CZ 527 Quality???

[Sniper338]

Anyone have a CZ 527? Im looking at a few of them. I dont own a factory rifle... so I am nervous as to how good of quality they are... and how good of accuracy they give with hand loads.

 

[Mark M.]

I have a couple, i belive there a great value for the money spent, no complaints about quaility or accuracy, very pleased, also look at tikka

 

[Dusty Stevens]

They aint much to look at but they work very well

 

[Mark W]

I like em! In fact I like em a lot!! Any factory rifle is a roll of the dice. I think CZ rifles offer a great chance of a good shooting rifle for the money. All five of mine are good shooters.

 

[tmwinds]

I own a CZ 527 in .223 caliber. Very decent quality for a $600 rifle. Since it is a Mini Mauser action you are limited to the smaller cartridges. With hand loads it will shoot around 1/2 to 3/4 inches at 100 yards most of the time. Great for burning up cheap ammo and ringing 6 inch gongs at 500 yards.

 

[L.Sherm]

I had a 204 set back to a 20VT and 5-527 as donors and they all shoot very well.

 

[Sniper338]

I had a 204 set back to a 20VT and 5-527 as donors and they all shoot very well.

So its a good action to rebarrel on, as is factory, its an under an inch gun with good reloads?

If rebarreled, id assume its be a damn good shooter...?

 

[kcjim]

I own a . 221 Fireball and a .17 Hornet. Both are very reliable and are accurate with my handloads. The .17 Hornet is really fun to shoot at prairie dogs. I happen to think they are good looking rifles. My Fireball has really nice wood.

 

[mike mccormick]

I LOVE my 527 in 22 hornet ! It is a great little shooter.

 

[watercam]

So its a good action to rebarrel on, as is factory, its an under an inch gun with good reloads?

If rebarreled, id assume its be a damn good shooter...?

Being 'That Guy' who does nothing that everyone else is doing I had a 30"/7-twist custom barrel fitted to my action in .223 Match. Bedded it into a Boyds Varmint stock, added a rail, adjustable cheekpiece and adjustable butt plate. I did bed under the barrel shank to take a little of the weight off the very small action. I found that by tweaking the trigger it is possible to adjust it down to as low as .5Ibs. without using the set trigger. I am using 1.25Ibs. to shoot with a sling.
Loaded up some Sierra 90s and have been using it as my Mid-range High Power rifle for a couple of years now with excellent results. Still looking for a better stock but if I do my part it works well.
Tried it out to 1000 and made it but my Palma rifle works better out that far.

 

[L.Sherm]

So its a good action to rebarrel on, as is factory, its an under an inch gun with good reloads?

If rebarreled, id assume its be a damn good shooter...?

It's a .5 m.o.a gun with reloads

 

[msalm]

I have both the 527's (and several 452's and 3's) and several of the Howa Mini's. I prefer the Howa as far as quality of the machining, smooth action, and very good factory trigger. I prefer the CZ's for the bottom metal and nice wood stocks. Neither is perfect but overall I like the Howa Mini better as they are a light, handy rifle with very smooth bolt operation, great feeding, and shoot as accurately as any other factory rifle. I've built 22 and 6mm Grendels on them along with using them in the 6.5 Grendel and 7.62 along with one 223. I agree about the trigger on the CZ's, they are very nice when you adjust the 'set' function out of them and just make them a good single stage crisp trigger in the 1 1/2-2lb range.

 

[tmwinds]

While we are discussing the CZ 527, has anyone removed the barrel on one? If so, what did you use for a action wrench and how difficult was it? The small action looks a little fragile and could possibly be damaged if not careful.

 

[North Fork]

A CZ is one of the best shooting out of the box rifles

 

[watercam]

While we are discussing the CZ 527, has anyone removed the barrel on one? If so, what did you use for a action wrench and how difficult was it? The small action looks a little fragile and could possibly be damaged if not careful.

I used a regular Wheeler for flat-bottom actions with no issues.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

I have a 4 of em.. No complaints here. Good shooters. Used to be a great value when I first started buying them.. Still a good buy but the price has gone up as the word got out.

 

[msalm]

I’ve taken apart a couple, I used the standard Brownells wrench with the handle portion on the bottom flat and a 1/4” thick strip of aluminum on the top of the receiver. A piece of drywall tape over the action prevented any aluminum marks on the top dovetail. Just snug up til there’s no play and whack the handle with a hammer.

 

[texman]

I sure like my 527 in 204. I haven't shot any factory ammo only reloads. Half inch groups or less if I do my part. That's out of the box with no tweaking. I really like the set trigger, my only complaint is doesn't feed very good. Neat little gun!

 

[Intheshop]

I bought one in 223 with the hump buttstock.... new for under 400 when they first "showed up". It has the slower twist,think its 1-12. Decent wood but they didn't quite finish sanding it so there's some issues there. The small action was sorta the same way.... just a little rough. I just kept it well lubed and cycled it,a bunch. But,if you aren't "decisive" about running the rounds up,it'll tie up. So it's partially the shorter geometry and part roughness.

Ran a scope on it for 10+ years,would shoot the cheap white box Wnichester 50's into ragged holes @100. Took the scope off and enjoy shooting it even more now. When we have a bunch of guys shooting,it along with my dad's Winchester 62 are what we end up with more often than not. Busting Clay's offhand @75-100 yards is that much fun.

 

[Bangs OH]

I usually have two or three 527s around, all in Varmint chamberings; currently own a .22 Hornet and a rare .204 Kevlar Varmint (the most accurate factory rifle I’ve owned in a long time). Not only do CZs handload okay, many will shoot factory ammo well. The Dec. issue of Predator Xtreme magazine tested a .223 V and one 40 gr. brand allegedly produced a .15” group — a very good review from a (rare) mag that doesn’t pull punches or kiss manufacturers butts.
The adjustable single-set triggers are a plus. The few possible negatives might include the “backward” safety, and the wood stocks on some might need touching up to completely free-float the barrel. I personally don’t like the Americans and their pencil barrels; only certain chamberings come with the Varmint barrel, but both H-S Precision and B&C offer stocks to fit heavier barrels if one wants to change an American to that contour later with an aftermarket tube.
Regarding handloading: the common bugaboo of detachable factory magazine length does rear its ugly head. Most CZ chambers I’ve seen are cut long enough to allow seating bullets farther out, but the mags are right at factory cartridge length. James Calhoon does make a neat magazine-replacement follower for most chamberings, that allows single-loading without jamming.
Also, CZ sometimes offers bare actions for sale, e.g there were some Hornets out there recently, and Bud’s once had some 7.62 X 39s that some built PPC repeaters on.
IMO, C-Zs are great rifles for the money.