CZ 455 Canadian Bedding Report *Update w/bore scope pics*

I just finished bedding my 22 LR 455 American, it turned out not bad for an amateur.. lol.
I used Devcon aluminum putty and shoe polish for a release agent. Filled the cutouts in the stock with closed cell foam and Play Doh, of all things. Does no one make modeling clay anymore??
Anyway, it came apart fairly easily, which is always a relief. The shoe polish works well.
I have a couple small voids to touch up at some point, and a few low spots along the top of the stock rails that need some more fill, but nothing critical.
The good news is that it definitely improved how the rifle shoots, more consistent now.
I did remove the sear and dreaded spring and ball. My fear of it getting locked mechanically was greater than my reluctance to take it completely apart. No problems getting it back together, although I would recommend the plastic bag over the action trick when replacing the sear spring and ball unless you have spares.
I filled the holes for the barrel screws with Play Doh, then ground small recesses for the screw heads in the bedding using a Dremel after it was set.
It shot OK before I started all this, but not up to what I wanted, plus I didn't like the semi soggy feel of tightening the action screws.
I pillared the stock first, then shot it with just the pillars under the action to see what it would do. Rock solid tightening the screws, but it strung shots vertically over an inch at 20 yds. Not performance!
At that point I was thinking the full bedding had better work or there's going to be a Boyd's laminate stock in my immediate future!
I don't mind laminate stocks, but this rifle has some beautiful walnut with tiger stripes, it would have been a real shame not to use it.
All's well that ends well at this point.
I'll get a few pics the next time it's apart.
 
While I didn't set out to do a proper ammo test today my initial sighting groups brought a smile to my face so of course I had to shoot a few more! It's a little hard to read my ink on the red of the target so I'll type it out. Top middle first group from clean, cold bore RWS club 1.23". Refer back to previous testing this ammo shot 2" :eek: In descending order in the middle 2nd group RWS Club 0.735" 3rd group RWS Club 0.733" 4th group RWS Club 0.738" now spreading vertical. It was a little chilly today and I don't think it took long for the cold to start doing evil things to the ammo I know my Savage did not shoot it's best in these temperatures either. Top left 0.549" group with Thunderbolt of all ammos! It is a fluke though see the other 3 1" plus groups. Consistent trend with thunderbolt out of my savage too, it actually shoots pretty decent IF, and that's a big if, you don't get any fliers! But of course half the box are fliers and I have no idea how you'd sort those out.



Today's mission was just to plink a brick of bulk while cooling my .270 between groups to help " break in" and smooth things out. At 100 yards I did 50 shots of thunderbolt here and while I have absolutely no expectation of performance out of it, it is interesting to note the pattern that developed. There was an extreme spread of fliers making the grouping 4.1" then there is also a small grouping extreme of 1.262" where about half the shots landed. I count 22 "fliers" outside the inner grouping. Like I've noted before Thunderbolt is actually decently accurate but there is clearly a wild variance in the velocity consistency so it doesn't reliably shoot well. This is distinctly different than other bulk ammos that never show a decent grouping to the odd one from thunderbolt. All they really need to do is tighten up the spec on primer and powder and thunderbolt could be good stuff. Ahhh to dream...

 
Had a marathon range day today, my pinky and ring finger still feel numb and tingly on my trigger hand. 60 rounds of .270 kicked me pretty good I think I'll lay off those for awhile, all out of primers to load any more and Bass Pro was completely sold out! I see I never posted before pics in this thread so here's the two ammo test targets and disregard the writing on top of them I was going to use them at 100 yds for my .270 but too small for 9x scope so they are 50 yds with the CZ:





Now for today's ammo test. Some ammo's showed worse than before, some better, some about the same and a couple "nice" groups around 1/2" or better like a rifle should shoot! A few ammo's had conflicting POI from different POA so true group size could not be established. I re-shot them on another target. I warmed up with RWS club but could not repeat last time's performance. I guess this box of 50 ain't the same as the last! I bought 7 boxes and my Savage doesn't like it either despite really liking two boxes of it last year.





After shooting 3 groups of HV bulk to end the test targets I racked the CZ and repeated the process with my 597 for the same ammos. The 597 was pretty much on par with the CZ but slighty worse and only one sub 1" group with center-x. Fresh paper up I did a full target of center-x groups. So I shot a 0.34" in the test but started with 2.2"! Groups numbered in order shot it did shoot 3 good apprx 1/2" groups but I am shaking my head at the extreme inconsistency.



Now a SK target SK+ did better than rifle match and posted a few nice groups.



And finally re-shooting ammo that conflicted POI and further vetting of certain ammos. Center group is the 597 with Center-x and is better than half of the CZ groups on this target. If I can do that with a 5# creepy trigger and 9x scope surely the 1# 4oz trigger and 18X scope on the CZ should benefit me some....



