New CZ owner - 550 FS 243 Win

[flashhole]

550 FS - 243 Win

The gun is on order and should be here in about a week.   Anything special I ought to know about it?  Any general comments or opinions, I did good, I screwed up.....?

New to the forum and glad to be here.

[Fred Flinstone]

That's what's good with CZ, you're sure to end up with a more than decent rifle with a fool-proof design. If you're willing to squeeze more out of your rifle(accuracy-wise), you'll have to do a bit of custom work which is fairly common with any other rifle mfgr.(Ruger, Rem., Win., etc.) but once finish will be hyper-accurate & reliable. The CZ-527 has won many International (Europeen) shooting contest.

All the best,
Fred

[Paulinus]

Flashhole:

I trust you will be very happy with the CZ 550 FS.  I have the 550 American in 243 Win. and have found it very much to my liking.  Several inquiries have appeared on this forum concerning the FS, but responses have been few.  Would you post your evaluation of your FS?  I think it may be helpful to those who would consider an FS, but to not have direct access to one for examination.

Thanks and good shooting.

[flashhole]

I will definately post my opinions about the gun.  It will probably take a couple of weeks.

[flashhole]

Picked up the gun today.

First impressions -

This is a 550 Full Stock, the wood is as Plain Jane as it gets, my $89 Benjamin Sheradin pellet gun has better figure in the wood than this CZ.  It's finish is not all that great either.  In my opinion the wood is not adequately sealed for field use, very porus.  The stock is supposed to be the stand-out feature on this full-stock gun, you'd think they'd want to make a statement with it.  That's not the case with this gun and I had the distributor send the pick of the litter of 3.  Checkering is good and well utilized.  The cheek piece is well sized to the stock (I was afraid it might be too large) and the overall shape of the stock is excellent.  The wood to metal fit is good.  Balance is good but I'll learn more about that shooting off-hand.  Metal finish and bluing is good/OK - there are a couple of small blemishes and I see machine marks in the action.  The sights will have to be replaced as they are really hard to pick up and the front bead is much too small to be of any practical value, I hope I can find a fiber-optic replacement.  The action is stiff but smooth and I am happy for that, it will loosen up in time.  The test target they sent had three holes at just over an inch group for 50 yards, not what I call a head turner.  I'm sure I can improve upon that.  

Overall, I'm disappointed.  For the same money my Wally World Ruger #1V 25-06 was a much better value.

I'll post more after I shoot it.

[Paulinus]

I fully understand your disappointment.  I have only seen one FS (a used one at Cabela's), and I was not particularly impressed.  As with yours the front sight was hard to see, the recoil pad had a "plastic" feel and appearance.  The wood stock was nothing special (my 550 American is much better).  Let us know how it shoots.

Best wishes,

[pmhayden]

I picked up my new CZ 550 FS today.  I agree that the wood is "average" at best.  And poorly finished even by Ruger standards.  Also, the sights are pretty cheap.  Does anyone know of a peep sight that will fit over the rear receiver bridge scope base?  And a source for a post/partridge front sight that can be filed down?

Refinishing the stock.

[flashhole]

Took the 243 to the range today with two boxes of Remington Core Lokt ammo, 100 grain bullets.

First impressions:

The magazine loaded easily enough but it's easy to get the magazine off kilt and stuck when inserting it into the gun.  I'm not bashful about this and usually give it a good whack to seat it fully and with authority.  It may be that it's new and needs some "experience".  No major problems here.

The ammo fed cleanly from the magazine into the action and chambered easily and properly by actuating the bolt.  Everything locked up tight and was very efficient.

The safety works nicely and I tried it a few time before live firing the gun.

The best part about the gun is the set-trigger feature.  Kudos to CZ for having such a stellar trigger on a factory gun.  This is in league with my Sauer 202 and infinitely better than my Marlin Guide Gun or Ruger #1.

The iron sights suck.  The front sight is barely visible and extremely difficult to pick up.  I bought this model (550 FS) because I wanted iron sights and a nice stock.  I have been extremely disappointed on both counts.  Even to the point I won't recommend or buy another CZ.

Accuracy was good.  Sighing was a chore but accuracy was good.  My first 3 shots at 50 yards with cheap factory ammo could be covered by a quarter.  I experienced vertical stringing, for me that's a tell-tale indicator that the positioning of the front bead in the rear fork needs improvement.  I hope I can find replacement sights without having to go to a scope.  

If I can get decent after-market sights on the gun I will be happy with it, if I have to scope it I'll be pi$$ed.

[flashhole]

I'm still of the opinion the factory supplied sights on this gun SUCK.  No luck trying to find any kind of after-market sights that will work on this gun.  If anyone knows of some please post a link.  

I ordered a Burris 1.5-5 X 20 FFII scope and Burris Ringmounts today.  This was the least obtrusive scope I could find to sit atop this gun.  The finalists were Nikon Monarch, Leupold FX and VX models, and Bushnell 3200 Elite scopes.  I didn't want a long heavy scope, the Short Mag stuff is too short (not enough length of body to straddle the action), most variables were too cumbersome.  If Leupold's 4X fixed scope was more cost friendly it would have been my first choice but it was $100 more.  The upper end stuff was more than I wanted to pay to use with a light-recoil, short-barrel, full-stock, gun.  I have a Burris Signature in 2.5-8 X 33 mounted on my 300 Win Mag and I was using it for size comparison for the CZ FS, even it was too much scope for my liking on this gun.  The one I purchased looks to be a good fit to this gun.

The scope I ordered cost $166 new on eBay through Wholesale Hunter (about $80 less expensive than any retail outlet) and mounts were $28.  I would like to see more choices in the height of the mounts.  Medium seems to win the day.  All in all I think I got by cheap.  I'll post range results and pictures in a couple of weeks when my loading dies and components arrive and I have time to work up some decent loads.

[Fred Flinstone]

Why do you feel the LPA sight(rear) sucks? At first glance it not better or worse than any Marbles, William or other.

All the best,
Fred

[pmhayden]

The sight works fine.  It just looks cheap on the rifle.  A peep sight would be nice.  Is there one that would mount on the rear sight base?

[Ed333]

I don't see an answer to the questions about a rear aperture sight which will fit on the 550FS.

I just acquired a 6.5X55 Swedish full stock 550, am very pleased with it, but not so much with the express sights, my old eyes need something with a little better sight picture, which won't move around, and with click adjustments.  something like an old Lyman peep.

 Any suggestions as to what to look for, which will fit on the receiver? 

Also, I had trouble finding a scope which would fit the dovetail on my 452 American, not just any scope rings would fit.