Hi, maybe it was a super cold weather this afternoon but I took my brand new (purchased yesterday) CZ 600 AL1 (Alpha) to the club today, paired it with a Viper PST scope and used Norinco red box (headstamp 311 19, 311 20 and 311 23) rounds.
The only magazine I had was the factory OEM 600 series plastic/polymer 5-rounder.
THE GOOD
1. (and this is very good) - this rifle is dead nuts accurate. I would even say it could be tack driver level. With Norinco rounds no doubt - I imagine with good match rounds (if they even exist for 7.62x39) it would be very good.
2. Feel of the rifle - I quite enjoyed shouldering this thing. It was lightweight and I really enjoyed the grippiness of the material.
3. Came with built in picatinny rails. Saves me some $$$ on rails
4. Magazine was easy to load and unload
5. The safety - not very common on the rifles I own, but I like the vertical up/down safety
THE BAD
1. (and this was very bad and this was the only negative) - the above point 1 had to be qualified - it was accurate when I was able to get the gun to feed. There were so many problems initially (and subsequently) in working that bolt. Every round seemed to jam being fed (upward angled direction). It was very, very cold outside so I didn't know that if that had anything to do with it. BUT...I noticed after a while in taking the bolt out that everything was bone dry inside. I didn't lube it beforehand, but would that have caused such feeding issues? Was it the ammo? I don't know, that's all I had. Was it the magazine - I don't know, that's all I had. I did find some Hoppes 9 in the club shed and applied some of that to the bolt and to the areas where the bolt travelled. It was slightly better though it seemed like the only way to really prevent feed issues was to violently work the bolt quickly. I never had to do this on my other CZs or my Tikkas, where I can work the bolt slow as a turtle.
I may take the thing apart and give it a generous greasing of G96 before I go next time. I am VERY HAPPY with the performance of the rifle, and it was a very worthwhile buy. Now I got some options to shoot this round aside from my SKSes.
I may check around to see if there are other magazines available aside from the OEM 5 rounder...and will also try different ammo next time (Barnaul).
The only magazine I had was the factory OEM 600 series plastic/polymer 5-rounder.
THE GOOD
1. (and this is very good) - this rifle is dead nuts accurate. I would even say it could be tack driver level. With Norinco rounds no doubt - I imagine with good match rounds (if they even exist for 7.62x39) it would be very good.
2. Feel of the rifle - I quite enjoyed shouldering this thing. It was lightweight and I really enjoyed the grippiness of the material.
3. Came with built in picatinny rails. Saves me some $$$ on rails
4. Magazine was easy to load and unload
5. The safety - not very common on the rifles I own, but I like the vertical up/down safety
THE BAD
1. (and this was very bad and this was the only negative) - the above point 1 had to be qualified - it was accurate when I was able to get the gun to feed. There were so many problems initially (and subsequently) in working that bolt. Every round seemed to jam being fed (upward angled direction). It was very, very cold outside so I didn't know that if that had anything to do with it. BUT...I noticed after a while in taking the bolt out that everything was bone dry inside. I didn't lube it beforehand, but would that have caused such feeding issues? Was it the ammo? I don't know, that's all I had. Was it the magazine - I don't know, that's all I had. I did find some Hoppes 9 in the club shed and applied some of that to the bolt and to the areas where the bolt travelled. It was slightly better though it seemed like the only way to really prevent feed issues was to violently work the bolt quickly. I never had to do this on my other CZs or my Tikkas, where I can work the bolt slow as a turtle.
I may take the thing apart and give it a generous greasing of G96 before I go next time. I am VERY HAPPY with the performance of the rifle, and it was a very worthwhile buy. Now I got some options to shoot this round aside from my SKSes.
I may check around to see if there are other magazines available aside from the OEM 5 rounder...and will also try different ammo next time (Barnaul).
