Candyman87
Member
I know you guys have seen these on the racks at Cabela's, the $179 Zastava CZ99 bolt action .22 rifle.
Anyway, I've been looking to bring home a .22 bolt action for a while to focus on the fundamentals. Got to play with a friend's CZ 452 (made by CZ-USA) and that really made me look into picking one up. Needless to say, at Cabela's the other day, I found one of these CZ99's (made by Zastava Serbia) in the used rack. Even as a brand new gun, it had a price tag of $179.99.
I found three in the racks, and picked the one with the nicest stock (looks like a linseed oil or other lightly oiled matte finish) and worked the action to make sure it was smooth and didn't feel like there were any issues. Felt great in the hands, looks great in person, and has a pretty cool Mauser-type action. The gun was packed pretty solid with some grease in the bolt and the chamber.
The gun came with two steel 5-round magazines, but no box, and no manual. The lady at Cabela's had a Marlin box from someone who bought a case and packed in neatly for me to transport.
Picked up a Cabela's 2-7x32 scope and some Warne scope rings. Put everything together and gave the gun a good cleaning, and took it out to the range yesterday. Sighted in the scope at 25 yards on the rimfire range and was sighted in within two magazines... finished off the box of 50 Federal Champion .22 and then moved to the 100 yard rifle range, where a few quick adjustments and I was spot-on again.
Another 50 rounds and this thing is a relative tack driver. Five round groups with a spread just over an inch to an 1-1/2 inches each time with the occasional flyer.
The gun was noticed by a couple people... had some good chats with some other guys while my girlfriend was putting 1-1/2" groups downrange at a hundred yards. People had considered the gun at Cabela's but passed for something more expensive with a better known name. One actually bought a used Remington Model Five instead, not realizing it was the same gun.
Long story short: the gun has its positives and negatives. On the good side? Price. Performance. Overall great gun for the money.
However, there were issues with extraction and ejection. Out of a hundred rounds, I had to use a cleaning rod a half-dozen times to remove the casing from the chamber. Not sure if this is attributed to a buildup of grease and I couldn't QUITE clean it out entirely, or if there are burrs in the chamber. I've since re-cleaned it and found more grease that I missed the first time.
Also, the bolt has two hook-type extractors, one on each side. One must pull the bolt back pretty hard to eject the spent casing. A little annoying considering you'll spend a bunch of time re-acquiring your target after each shot. And the fifth round doesn't like to feed from the magazine, but I've found a push, pull, push action will get it into the chamber smoothly.
Long story short, if you don't mind a few feeding or extracting issues from a $200 tack driver, this is a great gun. I'm going to put a bit of work into it to see if I can fix the extraction issues, and I'll learn to deal with the feeding and ejection issues.
All around, I'm really happy with this purchase!
Anyway, I've been looking to bring home a .22 bolt action for a while to focus on the fundamentals. Got to play with a friend's CZ 452 (made by CZ-USA) and that really made me look into picking one up. Needless to say, at Cabela's the other day, I found one of these CZ99's (made by Zastava Serbia) in the used rack. Even as a brand new gun, it had a price tag of $179.99.
I found three in the racks, and picked the one with the nicest stock (looks like a linseed oil or other lightly oiled matte finish) and worked the action to make sure it was smooth and didn't feel like there were any issues. Felt great in the hands, looks great in person, and has a pretty cool Mauser-type action. The gun was packed pretty solid with some grease in the bolt and the chamber.
The gun came with two steel 5-round magazines, but no box, and no manual. The lady at Cabela's had a Marlin box from someone who bought a case and packed in neatly for me to transport.
Picked up a Cabela's 2-7x32 scope and some Warne scope rings. Put everything together and gave the gun a good cleaning, and took it out to the range yesterday. Sighted in the scope at 25 yards on the rimfire range and was sighted in within two magazines... finished off the box of 50 Federal Champion .22 and then moved to the 100 yard rifle range, where a few quick adjustments and I was spot-on again.
Another 50 rounds and this thing is a relative tack driver. Five round groups with a spread just over an inch to an 1-1/2 inches each time with the occasional flyer.
The gun was noticed by a couple people... had some good chats with some other guys while my girlfriend was putting 1-1/2" groups downrange at a hundred yards. People had considered the gun at Cabela's but passed for something more expensive with a better known name. One actually bought a used Remington Model Five instead, not realizing it was the same gun.
Long story short: the gun has its positives and negatives. On the good side? Price. Performance. Overall great gun for the money.
However, there were issues with extraction and ejection. Out of a hundred rounds, I had to use a cleaning rod a half-dozen times to remove the casing from the chamber. Not sure if this is attributed to a buildup of grease and I couldn't QUITE clean it out entirely, or if there are burrs in the chamber. I've since re-cleaned it and found more grease that I missed the first time.
Also, the bolt has two hook-type extractors, one on each side. One must pull the bolt back pretty hard to eject the spent casing. A little annoying considering you'll spend a bunch of time re-acquiring your target after each shot. And the fifth round doesn't like to feed from the magazine, but I've found a push, pull, push action will get it into the chamber smoothly.
Long story short, if you don't mind a few feeding or extracting issues from a $200 tack driver, this is a great gun. I'm going to put a bit of work into it to see if I can fix the extraction issues, and I'll learn to deal with the feeding and ejection issues.
All around, I'm really happy with this purchase!
