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Practically Shooting

New Toy: CZ455FS


BarryinIN

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If you look around our gun club, you'd think everyone was given a CZ .22 when they joined.  The only two matches we hold are BR-50 (.22) and Smallbore Silhouette (.22).  The CZs are popular among the silhouette guys and it must have spread from there.  

 

I've watched them shoot well for several years now, and have been yakking about getting one for at least a couple of years.  I never could decide which heavy barreled model I wanted. 

But I ended up going another direction.  I went short and handy instead of big and heavy.   I guess I have enough HB .22 rifles. 

 

I got the FS- the full stock man likker model.  Looks like this:

image_zpslvlbbied.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Two month report.  

Still like it.    The balance of this model is great for offhand.  

I've gone without a scope for fear of wrecking the handiness of it.  I had one of the compact little peep sights Browning used to have on the original T-Bolt, and thought I'd  put it on.   I thought it matched it well. 

 

A little something I found, that might apply to other rifles:

I was messing with the front sight for a while because it looked like it was leaning to the left. I stopped short of bending it with pliers, but tried loosening and tightening its set screw, sliding it in its base, and any other trick I could think of. The front sight base supports a hood over the sight with an opening over the sight itself to allow some light in.   That hood is a tight fit, so I didn't take it off if I didn't need to during all this messing around. 

One day I was desperate enough to take that hood off, and just happened to snap the rifle up and take a sight picture. 

Hey, that looked OK. 

Sure enough, the sight looked straight with the hood off.  I've left the hood off since then and haven't noticed it looking bent or leaning since.  I guess the hood was bent or misshaped in some way, and made the sight itself look like the problem. 

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BarryinIN

I use a CZ 452 Training Rifle for 3-position CMP Rimfire Sporter competition. In my limited shooting experience, it has the best open sights / stock configuration of any gun I have ever used for target shooting without a scope. How is the accuracy of your 455FS? My best groups come with Wolf MT, SK Standard Plus and RWS Target Rifle. With a sling it is rock solid in seated, prone position and the stock comes up perfect for standing position. Wonder what happened to the Hood on your rifle?

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On May 6, 2016 at 3:10 AM, xtell said:

BarryinIN

I use a CZ 452 Training Rifle for 3-position CMP Rimfire Sporter competition. In my limited shooting experience, it has the best open sights / stock configuration of any gun I have ever used for target shooting without a scope. How is the accuracy of your 455FS? My best groups come with Wolf MT, SK Standard Plus and RWS Target Rifle. With a sling it is rock solid in seated, prone position and the stock comes up perfect for standing position. Wonder what happened to the Hood on your rifle?

I had never shot a 452 Training Rifle until recently.  I took a 4-H Shooting Sports instructor class, and that's one of the rifles they had.  It was everyone's favorite.  

I almost cried when they broke out a bunch of bent up aluminum 3-piece rods to clean them with.   I volunteered to do the CZ so it might get a little more care.  

 

Accuracy?

There is a long story behind this, but I'll try to cut it short.  Our club has a match that is supposed to be for plain old run of the mill .22s.   Two classes- optics (6x max) and irons. The irons can't be target type, and no ring type front sight aperture can be used.   Ten rounds offhand at 50 yards, then shoot ten rounds standing with a .22 pistol at 25 yards. The idea is you can show up with a standard Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger .22 pistol, or Marlin 60 and a Single Six and win the thing.  

We take the best four scores of six monthly matches, total them, and the highest wins for the year.

A couple of the old boys have to win.   Instead of bringing a rifle that meets the spirit of the rules, they have to push the limit.   One brings an Anschutz 64 MPR, and the other brings an older Remington target rifle he got from the CMP.  The Anschutz's "MPR" means multipurpose rifle, so it is stocked to do well at silhouette, BR-50, whatever.  It is far from a 2013 Super Match, but it's far from a 10/22 also.  The Remington target rifle might not be competitive in Smallbore now, but was in the 60s.   This guy's answer to legality questions is "It's got a post type front sight insert".   I don't recall the other guy's explanation, but it's equally weak. 

 

These guys finish first and second every year.   Nobody comes close.   Attendance has plummeted.  Everybody wanted to try it, but after seeing what they were up against, the fun is gone and they are done.  

Surprisingly, there have been few complaints.   At least, out loud.   But everyone knows the deal.   

