Impulse buy! CZ455 - newest member of my CZ/BRNO family - Range test added

geologist

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I decided to stop into Hub Sports on my way to the range. I was looking for some traditional arrows of which they had none. Oh well I thought, I'll just look at what they have in the used section.

There wasn't much to interest me but they had a few new bolt action .22 rifles. I have been without an accurate .22 rifle (I only had a 10/22 :redface:) since I gave away my Marlin 81DL so I decided to heft a few new rifles.

I looked at a Savage that felt very rough when cycling and the finish was mediocre. I knew that it would probably be very accurate despite the roughness but decided to look at the CZ.

After the Savage the 455 was like night and day. It felt very nicely built and finished. The action was tighter and smoother than the Savage. It also had decent iron sights which I wanted since this would also be my small game rifle.

I had them run a bore snake through it so that I could shoot it at the range.

The trigger is fine, with a little creep and then it breaks nicely. It is MUCH lighter and cleaner than my 10/22 (which has at least 2500 rounds through it). It has more creep than my old Marlin 81's (circa 1950) trigger but it was still easy to shoot for groups.

I only had crappy Winchester Wildcat and 333 bulk ammo with me but went with the Wildcats.

With the irons off of a front rest but without sandbags it was almost on sight at 25 yards. A couple of quick adjustments and the irons were shooting 3/4" at 25 yards and maybe 1.25" at 50 yards.

I then took the cheap 3x9 Bushnell scope off of my 10/22 and screwed it onto the 11mm Weaver rail of the 455. I kept the scope in the rings and just barely managed to fit the objective lens in behind the 455s iron sights.

I like hogs back stocks but was worried that the cheek weld with the scope might be poor. It was fine and the scope lines up quickly and naturally when I shoulder it.

And does it shoot! Even with cheap bulk ammo and me :redface: shooting. It shoots into a ragged hole at 25 yards off the rest and 3/4" or less at 50 yards. I am not a target shooter and this was a lot better than I expected.

I had a resealable plastic 3" spinner at 100 yards and was able to hit it off the bench 4 for 5 once I figured out the holdover.

I will bring a bunch of different ammo next time and find out what it likes to shoot.

I like this little .22. With it's short barrel it is very handy and will make a dandy rabbit and grouse rifle.

I slapped a leather sling onto it but I think that I will order a leather military sling for it since it will be my field shooter.

Questions:

If I single load it directly into the chamber without going through the magazine, can I damage its extractor?

I assume that I can shoot longs and shorts through it without a problem as long as I clean the chamber before shooting Long Rifles through it again?

Can any one recommend a decent quality, adjustable objective scope for it, $250 or less? Uses small game hunting and range plinking.

Here it is (bottom rifle) with it's older brothers - BRNO 600 and BRNO 602.

 
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Congrats on the new gun. My 4455 is really accurate as well. Finished very nicely to boot. Cant comment on a cheap scope for you as mine is wearing a ziess.
 
When I bought my 455 17hmr a few months ago at my LGS, they had the Bushnell trophy xlt 6-18 x40 ao on sale for $139 and I also got the $25 mail in rebate. For that price I thought I'd try it out.
I am quite happy with the scope, makes seeing the holes on long shots easy. It's not bushnell's best, but not their worst either, good for a rimfire for the price.
 
great find and collection.......I am biased when it comes to the CZ rimfires though............should be obvious why lol
 
I have 452 Americans in both 22LR and 17HMR....they are very nicely built, accurate rimfires.

Recently acquired a 455 HB in 22WMR with the laminate stock, and it did not disappoint!
Very fine rimfires.

[And this from a guy who has 541 Remingtons, a 52 Winchester, a 37 and a 40x Remington,
as well as a Suhl 150.]

I believe that the CZ rimfires are about the best bang for your buck out there.

Regards, Dave
 
Hey OP, have a talk with yodave and get one of his trigger kits. As good as the stock trigger is, it can be made even better! Very economical to boot.
 
I went to the range and tried a bunch of different ammo at 50 yards. I had sandbags front and rear.

CCI Minimag high velocity HPs were the best. Cheap bulk Remington Thunderbolts were pretty good too and a lot cheaper.

The Federal Gold Medal target shells were second with a POI over an inch lower than the Winchester Expert high velocities that the scope was zeroed for.

I zeroed the scope at 50 yards for the Minimags. I found that 19 clicks up gave me POA at 100 yards and then shot an almost MOA group at 100 yards.

I’ll do all of my hunting with CCIs and plink with the Thunderbolts.

I am getting failures to eject unless I cycle the bolt hard but that is manageable.


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damn geologist those rifles are nice i always wanted a brno, i have a 455 lux and its exactly like you said
 
Geologist,
That's a really nice Brno/CZ collection. Your new 455 seems to really like Minimags! I have 455 LUX and American and they perform well with SK Standard Plus but when it gets bellow 5 Deg C I switch to Minimags or Blazer. Not sure what it is but in colder temperatures the high velocity ammo works better for me.
 
Leupold makes a decent rimfire scope as well as Nikon I believe.
If you go to an AO scope, then you shouldn't be concerned with a
rimfire scope.
You can correct parallax with the AO.
 
Check out the Hawke Varmint SF line of variables;

Here is a look (ignore the purple... it looks great on walnut also...);

 
The 3 CZ 452's and the 1 453 that I've had all liked Mini-Mags enough that for my purposes it wasn't worth shooting higher-grade ammo.

I'm currently setting up a 452 Varmint to mimic my LR 308. Was shopping for an American to mimic my hunting rifles before I snagged a very nice Ruger 77/22 from the EE.

I love .22s...
 
I sighted my 455 in today for CB shorts in case I need to shoot something quietly. From its normal 50 yard zero I needed to go up 15 elevation clicks (1/4 MOA) to shoot to POA at 25 yards. The CB shorts grouped 0.6” at 25 yards and were VERY quiet.

I then shot it with high velocity CCI HPs at 200 yards. From its normal 50 yard zero it required 94 up clicks to shoot POA at 200 yards. It was a crappy 4.9” group. That is probably partly the fault of the cheap 3x9 rimfire scope I have on it. The rifle is capable of better accuracy.

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I have the Nikon Prostaff Rimfire 40 3x9.

It's not AO, but at 3x9, it's not needed at all at this magnification

I am having the rimfire scope experience of a lifetime. It's bright and crisp. It is the BDC reticule so it has the dots for distance elevation . it works great.

anyway that's my cz455 and scope. It's perfect for target shooting under 100 yards and headshots on small game
 
I then shot it with high velocity CCI HPs at 200 yards. From its normal 50 yard zero it required 94 up clicks to shoot POA at 200 yards. It was a crappy 4.9” group. That is probably partly the fault of the cheap 3x9 rimfire scope I have on it. The rifle is capable of better accuracy.

The ammo will have more to do with it then the scope. If you want good groups bend 75 yards shoot standard velocity ei under 1100 fps. The bullets loose stability when crossing over the sound barrier and with 22lr that tends to be at about 75 yards.
 
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