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Shooting review: CZ 455 Tacticool rifle (.22LR)

2K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  haertig 
#1 ·
I bought a CZ455 (.22LR) back in January, and I'm finally getting around to posting a "few months of use" shooting review on it. I've taken it out to the range maybe four times now. It is the nicest .22LR rifle that I own.

Mine is the "Tacticool" model. Which means it has a short, heavy, threaded barrel. And a Boyds stock that is in the style of benchrest stocks.

I have not shot a whole lot of different ammos through it, but it likes everything I've tried. I am currently using "SK Standard Plus" (500 round can of ammo). With this ammo, I am able to fairly consistently get 3-shot groups right at 1 inch at 100 yards. Typically, my first two shots are touching or almost so, and the 3rd shot is off from the first two, making the entire group size 1 inch. Note that I repeat this pattern on just about every rifle I shoot, regardless of caliber. I think maybe I notice that I am doing very well on the first two shots, and then I try to force the third shot into that small group, and typically fail. There have been a few times where I've gotten a nice little triangle of shots in a sub-moa group at 100 yards, but my skills just do not allow me to repeat that very often.

Bottom line: This rifle does have the ability to shoot very well. I need to hone my skills, and probably check out different ammos too. But I am not disappointed with 1 inch groups at 100 yards with a .22LR. On a bad day, I do notice my groups opening up to more like 1-1/2", but then if I settle myself down and concentrate I do seem to be able to drop them to 1". I am guessing that with the right skill set behind the trigger of this rifle, that it could quite possibly be capable of 3/4" groups. But that's just my conjecture.

I have a SWFA SuperSniper fixed 10x scope mounted on a Picatinny rail on this CZ. This is a nice enough mid-to-low range scope, but it is not optimal for target shooting. The glass is very nice, but for target work I want a different reticle and more magnification. It has mil-bar hash marks, and at only 10x, these clutter up the reticle and do not work well for precision shooting. Some day I hope to put at least a 24x fine reticle "floating dot" target scope on the rifle.

The stock trigger is not bad on this rifle. The break is extremely clean. I would guess it is in the 4-5lb range. Pull weight is adjustable, but I have not attempted any adjustments yet. I have several friends who have this same rifle and they have gotten their triggers down under 2lbs with the adjustment (and a lighter spring in one case). The trigger on my particular rifle has almost a two-stage feel to it, but that is very subtle. You can feel it move back just barely, then it is firm and the trigger breaks very cleanly. This "move back" is so subtle that nobody else has noticed it until I point it out to them. With only about 200 rounds downrange with this rifle, I am continuing to shoot it as-is, waiting for a little break-in, before embarking on any trigger modifications.

The bolt is totally wobble free. Initially it felt a little stiff, but extremely solid. Now, the initial stiffness has been worked out of it and it is a really nice bolt.

The barrel is free floated, but when I'm sliding my dollar bill down there to check it, I have to be careful because it feels like the bill might rip in a few places. It makes it all the way back to the receiver, but it is tight.

The stock is made by Boyds and performs extremely well. It fits me perfectly. It is not a beauty to look at though. Not the fine wood that you see on many CZ's. It is composite and painted black. It was performance that I bought it for though, and it certainly delivers that for me.

I mounted a friends suppressor on it, and that was fun to shoot. I never realized how loud a firing pin striking a shell case was. With a suppressor, that's about all you hear (my ammo is subsonic). I keep thinking "misfire", but it's not.

The fun thing about shooting a .22LR at 100 yards is that (1) there is no recoil, (2) it takes a bit under 1/2 a second for the bullet to impact, with these two things you can see the bullet hit the target in your scope. Even with just a 10x scope (you probably have to have fairly decent glass though). That is really cool. Higher power rifles do not easily allow for seeing the bullet impact with their increased recoil.

Several of my shooting buddies swear that once you've become a proficient .22LR shooter that you will be much better with larger calibers too. We'll see if that plays out in my case. I haven't shot my .308 for a while (I'm having too much fun with this CZ455!)
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have two Savages with that stock. A TRR-SR and an FV- SR which inherited the stock from my first TRR-SR (long story). I think you shot my first TRR-SR at Phideaux's. Based on my experience with the Weaver T-36, I can recommend it or the T-24.

It is cool watching the bullet wend its way to the target.