 

I've shot these matches twice in four years, so don't really have a horse in this race.   The matches are held in the evening of the one day a week my wife works late, so I can't go.   My buddy is about the same- he is usually working on match night.  

But this whole thing just burns our butts.  

We've tried several ways to get youth involved in the club but always get shot down.   When this started, we thought it would be the way to get them in.   They could take dad's or grandpa's lightest .22 and at least have a chance.   Well, that ended when the dream team came.  

Besides, it's just poor form.  

 

This year, my wife doesn't work that evening.   I can go.   

This is one reason I got the CZ.   With the Mannlicher stock and a plastic rear peep sight, it doesn't exactly resemble a match rifle.   However, it holds and hangs on target so well, it makes a great offhand rifle  

I also have a Ranger model 34 (made by Marlin for Sears in the 1930s) single shot that looks horrible.   It has an old Weaver B6 scope.   It actually shoots well.

 

Do you see where I'm headed here?

I want to take these two unlikely rifles and at least give the old boys a challenge.  

 

Here is where I get to the point: Answering the question of the CZ's accuracy.   Part of my scheme is to use regular ammo- no match stuff.   Maybe even bulk Walmart type stuff.

So I've been tinkering with that, and haven't shot a huge variety of ammo through the CZ yet.  

And I now see I haven't kept a very good record.

 

But here is what it did last time out, Thursday. At 50 yards with the peep sight:

CCI Std Velocity:  15/16"

CCI Std Velocity (different box): 1-1/4 (4 in 3/4")

CCI Std Velocity (2nd type): 1-3/4"

And an offhand group that was 3-1/4" for five, and 1-7/8" for four of those.

 

 

 

 

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On 5/8/2016 at 5:01 PM, BarryinIN said:

I get what you are saying. Two things always bother me about some people in the shooting sports. I'm really tired off guys bringing the girlfriend, wife and/or kids to the range and then having them shoot high recoil firearms and berating them when they don't want to take a second shot due to the recoil (one guy had his wife and two young daughters shoot his slug gun with 3 inch shells - they each shot it once then left and sat in the car).

The other issue is what you wrote about. I go to some local club / fun style matches now and then and often times it is an arms race as to the type of gun used for competition. Nothing like going to a Saturday afternoon "Golf Ball Fun Shoot" with the kids and a Marlin 795 and watching grown men with Smallbore Silhouette rifles with 25x scopes basically clean house and gather up the cheap prizes. CMP Rimfire Sporter competition at least has some rules to abide by to keep things on a level playing field but the local "club" shoots end up as a joke. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 years later...

Well, that’s odd. 

 

I ordered my second CZ 455 on Friday (March 1)- an American .22 with the standard (not varmint)  barrel.   I came on here to find this post and see when I got my other one, and there it is: Three years ago to the day. 

 

I didn't plan that. 

I will be make a note of it, though.  Maybe March 1 will be CZ Day from now on.  

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These CZs are like erector sets.  You can swap barrels, stocks, and calibers in seconds so it’s kind of silly to have more than one or maybe two.  But you gotta do what you gotta do.  

 

The project ideas are limitless   

 

Whistlepig makes lightweight barrels for these (and 10/22s, and 77/22s, and...) with a steel rifled sleeve in an aluminum outer heavy “barrel”.  I have one in a 10/22 bullpup and it’s very accurate.  It is tempting to get a barrel and plastic stock to see how light and accurate I can make one.  

 

A few companies make chassis stock systems so you can get as crazy as you want as a .22 precision trainer. Lilja’s 3-groove drop-in barrel tempts me.     CZ has their own Precision Trainer with a Manners stock, but hey, why stop there!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by BarryinIN
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Well, never mind. 

I went to pick it up and it wasn’t the right model.  It wasn’t really close, either.  I ordered a CZ 455 American with a standard weight barrel.  A CZ 455 Standard is what came.  

 

I am not a CZ wizard, but I’m not completely ignorant of them either, and I had no clue what a Standard was.  It seems to be a cheaper version (birch stock) of the Lux, with the “European” or “Bavarian” style humped stock   

 

Different from the American in stock shape, stock material, and with iron sights.  Other than that, it was exactly the same.  

It was in .22LR, and it was a CZ!

They checked, and no Americans were available. Not surprising since they replaced the 455 with the 457 at the end of the year   I was hoping I caught one    

 

Debit card reloaded.  

 

 

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