CZ MTR review?

[Topwater]

Folks who have had personal experience with one of these, would you offer your thoughts and evaluation of this .22 ? I have one coming and am curious as what I may expect. Thanks.

 

[garandman]

I had a 457 MTR. Best I could get, even with Midas + was about 0.375" c-t-c groups @ 50y. (It went up from there. ) CZ guaranteed 15mm, so its not like they were gonna repair / replace it. I wasn't happy with that, so I sold the barrel / stock for $350 and got a Lilja barrel and MPA chassis. Now I'm 0.17 - 0.32 " I also got $1,300 into the rifle. Pay to play.



It all depends on what's your intended use / expectations. For a squirrel gun, I'd say yer g-t-g. General plinker... its quality fit and finish. For even informal friendly competition? Not really enuf horsepower.

Manage your expectations, and you've got a gun of real quality that you can pass on to your kids.

Enjoy!

 

[redfisher]

I had a 457 MTR. Best I could get, even with Midas + was about 0.375" c-t-c groups @ 50y. (It went up from there. ) CZ guaranteed 15mm, so its not like they were gonna repair / replace it. I wasn't happy with that, so I sold the barrel / stock for $350 and got a Lilja barrel and MPA chassis. Now I'm 0.17 - 0.32 " I also got $1,300 into the rifle. Pay to play.

View attachment 1127014

It all depends on what's your intended use / expectations. For a squirrel gun, I'd say yer g-t-g. General plinker... its quality fit and finish. For even informal friendly competition? Not really enuf horsepower.

Manage your expectations, and you've got a gun of real quality that you can pass on to your kids.

Enjoy!

Did you get a pre-fit Lija barrel or a custom fit one. Their pre-fits look like they only come in 21" length and in the image of yours it looks shorter.

 

[garandman]

Did you get a pre-fit Lija barrel or a custom fit one. Their pre-fits look like they only come in 21" length and in the image of yours it looks shorter.

Prefit. They have a 16.5 threaded. 455 / 457 is same bbl

 

[fantastic]

The Pro Varmint 457 has the Boyds-style Pro Varmint stock (which used to be called the Tacticool stock), whereas the Varmint MTR has an altogether new stock and a CZ "match" chamber not used on other 457 models.

 

[Hacker]

I've got an MTR. Really haven't shot it much so I don't know what it'll do. I hate the stock. I'm left handed and the stock isn't ambi at all. I thought the stock would be OK since I was just shooting from the bench but I was wrong.

If you're left handed pick another model.

 

[Redd]

Folks who have had personal experience with one of these, would you offer your thoughts and evaluation of this .22 ? I have one coming and am curious as what I may expect. Thanks.

Have had my CZ 457 MTR now for 6 months 1400 rds. Very very accurate stock gun. Have shot multiple prone smallbore matches and consistently score 1196 or better with the X count usually greater than 70. Both conventional and metric targets. Love the stock, best .22 LR action CZ has made and a very adjustable trigger.

 

[flatlander]

I kept looking & waiting to find a Varmint MTR - took a couple of months early this past winter before I was able to find them in stock at one of the jobber wholesaler dealers I had an account with, but I feel it was worth the wait. I pulled the bbl'd action out of the stock as soon as I'd gotten it unpacked, adjusted the trigger down to 1lb with no issue, cleaned the bore, put a BScar 25 MOA rail on it, and mounted an older, pre-BTR Cronus 4.5-29x56 Athlon scope on it. Got impressive groups while zeroing the scope, and have been impressed with the accuracy out to 215yds, where it printed a 2.5" 10-shot group with SK LR Match. That's only slightly more than 1/2" larger than the groups I typically get at that distance with a Krieger barreled 40XB repeater & a couple of V-22s. However, when I shot some novelty targets from RFC's monthly 50yd BR match, I was a bit disappointed with the MTR's inconsistency on tiny aiming dots at that distance, even with some pretty good ammo. I decided I liked the MTR enough to replace the factory bbl with a custom, so ordered in a Shilen select match ratchet rifled straight .850" blank, turned a snug-fitting shank, chambered it with my PTG EPS reamer, cut the extractor grooves on the mill, finished the muzzle at 22", threaded it, then CeraKoted with a mix of graphite black/tungsten (an attempt to match the nitride finish of the action), and glued it in with loctite 609. It does shoot better with the Shilen, but I believe it can do better yet if I drilled out the poly/plastic factory pillars, replace them with aluminum ones, and bed the action. Obviously, I've still got far less invested in this rifle than if I were building a full-on custom BR rig, and I'm interested in seeing how good these 457 actions can be made to shoot, so will continue to work with it.

 

[Topwater]

I may be able to pick mine up this week. I’m is search of a quality optic to crown it with. I will try and keep posted my progression. I sure hope this surpasses the 164 Anschutz. If it dosen’t, I guess it’ll be an expensive disappointment.

 

[longtrapshootn]

I kinda like it, the design is a good one but the hand grip seems a bit long.