Final take away is now the rifle is popping out the odd good group but is still incredibly inconsistent and poor accuracy overall. The good groups seem like flukes but seeing them makes me think... the rifle should be capable of more of them and better average with the others. I don't know what to make of it and I feel disappointed.
 
I would throw out all of your testing and start over...........and here is why

every brand of rimfire ammo has different lube on the bullets, these lubes do not mix well with each other and will sort of gum up the barrel or foul it to the point that nothing will likely shoot good, even the same brand of ammo from different lot numbers can suffer these same ill effects. so how do you fix this? well that's the easy part, clean the barrel well between brands and lot numbers of ammo, always start with a clean barrel and shoot a box of 50 rounds into 10 5 shot groups and learn to read the target, some will start poor and as the barrel fouls settle in and your groups will level out and be more consistent, others may start really good but then open right up on the fourth or fifth group.......what does it mean?? well it means that possibly from a clean barrel the ammo that works best in your rifle requires 25 shots to foul the barrel to where that ammo shoots at it's best, it could also mean that that ammo shoots lights out for the first 37 rounds and then opens right up.

mixing ammo will give you mixed results and is really likely to prove nothing
 
Good timing! I also shot my 455 American yesterday after bedding it the weekend before. I got somewhat different results than you, happily.
I've shot only SK STD + through it for several months.
After two or three warming shots through the barrel I started shooting in earnest.
First target was not bad at all, 5 groups of 5 averaged about .800, fairly consistent. Not great, but an improvement over the previous efforts.
I shot a couple "tack driver" targets for fun, then got serious again.
Last target of the day was an attempt at the 50 yds challenge, although I doubted it would be successful at this stage.
Long story short, ONE dam* flyer that I know was my fault screwed it up. Two .470s, a .495, a .723 that will live in infamy, and a .320 (iirc) to finish with. To say I'm happy with the last group would be an understatement. I've changed my aiming technique, more work to be done on that in the future.
I should add that I haven't thoroughly cleaned the rifle in a while, maybe 300 rounds or so. I push a couple dry patches through it when I'm done shooting, then one or two lightly oiled patches to keep it from rusting.
So, I'd have to say the bedding was a success. Rifle is more consistent than before, I like leaving the range with a smile instead of scratching my head, lol.

What's your next step with the Canadian? Maybe some pressure points under the barrel? Jaia from RFC says about three inches out from receiver works ok. I've not tried it with mine.
How many rounds through it at this point?
I MIGHT have a source for a Mr. Fly trigger, if I do I'll post that separately. I know the heavy trigger is a problem, but I've not been able to make the rifle safe with lighter springs as yet.
 
Good job Chilly 807!

Rabid: Don't give up, your bedding job looks fine and will work as long as the action screws were just snug (5 in/lbs) while the compound was curing. I would look at the bedding and check for sharp edges that may prevent the action from from indexing properly. I usually de-burr the bedding at the edge between the barrel and the action and at least with 452s there is an alignment mark at the bottom of the barrel that I remove from the bedding. You might consider some other things:
- Scrub the barrel really good to remove any possible lead and lube
- Clean the chamber carrefully using and old 22lr bronze brush soaked in Hoppes
- check the torque on your barrel screws (30-35 inlbs) but don't remove the barrel. I have noticed your barrel is bedded and if you remove it after bedding, it will not fit back the same way
- check that the barrel screws don't interfere with the bedding
- check the crown
- check the head space using plastigauge
- check for "bullet shaving"
K
 
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@Yodave....interesting! I never would have guessed that different lubes mixed together could potentially cause issues. I'll have to keep that in mind. Thank you for the tip.
 
Well YoDave I went through the same process with my Savage and narrowed down 4 ammos it seemed to like. I did not get the extreme results like I did here with the CZ the Savage shot all the quality ammo under 1" only the bulk stuff 1" +. Without cleaning the savage just shooting several groups settled the groupings down for one ammo type. Perhaps the CZ is way more sensitive. I think I can eliminate some brands from my testing and take it down to 6 types and use the process you suggest.

Chilly you'll notice I did bed the first 3" of the barrel but that is not pressure bedding. About 800 rounds through before this test now over 1000. I'm happy with the trigger with the YoDave kit at a safe 1# 4oz. Next steps... not sure. Kody has some ideas there for me to look at. I did loosen off and re-torque the barrel screws to 30 in/lbs before bedding. The barrel screws were puttied up during bedding so there should be clearance between them and the bedding. Maybe worth getting the dremel out and making sure. The barrel was squeaky clean before I started this test and I'll clean again before next time. For the bedding I held the action down into the stock with one hand and snugged up the action screws "finger tight" with the other hand so there should be no stress on it.
 
