Ooohh! We have a wood lottery winner!!
900F, there's a little story behind that that I hope no one will mind me sharing -- perhaps others can take something away from my experience. Call it the education of a neophyte gun buyer.
Although I love guns, hunting, and shooting sports, I'm not what one might call a gun-nut (my wife thinks I'm a gun-nut, but it's a relative term, right?). I don't have gobs of liquid assets to splurge on firearms (might be fun if I did, but I don't). So, when it came time to replace the old Winchester 94 and its iron sights, I set to the task of finding a new rifle with the idea in mind that it would probably be
the hunting rifle for me, so it would behoove me to get it right the first time. I read A LOT about different rifles and spent a lot of time on Gunbroker, which is where I found my first handgun purchase. I learned the pros and cons of different rifles and also became familiar with the price range for each, both new and used. I also had several criteria the rifle needed to meet: 1) It had to have a wood stock. Since this was going to be
the rifle I carried around with me, it had to be something that would bring me satisfaction of ownership, and plastic/synthetic just didn't make my heart leap. At all. 2) It had to be durable, reliable, and have a reputation for at least modest accuracy. The vital organs area of a deer is a fair-sized target, and most shots around here are under 100 yds, so I didn't need something that could take the whisker off a gnat at 500 yds. 3) It had to be a mild-kicking caliber. 4) It had to pass the 'no regrets' test, meaning after I purchased it, would I be happy having it and not some other rifle
x that I passed up?
I have always loved the look of full-stocked rifles, and of course there aren't tons of them available for sale these days. None of the local gun shops had any in stock, and in any case a new Ruger M77 International or CZ was going to be out of my price range. I could afford a new Zastava M70, but they were only being imported in .243, .270. and .30-06, calibers that were outside the range I was looking for. Plus, no shops had any Zastavas in stock, either. While I was saving up for my rifle, I monitored Gunbroker religiously and tracked the final selling prices of rifles I was interested in. That's how I learned of the occasional used CZ going for about $650.
After I had enough money saved up, a CZ 550 FS in 6.5 SWE was listed on Gunbroker with a 'buy now' price within my range. But, as has been noted here and elsewhere, the figure on a CZ walnut stock can be a crap shoot. The wood on the rifle in the ad was decent, but not great - that rifle didn't pass the 'no regrets' test.
At that point, I began expanding my search for a CZ, and here's where the lesson comes in. I started looking on every gun trading site I could find (Guns of America, Armslist,
etc.), as well as the buy/sell forums here and on other large forums. I Googled every variation on the CZ 550 FS theme I could think of. I dug
deep, meaning I read past the first few pages of hits, hoping maybe something got missed.
Finally, I found this rifle on Armslist. It was the last rifle listed on three pages of CZs. There was only one picture in the ad, and the wood looked like it might be nice, but it was kind of hard to tell for sure. Also, it had been mistakenly described as being chambered in 7x57R. The reason the ad had been bumped down to the last listing was because it had been created two months prior. When I opened the ad, it stated 'no shipping'. Still, it was hard to believe a CZ at that price and in its described condition hadn't sold yet. So, I emailed the seller, asked him about the caliber, if he could send additional photos, and if he would reconsider shipping, since the listing was already two months old. He clarified the caliber question, said he would ship, and the extra photos showed the rifle was a keeper. I jumped on the deal.
So, here's the lesson for anyone with just enough dough to buy that once-in-your-lifetime rifle: do your homework, figure out what you really want and how much you are willing to spend for it, then start looking for it. You might have to
really look. Be patient and leave no stone unturned. Chances are, you can find the rifle you are really dreaming of.
Hope I didn't bore anyone too badly.
) I have the CZ550 FS in both 6.5x55 and 9.3x62.
