I coulda sworn I posted this last night...BUT, in any case, the history of the CZ 600 Alpha has been a little weird, so let's cover that a bit.
When the 600 series came out, they had a switch barrel feature where you could switch from one caliber to another if they used the same bolt face. Very neat. BUT there was a safety problem that came up, forcing CZ-USA and CZ-UB to recall the rifles and remove the switch barrel capability. This, of course, caused some problems with the rollout. Other issues like the infamous supply chain plus this little thing about a major war being fought, like literally NEXT DOOR, to this day keeps the main factory wondering what weirdness will happen next!
So, the 600s started coming in, rebuilt, but mostly only the Alpha and Trail synthetic stocked versions. So I nabbed, FAST, as I didn't want to miss the opportunity, and I had a nice CZ 600 Alpha in .308 Winchester roll in through my door. Why .308? Well, I already reload that caliber for a buddy, so it seemed like a no brainer, AND that leads into a problem down the road...but first...
First was the fact that I had my rifle in my hot little hands for literally an hour and a half before I turned it over to a buddy for a scope to be put on. He owed me a bit, so I trusted his judgement.
We both figured it would be about a week...
What she looked like at first blush, still with all the stickers on;
Well, supply chain issues, AND the FFL who provided the scope going on an extended hunting trip led to me getting my rifle back TWO MONTHS LATER. I almost forgot I had it! Here she is when I got her back, with SIG WHISKEY 3 3-9x50mm scope mounted and LimbSaver True Track bipod.
Of course, we HAVE to shoot it, right? Well, the first excursion was with a buddy, (same guy), to a wildcat range to zero the scope. We did this shooting from the bed of his pickup because I don't own a shooting mat AND me going prone might require a crane to get my fat old rear end back up! However, this is where I discovered something odd - the bolt would not close on my reloads. It would go ALMOST completely into battery, but the bolt handle would drop about 1/10th of an inch and stop. Fortunately, we had some cheap factory ammo left over to sight in, and sight in we did. Shooting this baby is a dream, really, with the four-position adjustable trigger on the lightest setting, precision shooting, (as best as this blind shaky old fool can do), is easy.
Here was from the second trip, which was final zero on the scope, also with factory Hornaday American Whitetail 150gr Interlock ammo.
But the bit about the reloads was annoying. Now, experienced reloaders are shouting, "I know, I know", and you're probably right, but I've been doing this for a while, (17 years or so), including reloading for 303 British, 7.62x56R, 7.62x39mm, 5.56mm, 300 Savage, 8mm Mauser, and as mentioned before .308 Winchester, but for my buddy's rifles,. Not to brag, but one favorite load I've seen him cold bore bullseye at 100 yards without even trying...of course, he IS a sniper. No, seriously, a real sniper, both military and LE. But I like to think my ammo helps. So, this bugged me.
My first thought was the old "CZ Short Chamber" deal, which is a real thing in the PISTOL line. So I trimmed back a tiny bit too far and got things to almost work. Then my gunsmith friend said bring it up, I have the tools to check everything out. So off to the Phoenix Valley area I went. Wanna know what he found?
He found out I am an idiot. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the rifle as it falls perfectly within SAMMI specs for headspace. The problem was that I had never experienced before with the other rifles, (AR-10, Remington 700), have somewhat looser tolerances and the headspace I loaded to was just a fraction too long. I dropped the die to bump the shoulder back and VOILA! Everything is fixed! So, what does that mean? It means off to the range! It also means no matter how long you have been doing something, there is always something else to learn!
Here we are at 100 yards on my barely famous local range, and let's get to work. Oh, and people on another board said if I want target accuracy, I need a better bullet than a 150gr Interlock, which is a great hunting round, but not so much as a target round. So I dug into my stash and found some Hornaday 168gr BTHP Match bullets. Lets see how I did.
I think I am on to something...what do you think?
