CZ 457 Precision Chassis Review

Follow up:

My daughter FINALLY decided to take a real interest in shooting last weekend and in the process, she took my CZ 457 Chassis rifle. After a few hundred rounds the rifle seemed to come into it’s own as a shooter. Her first group at 25 yards was pretty impressive for an eleven year old whom has never gotten behind a rifle to shoot a group. See the photo below.

After she got comfortable, we decided to have a few friendly competitions between myself, my daughter and my best friend. All she wanted to do was beat Uncle Mikey. She came up short, but she won herself a rifle.

Well, after losing my rifle, I had to pick up a replacement. I decided on a CZ 457 Varmint Precision Trainer with the 20.5” barrel. The dealer was under the impression that the barrel would be threaded, but I hadn’t seen a 20.5” model with a threaded barrel in my internet searches. Sure enough, the rifle arrived today and the barrel is not threaded. No worries though. I’m still pretty happy with the rifle.
Just like the chassis rifle, this rifle is going to need some breaking in, but it has gotten progressively better. I started it off at 25 yards to get a good zero and then moved out to 50 yards to shoot a few groups. Ammo used was Fiocchi Exacta Winter. First group at fifty was fired at the center target. I then moved to the top right target and moved counter-clockwise to shoot my final group in the bottom right target. None of the five groups were particularly impressive, but the groups did get progressively better. I’m looking forward to spending some real time behind this rifle on Monday to get it broken in and try to shoot some better groups.

redneck2 said:

Trying to shoot groups with a CZ with less than 200 rounds through it is a fool’s errand. I’ve had two. Same thing. Gotta break them in.

My .204 shot basically shotgun patterns at 100. I’m talking 6-8” groups. As I ran more rounds through it, progressively got better. Last I checked with my handloads it was shooting sub 1/2”.

Same thing with my CZ .22.

Click to expand...

Update: I just needed to find it’s load! This thing will flat out shoot the Federal Auto Match bulk ammo! That’s five rounds at fifty yards.

redneck2 said:

You’ll most likely find that it will shoot everything better now, once you get past the magic point of getting the barrel set Mine was awful with everything including very expensive target ammo.

A lot of CZs like Wolf Match Extra. Mine does OK with Federal ,but better with Wolf.

That’s a NICE group. Some wonder why CZ is so popular among guys that own them. Now you know.

Click to expand...

I’ve been a CZ fan for a loooong time. I just wish they’d stop putting those ridiculous 11mm dovetails on their rimfire rifles. Area 419 must be giving them some kickbacks or something.

CoalCrackerAl said:

I had my 457 and Marlin XT out today. I wanted to do a head to head grouping comparison at 100 yards with them. Shooting CCI Maxi mags. But the wind was messing me up. At 50 they both were equal.

Click to expand...

The wind was outrageous at my place today too. No need in shooting groups, but I swapped scopes, so I shot enough to get a rough re-zero this afternoon. I put the Bushnell Forge back on my daughter’s rifle and moved a Zeiss Conquest V4 6-24x50 onto my new rifle. The Vortex rings I had laying around are a little high, but the cheek pad makes it work.

Best hundred yard five shot group of the morning with Aguila 40 grain lead bullets. I think it was Competition Rifle or something to that effect. The other groups were closer to 1 1/2” or so.