RabidM4U5 said:
Well YoDave I went through the same process with my Savage and narrowed down 4 ammos it seemed to like. I did not get the extreme results like I did here with the CZ the Savage shot all the quality ammo under 1" only the bulk stuff 1" +. Without cleaning the savage just shooting several groups settled the groupings down for one ammo type. Perhaps the CZ is way more sensitive. I think I can eliminate some brands from my testing and take it down to 6 types and use the process you suggest.

Chilly you'll notice I did bed the first 3" of the barrel but that is not pressure bedding. About 800 rounds through before this test now over 1000. I'm happy with the trigger with the YoDave kit at a safe 1# 4oz. Next steps... not sure. Kody has some ideas there for me to look at. I did loosen off and re-torque the barrel screws to 30 in/lbs before bedding. The barrel screws were puttied up during bedding so there should be clearance between them and the bedding. Maybe worth getting the dremel out and making sure. The barrel was squeaky clean before I started this test and I'll clean again before next time. For the bedding I held the action down into the stock with one hand and snugged up the action screws "finger tight" with the other hand so there should be no stress on it.
Click to expand...

think of how accurate your other rifle could really be if you repeated the test by cleaning between ammo types and lots
 
Kody said:
Rabid,
One more thing....any chance you have a scope and/or parallax problem? What scope and rings are you using?
K
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No problem with the scope. Very first range trip I had it mounted with millet rings and ran out of adjustment 5 inches right 1 inch low. The rings were visibly off center to the receiver. I exchanged them for burris rings with the self centering inserts and that solved that issue. I had a sightron SII 6-24x on it for first test, swapped out for the bushnell 6-18x I had on my Savage for the second test and made sure I was parallax free before shooting with the AO (and yes the correct setting was not precisely in line with the markings on the objective).

Yodave my goal with the Savage was to beat the 1/2" challenge and I succeeded so I'm happy for now this CZ project has my focus. Once I get my CZ in line I'll revisit the Savage and see if I can really dial it it.
 
grauhanen said:
This is absolutely true. When testing, you must clean the bore between different ammos. It's kinda like testing different single malt scotch whiskeys one right after the other: you'll get ossified but not know which whiskey is the smoothest and has the best flavour.
Click to expand...

Still a heck of a lot of fun though! :cheers: But yes after assaulting your palate with an Islay scotch it is then difficult to fully appreciate a delicate lowlands but I digress...

My CZ will not be going out to the range again in it's current state. I went shooting again today and implemented some setup tweaks suggested on RFC and shot full box of 50 per ammo type and ran dry patches through the barrel between ammos. I started with Center-X first shot did not hit paper. "Oh yeah!" I says to myself, "I was last shooting and sighted at 100 yards" so I used the remaining 4 shots on a separate paper to sight in for 50 again.



SK+





SK Rifle Match



RWS Club





I stopped shooting the CZ after that concluding it would be a waste of ammo. There is no pattern to the groups from clean barrel to fouled, it is just wild and random. I am 100% convinced there is a mechanical defect with the rifle that I cannot remedy myself. The issue will require gunsmith attention as I am now looking at determining if headspace is out of spec or how to determine if the barrel is a dud (slugging?). As far as I can tell the crown appears fine with no machining marks visible to the naked eye and it does not catch fibers from a q-tip.

Anybody have experience dealing with CZ to get them to help with an accuracy issue or barrel replacement under warranty?
 
Holy smoke.. there's something seriously adrift with that rifle. We know you can shoot better than that, and most if not all of what you were using was decent ammo.
Do you have another scope to use on the CZ? I can't remember if you've swapped it out yet or not. If not, I'd try that before contacting CZ. They may take one look at the bedding and decline to do anything regarding warranty. It's a convenient way out for them, should they choose to take it.
Warranty centre is Grech Outdoors, in Ontario I think. I spoke with them last week about parts, seem pretty easy going on the phone.
I wish I'd taken some photos of the groups I got with my 455 with just the pillars installed, they were really bad too.
Maybe I didn't do a great job on the pillars, though I thought they weren't bad at all. Is it possible that the 455 needs more than pillars, that they may actually be detrimental to accuracy??
 
okay 2 questions.......

why did you decide to bed so much of the barrel ahead of the action? personally I would grind that bedding out and completely free float the barrel, including the chamber.

When you dry fire the rifle, awesome feature of the CZ is you can do this and not damage the chamber or firing pin, is there a soft click of the firing pin or a loud thud? Ever had the bolt apart? is there to much oil and or grease in around the firing pin effecting its performance on the inner workings? want to try a striker spring upgrade before throwing in the towel on this one??
 
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