 

[Topwater]

I started seasoning the barrel yesterday. I was really disappointed in the feel of the bolt. It felt just plain gritty. Hopefully it will smooth out some with use. The grip will also take getting used to. This arthritic hand doesn’t want to lay on it comfortably. The trigger is very crisp, breaking quite nicely. I will definitely be reducing the weight closer to my bench rifles.The Vortex 6 x 24 x 50 arrived and I have a 25 MOA rail ordered. Once it’s mounted, I’ll be able to pick ring heights. I’ll be interested to see what ammo it will like and how it’s going to group.

 

[ELR Researcher]

I had a 457 MTR. Best I could get, even with Midas + was about 0.375" c-t-c groups @ 50y. (It went up from there. ) CZ guaranteed 15mm, so its not like they were gonna repair / replace it. I wasn't happy with that, so I sold the barrel / stock for $350 and got a Lilja barrel and MPA chassis. Now I'm 0.17 - 0.32 " I also got $1,300 into the rifle. Pay to play.

View attachment 1127014

It all depends on what's your intended use / expectations. For a squirrel gun, I'd say yer g-t-g. General plinker... its quality fit and finish. For even informal friendly competition? Not really enuf horsepower.

Manage your expectations, and you've got a gun of real quality that you can pass on to your kids.

Enjoy!

Seems you have a lot more than $1300 into your rifle...That MPA chassis is $925, the threaded barrel $490, less the $350 for the parts you sold, calcs to $1065 for those parts alone. Which leaves $235 for the base rifle, excluding optics. Are you just talking about costs on top of the base rifle and optics? Thanks.

 

[garandman]

Seems you have a lot more than $1300 into your rifle...That MPA chassis is $925, the threaded barrel $490, less the $350 for the parts you sold, calcs to $1065 for those parts alone. Which leaves $235 for the base rifle, excluding optics. Are you just talking about costs on top of the base rifle and optics? Thanks.

900 for MPA 750 for factory CZ457 less 350 for bbl & stock sold.

Scope sold separately.

 

[ELR Researcher]

900 for MPA 750 for factory CZ457 less 350 for bbl & stock sold.

Scope sold separately.

900 + 750 - 350 = 1300. Plus the cost of the Lilja barrel (490) = 1790. What am I missing?

 

[garandman]

900 + 750 - 350 = 1300. Plus the cost of the Lilja barrel (490) = 1790. What am I missing?

aftermarket bbls are a sunk cost / expense like ammo. So yes, 1790 on your math. I might replace it also with a Shilen. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Esabatm]

I started seasoning the barrel yesterday. I was really disappointed in the feel of the bolt. It felt just plain gritty. Hopefully it will smooth out some with use. The grip will also take getting used to. This arthritic hand doesn’t want to lay on it comfortably. The trigger is very crisp breaking quite nicely. I will definitely be reducing the weight closer to my bench rifles.The Vortex 6 x 24 x 50 arrived and I have a 25 MOA rail ordered. Once it’s mounted, I’ll be able to pick ring heights. I’ll be interested to see what ammo it will like and how it’s going to group.

You need to stone the bottom of the bolt. The serial numbers are raised after stoneing the numbers down it will be nice and smooth.

 

[Topwater]

Esabatm, you are absolutely correct. I checked and the serial number is indeed embossed instead of being engraved. I can hardly imagine what CZ was thinking when they marked their serial numbers in this manner. I did see a video of someone “stoning” their bolt. IMHO This shouldn’t be necessary with a brand new rifle.

 

[Tim s]

I had a 457 MTR. Best I could get, even with Midas + was about 0.375" c-t-c groups @ 50y. (It went up from there. ) CZ guaranteed 15mm, so its not like they were gonna repair / replace it. I wasn't happy with that, so I sold the barrel / stock for $350 and got a Lilja barrel and MPA chassis. Now I'm 0.17 - 0.32 " I also got $1,300 into the rifle. Pay to play.

View attachment 1127014

It all depends on what's your intended use / expectations. For a squirrel gun, I'd say yer g-t-g. General plinker... its quality fit and finish. For even informal friendly competition? Not really enuf horsepower.

Manage your expectations, and you've got a gun of real quality that you can pass on to your kids.

Enjoy!

Wow, I would love to see a few of those sub .2” groups, truly.
Never heard of any kind of CZ that out shot a $5000 BR rifle.
From a bipod, no less.
Must be one heck of a CZ.

 

[mrh1958]

I think some are expecting a 457 MTR to shoot better than a custom bench gun, dont get me wrong...I really like CZ rifles and have owned many but I dont expect them to shoot averages in the 2's @ 50 yards, best I ever seen a factory one do was 375" @ 50 for an average, and that was with Center X and a good day.

 

[garandman]

@mrh1958 ... exactly right. Even CZ only guarantees 15mm. Mine w/ factory bbl averaged 3/8, maybe a little better.