I want to put something on a target to attract flies and try to whack them from 50-100 yards.

buzzsaw
 
#3 ·
This CZ is settling in nicely. It really likes the SK ammo. I borrowed a friends Sightron scope just to test it out and see if I liked it (considering purchase of one). I liked it! This was a very good day for my concentration personally. In the past, I've stumbled into a nice tight group, but never been able to repeat it. Today I repeated some nice groups at 100 yards three separate times. This CZ can shoot!!!!! I impressed myself today, I have never shot a .22LR this well at 100 yards before. Harris bipod for front support, squeeze bag for rear support. The first (and smallest) group below was shot normal, the next two groups were shot suppressed (borrowed my friends suppressor).

Electronics Measuring instrument Technology Tire Gauge


Calipers Measuring instrument Tool Tire Automotive tire


Calipers Measuring instrument Font Tool
 
#5 ·
I have been keeping my eye open for a cz 453 like the one Jim has that i got to shoot. That set trigger was awesome. I look at every cz rifle i see looking for one. They dont make them anymore. I see tons of 455 but not a 453 like i am holding out for. His was a tack driver. My marlin at my last 22 shoot was acting up so i want the cz453 now. But everyone else was shooting custom anschutz rifles with expensive glass to match and shooting sk ammo. I was out of my league but it was fun. Sorry about my long post. How's retirement looking dave? Or did you find another job?
 
#6 ·
Haven't found another job yet. Which is somewhat expected since, ahem, I haven't even finished updating my resume, let lone applying for any jobs. Job search failure is pretty much guaranteed given that scenario. I'm in no hurry, and may not try very hard. It's kind of nice to forget what day it is as you tootle along, doing not much of anything.
 
#7 ·
That's some nice shooting, Dave. Have you priced that scope?:eek: But it might be worth it. Hittin's a lot more fun than missin'!

Speedmaster, since we're talking about .22s, before I met you at Phideaux's, I thought your screen name might be from this:
Gun Firearm Rifle Trigger Shotgun


The catalog page was from about 1976...

Heading for the range, one of my Savages and a new AR upper need some exercise.

buzzsaw
 
#8 · (Edited)
I've been doing some trigger work on this CZ455. The stock trigger is not bad, but I estimate it was around 4lbs with a very minor amount of creep. I adjusted the pull weight using the screw CZ provides and maybe took the pull down to 3lbs (no trigger gauge to measure at that time).

Next I went out to Ace Hardware about bought their #144 spring (85 cents) to try that. This spring is often recommended on CZ forums. I borrowed a friends trigger pull gauge and found that I was now down to 2lbs. Very nice. Still that very small amount of creep however.

Same friend who lent me the pull gauge has three of these CZ's himself. He has done trigger work on all of them, using the YoDave kit that costs $18. https://www.yodaveproducts.com/ This kit includes 4 springs that you can choose from: 0.75-1.0lbs, 1.0-1.25lbs, 1.5-1.75lbs, and 2.0-2.5lbs.

The kit also includes four shims of varying thickness, that look like sleeve bearings. You insert one of these shims over the trigger pin (need to slightly grind the end and use a pin punch to get it out). The shim effectively increases the diameter of the trigger pin and decreases the sear engagement, to get rid of creep. It's a trial and error process to choose the correct shim for your particular rifle (below is a generic picture showing what they look like, but the ones in the kit are all the same length, just different diameters).

Copper Metal Brass Pipe Auto part


Anyway, my friend had remnants of the three YoDave kits he had bought, and that was enough spare parts to assemble one complete kit, which he gave me. The kit also includes a roll pin to replace the original trigger pin. But I see no need to use this replacement, especially since it is SAE sized and the original CZ pin is metric. Plus, the CZ original is actually a dowel pin, not a roll pin. The slight grinding that you need to do to remove the original pin does not affect its function.

I found that YoDave's estimate of trigger pull weights for their springs was spot on, at least for the lighter two that I tried. The lightest was 13oz in my rifle, and that was just a little too light for me. So I chose the second lightest spring, which measured at 1lb 1.5oz trigger pull weight. I liked that. I can use the CZ nut to increase this pull weight a little, but I don't plan to at this point. First I need to go shoot the rifle to see how I like the ~1 lb pull weight in actual firing (I've just tested it dry firing thus far).

I have not started messing with the sleeve bearing shims yet. I'm not sure if I will, since my trigger creep is so minor. But, knowing myself, I probably will - have to strive for perfection, you know?!

BTW, if anyone gets one of these of or similar target rifles, check your action screws (the ones that mount the action to the stock). My CZ's screws were only finger tight. Once I used my torque wrench to tighten them down, the CZ's accuracy improved noticeably. I torqued them to 30inch-lbs, because that's what I had heard "on the grapevine" was a good setting for a Boyd's wood stock. 25-35inch-lbs.
 
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