Now that we're near the end of the week and I have a second to breathe I thought I'd put this out here, for a number of reasons. There were several folks here who were very helpful with providing some of the info I needed to get this thing off the ground, so I wanted to say thanks. I also like to talk about good service when I get it, which I did. Plus, I just wanted to share, because I’m excited about the build and the potential results.
Dave Kiff was a great guy to talk to and helped me get exactly what I was looking for when I ordered the reamer. I had Mark Pharr put the rifle together and had a great experience with him as well. I ordered the barrel from RCW3 here on the board, also a great experience.
Considering some of the rigs many of the guys on this board are running with expensive custom actions, etc. it almost feels awkward to talk about building a gun on an action like a CZ, but here it is.
The gun is a CZ-550 varmint, originally a 22-250. I was done with the limits of the slow twist and was going to rebarrel it anyway, so I figured I’d just use the platform for a long range project. Plus, I love the shape of the stock, and I’m very familiar with the manners of the gun and the 6XC will work well out of the detachable mag, etc. It took a little longer than I hoped with the holidays and all, but the work turned out great. I was originally concerned with how much the shank would have to be turned down to match the mini Mauser action size etc. but I’m super pleased with the results. Mark also bedded the action and recoil lug, replaced the factory inserts with real pillars, and I had him add an oversized bolt knob as long as he had it. Not because I care about how cool it looks, but because I hoped that functionally it might make a difference. The factory barrel was 25 ½ inches and .865†at the muzzle, and I had Mark finish this one at 29†and it’s .920†at the muzzle.
As it stands I’ve got some loads put together with the 115 hbn DTAC’s & H-4350 starting at 36 gr and stepping up in .5 increments to 38. I realize that I can and might need to tune it in .1 or .2 increments later but I figured this would be good enough for break in and would atleast be an indicator as to where the gun liked to run. Hopefully I’m on the right track with that. Now all I need is a better set of bags for target work vs. the field bags I have now.
Here’s the finished product…
Dave Kiff was a great guy to talk to and helped me get exactly what I was looking for when I ordered the reamer. I had Mark Pharr put the rifle together and had a great experience with him as well. I ordered the barrel from RCW3 here on the board, also a great experience.
Considering some of the rigs many of the guys on this board are running with expensive custom actions, etc. it almost feels awkward to talk about building a gun on an action like a CZ, but here it is.
The gun is a CZ-550 varmint, originally a 22-250. I was done with the limits of the slow twist and was going to rebarrel it anyway, so I figured I’d just use the platform for a long range project. Plus, I love the shape of the stock, and I’m very familiar with the manners of the gun and the 6XC will work well out of the detachable mag, etc. It took a little longer than I hoped with the holidays and all, but the work turned out great. I was originally concerned with how much the shank would have to be turned down to match the mini Mauser action size etc. but I’m super pleased with the results. Mark also bedded the action and recoil lug, replaced the factory inserts with real pillars, and I had him add an oversized bolt knob as long as he had it. Not because I care about how cool it looks, but because I hoped that functionally it might make a difference. The factory barrel was 25 ½ inches and .865†at the muzzle, and I had Mark finish this one at 29†and it’s .920†at the muzzle.
As it stands I’ve got some loads put together with the 115 hbn DTAC’s & H-4350 starting at 36 gr and stepping up in .5 increments to 38. I realize that I can and might need to tune it in .1 or .2 increments later but I figured this would be good enough for break in and would atleast be an indicator as to where the gun liked to run. Hopefully I’m on the right track with that. Now all I need is a better set of bags for target work vs. the field bags I have now.
Here’s the finished product…
