I do?
I haven't shot it yet. I am going to clean the barrel and give it a run with the iron sights and then probably put a scope on it after it reminds me just how poor my eyesight has gotten in the last few years.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Oh I think you did pretty good CZ are tack drivers my 455 shoots Blazer ammo just fantastic

[GhostHawk]

I think I'd of jumped at that at 100$ over what you paid. Maybe more, I like what I hae been hearing about their rifles. They are the hot stuff at the range.

[NC_JEFF]

Yes you can keep it, I'm looking for almost that exact rifle.

[richhodg66]

A fella I see at the range I go to now and then let me shoot his the other day. I like them. Seems all the bolt action .22s out there are very plain, or they're junk, or they're very high end and expensive. Those CZs are nice. The ones I've seen around are priced a good bit higher than $225.

[Bzcraig]

No you got took! But I'll gladly help dull the pain by offering you the $150 it's really worth! ;)

[tazman]

No you got took! But I'll gladly help dull the pain by offering you the $150 it's really worth! ;)

:killingpc:groner:

[jsizemore]

You did good. I've seen folks shoot AAA scores in smallbore hunters rifle silhouette shooting middle of the road ammo. Plenty of accessories out there to make it shoot great.

[JMax]

I have a CZ in 7.62X39 and love it and have been looking for a 22 to accompany it to the range. I would love to pay what you did but will probably have to pay more. Nice

[PowPow]

I think you will like it, and I think you will keep it. Nice rifle. I like CZ.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Jeeez man! Did you break the guys arm during the purchase, lol. Taz you got a steal on that one! If a handshake is still a deal I'd have broken his arm then! If you start to get any buyers remorse, give me a shout!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Mine is the Model 2, with the straight comb and steel-bottom magazine. It is stamped 1968, and I bought it in 1970 (for thirty pounds ten shillings and sixpence) so it probably lay in store through the Czech revolt of 1968.

I could still strip the bolt in a second with a blunt pencil, and the trigger which you don't see, modelled on the Winchester Model 70, is one of the best bits. Conetrol supplied bases to use their invisibly split rings, and it is supremely untemperamental for a rimfire about different brands of cartridge. The Walther KKJ, on the same day, would have cost £45, and I doubt if it would have been any better.

[Mk42gunner]

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

[tazman]

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


With standard/target velocity or high speed?

[tazman]

I got to the range today with a scope on the rifle. I spent a few rounds getting sighted in at 25 yards. I was at an indoor range that is NOT setup for rifle or bench shooting so getting the impact point to the crosshairs was all I could do. I will save the serious work for the benchrest range in the future.
On a last note, the final five shots(Federal auto-match) I fired went into a raggedy hole about 3/8ths of an inch. It shows promise.

[greenwart]

Mine likes the federal auto match also.

[Scorpion8]

Great score!

[PB234]

Great price on a quality wood and steel rifle. When you stretch it out to 50+ yards from the bench after mounting a good scope splurge and try a box of Wolf Match Target.

The main problem with a CZ rifle is it is so nice you will want another. If you want a bunch of enablers visit www.rimfirecentral.com and go the the CZ section. Lots of CZ fans can't constrain themselves over the 527 American soon to be imported in 6.5 Grendel.

[Mk42gunner]

With standard/target velocity or high speed?
tazman, It was roughly fifteen years ago, plinking in the desert around Fallon, NV; so I am pretty sure I was shooting High Velocity loads, probably from a milk carton. I have long since mounted a scope on it, so I can still use the rifle.

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

[tazman]

I got out to the bench rest range today and shot the rifle at 50 and 100 yards.
These targets were shot at 50 yards. The colored dots measure 3/4".
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These were shot with various brands of match/target ammunition. When there is a bullet away from the rest of the group, it was always the first shot with a new brand of ammo. I consider that it was the gun getting used to a different lube before settling in.
The Federal auto match didn't do quite as well as these did but was very respectable.
The following targets were shot at 100 yards with Federal auto match. I wish now I had shot some with the good stuff just to see what it would do but I ran out of time.
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One is a 5 shot group, the other is a 10 shot group. The triangular hole in the target that appears in the upper right of the 10 shot group is a small tear and not a bullet hole.
I think I have a shooter on my hands.

[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 :p

[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/forumdisplay.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.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/luxlyman.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/luxlyman.jpg.html)

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.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/12808skplus.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/12808skplus.jpg.html)

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.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/czlux13mm.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/czlux13mm.jpg.html)

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.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/mausers.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/mausers.jpg.html)

The cz lux's have an 18mm chamber (european sporter chamber). The "C" measurement.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/ptgreamers.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/ptgreamers.jpg.html)

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.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/100_1062.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/100_1062.jpg.html)

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.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/czrussialfirepin.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/czrussialfirepin.jpg.html)

[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.