Pat Riot
Contributing Member
Howdy,
Back on April 25 I posted a question and a poll/survey entitled: Which bolt action .22 LR rifle would you recommend for accuracy from a bench or in the field?
Here is a shot of the poll results:
In the end decided to go with the CZ 457 Varmint but my LGS could not find one available through their distributors. I had given myself a $700 budget, which I went over, but hey, it’s only money right?
Actually it was 2 Glocks and a little money.
Anyway, enough about that.
I ended up with a CZ 457 Stainless, as CZ calls it. It sure looks like an American with a stainless barrel and a synthetic stock. At first I was not real impressed with it, but that has changed. I truly like this .22 rifle.
I took some good advice from @lovelife and bought a Viridian 6-20x50 scope. I bought a D.I.P. scope rail and had them etch CZ’s name over the ejection port. It was $3. Why not?
I bought a set of Warne Vapor 30mm Med height rings and everything went together nicely.
I read up on the care and feeding of precision rimfire rifles as well as the CZ 457 manual.
The first thing I did was cleaned the rifle barrel bore following CZ’s instructions using Isopropyl Alcohol to remove all machine oils and debris. I used 91% alcohol as I have no pure alcohol. I prefer cotton swabs to fooling with patches and I cleaned the barrel using a bronze brush a couple of times then switched to a nylon brush and plenty of alcohol and swabs. I could not believe how much crud I pulled out of the barrel.
Then it was off to the range with a selection of subsonic .22 LR with lead bullets - no jacketed ammo for this baby. I used what I could find in my ammo cabinet and locally I did use Federal Auto Match to get the scope dialed in then switched to subsonic ammo.
It was raining while sighting in so my targets look a bit aged.
I began sight in aiming at the bottom right diamond on target 2. You can see the first hits on the left side of target 4. My goal was grouping (precision) not bullseyes (accuracy).
Ammo used at 50 yards:
CCI Standard Velocity 40 gr
Lapua Center X (no info on label)
Norma Tac-22
Aguila Target Competition 40 gr - Best Group
Aguila Super Extra Standard Velocity 40 gr
Federal Gold Medal Match 40 gr
Aguila Subsoonic 40 gr
Fiocchi Range Dynamics 40 gr
Browning Sub-22 45 gr
Aguila Target Comp. gave the best group:
I have to say that I really like this gun and the set up I have.
I did some more target practice with CCI STD Velocity and Aguila Target Comp. The CCI did much better at my target practice than on the #2 target above.
Aguila Target Comp is still more accurate and precise.
I shot a rimfire match this past Saturday. Things started off sunny but the clouds and wind rolled in and later the rain.
This is my first 50/50 target using other’s wind flags as a guide. Winds were weird on that hillside. WeatherBug said winds were 9mph. The flags were blowing at various inclinations (?) and directions but I still managed to score a 201 out of 250 on my first club competition.
I swear we were getting downdrafts during this shoot. All in all it was still a lot of fun.
Back on April 25 I posted a question and a poll/survey entitled: Which bolt action .22 LR rifle would you recommend for accuracy from a bench or in the field?
Here is a shot of the poll results:
In the end decided to go with the CZ 457 Varmint but my LGS could not find one available through their distributors. I had given myself a $700 budget, which I went over, but hey, it’s only money right?
Actually it was 2 Glocks and a little money.
Anyway, enough about that.
I ended up with a CZ 457 Stainless, as CZ calls it. It sure looks like an American with a stainless barrel and a synthetic stock. At first I was not real impressed with it, but that has changed. I truly like this .22 rifle.
I took some good advice from @lovelife and bought a Viridian 6-20x50 scope. I bought a D.I.P. scope rail and had them etch CZ’s name over the ejection port. It was $3. Why not?
I bought a set of Warne Vapor 30mm Med height rings and everything went together nicely.
I read up on the care and feeding of precision rimfire rifles as well as the CZ 457 manual.
The first thing I did was cleaned the rifle barrel bore following CZ’s instructions using Isopropyl Alcohol to remove all machine oils and debris. I used 91% alcohol as I have no pure alcohol. I prefer cotton swabs to fooling with patches and I cleaned the barrel using a bronze brush a couple of times then switched to a nylon brush and plenty of alcohol and swabs. I could not believe how much crud I pulled out of the barrel.
Then it was off to the range with a selection of subsonic .22 LR with lead bullets - no jacketed ammo for this baby. I used what I could find in my ammo cabinet and locally I did use Federal Auto Match to get the scope dialed in then switched to subsonic ammo.
It was raining while sighting in so my targets look a bit aged.
I began sight in aiming at the bottom right diamond on target 2. You can see the first hits on the left side of target 4. My goal was grouping (precision) not bullseyes (accuracy).
Ammo used at 50 yards:
CCI Standard Velocity 40 gr
Lapua Center X (no info on label)
Norma Tac-22
Aguila Target Competition 40 gr - Best Group
Aguila Super Extra Standard Velocity 40 gr
Federal Gold Medal Match 40 gr
Aguila Subsoonic 40 gr
Fiocchi Range Dynamics 40 gr
Browning Sub-22 45 gr
Aguila Target Comp. gave the best group:
I have to say that I really like this gun and the set up I have.
I did some more target practice with CCI STD Velocity and Aguila Target Comp. The CCI did much better at my target practice than on the #2 target above.
Aguila Target Comp is still more accurate and precise.
I shot a rimfire match this past Saturday. Things started off sunny but the clouds and wind rolled in and later the rain.
This is my first 50/50 target using other’s wind flags as a guide. Winds were weird on that hillside. WeatherBug said winds were 9mph. The flags were blowing at various inclinations (?) and directions but I still managed to score a 201 out of 250 on my first club competition.
I swear we were getting downdrafts during this shoot. All in all it was still a lot of fun.
