The CZ 550 American A Classic .30-06

Not too long ago, I began to get the feeling some readers thought I was being a snob and writing mostly about non-mainstream firearms and cartridges. I’m pretty intuitive, so it wasn’t difficult for me to arrive at that conclusion after receiving email from some readers that stated, “Joe, you’re a snob and writing mostly about non-mainstream firearms and cartridges”. For the record, I am not a snob, I am a geek, which means I’m easily distracted by anything that seems technically interesting or unique…or shiny. I have been making a conscious effort to cover more mainstream areas; 9mm Luger, .44 Magnum, 7mm-08 Remington, and good examples of CZ, Remington and Ruger firearms, so let’s think of this as a continuation of the same.

The CZ 550 American is the first firearm chambered for the .30-06 Springfield to appear on RealGuns.Com. The rifle is reminiscent of a time when you could purchase a basic Winchester  Model 70, for a reasonable price and expect it to last long enough to be used by the grandkids. The .30-06 Springfield cartridge is one of the most practical all around cartridges in use today. It is up to the task of handing anything in North America when matched up with the right bullet for a specific application. All and all, a pretty ideal combination.

The CZ 550 American is imported into the U.S. from the Czech Republic by CZ’s wholly owned subsidiary, CZ-USA. The hardware is blued carbon steel, the stock is a very nicely figured, finished and checkered piece of Turkish Walnut. It is cut to a traditional minimal drop American pattern. The action is a square bridge Mauser with plenty of capacity for the .30-06 Springfield, even loaded to maximum length.

Ok, so maybe it is a little fancy…

The checkering is neatly cut at 18 LPI and banded, or paneled with a shadow line, a style that has fallen by the wayside in recent years because it is expensive as a production technique. The forearm pattern follows through for an overall pleasing appearance. There are no contrasting forearm cap, so you are pretty much on your own to figure out where the wood stops and the barrel begins.

There is a lot of contrasting figure in the standard CZ 550 American stock, the amount of figure other manufacturers typically classify as fancy grade and price as an extra cost option. The figure can be seen clearly even through the grip checkering and runs the full length of the stock. There are no forend or pistol grip contrast caps. Shooters have to figure out where the stock ends without visual cues. Yes, that is a note of sarcasm.

The bottom metal is steel, investment cast like most modern firearms, but substantial. The floorplate release is just forward of the trigger guard, out of the way of fingers inside the guard, but not out of reach. The magazine box is stamped steel, the follower is plastic – expected these days, but less than exciting.

The safety is two position, on and off which should take care of all purposeful requirements. There is, of course, controlled round feed and  case rim grip by an oversize Mauser type claw for extraction.

CZ 550 actions have integral 19mm dovetails that mount CZ proprietary rings. Rings are supplied with each rifle and may also be purchased separately from retail suppliers if your dealer has removed them from the rifle’s carton and is attempting to sell them back to you. The rings clamp securely to the receiver dovetails and the rear ring has a locking tab, pictured, that prevents fore and aft shift under recoil. Frequent shooting of CZ 550’s chambered for the 9.3x62Mauser, 375 H&H and .500 Jeffery without incident suggests this is an incredibly strong system. The recoil from some of these rounds might beat the snot out of you, but the scope won’t fall off at an inopportune moment. Exactly how fast is a cape buffalo anyway? The scope was carefully selected from a pile on scopes on my bench, primarily because it was closest to the top. It is an inexpensive Simmons Master SeriesProHunter and actually a really nice scope.

A trigger worth more than some rifles…

Some of the newly introduced production triggers are designed around two flash chromed cast pieces and a small rubber band. They are intended to keep curious fingers, and attorneys with the accumulative ethics of pond scum, out. The CZ 550 American trigger is a little piece of mechanical art and very well done.

Fully adjustable for shooter preferences, not just for pull, and the gun’s manual actually provides instructions for adjustment. It is a single set design. Pulled rearward, the resistance is adjustable between 2.4 and 4.4 lbs. Push the trigger forward prior to normal trigger pull, and resistance is dropped to a very few ounces. No slack, no creep, no rough spots to circumvent; it is a good trigger and one that typically sells as an expensive accessory to install on rifles of other manufacture. The safety is two position. The stylized bolt shroud is home to a cocked/uncocked indicator and the gun’s bolt takedown button. The bolt release lever is just forward of the bolt shroud.

The action is flat bottomed and striated to provide full contact within the stock’s inletting and to better spread recoil energy within all contact surfaces. One of the reasons the CZ 550 action can be found chambered for some very big cartridges is the attention paid to recoil management. Where most modern rifles utilize a thin steel plate wedged between the barrel and action to hold off longitudinal forces, the CZ has a huge lug that is integral to the front ring of the action, this is further enhanced in the big magnum versions.

Beyond serving as a recoil lug, this contact point is also the forward supporting point for a floating barrel system. This particular rifle has perhaps a little bit more gap at the forend tip than I would like to see. More of a minor aesthetic rather than a functional issue. The stock was spot glass bed at this location and, I suspect, the glass could have been spot faced to bring the barrel down a few thousands more in the barrel channel to close up the gap a little more. I’m picky.

Shooting impressions

There is a follow on installment of this article that covers .30-06 Springfield handloads, but I wanted to close this part with some general shooting impressions, a section I cleverly called “Shooting Impressions”. New Remington brass, 47 grains of Varget, a 165 grain boat tail soft point Hornady bullet, and a CCI large rifle primer and got me 2700 fps of muzzle velocity with light recoil and minimal muzzle blast. It is a heck of a 300 yard deer/antelope load or, for that matter, a 30 yard hog load, or a 200 yard coyote load, or… An example of why it isn’t necessary to load to nose bleed pressures to get to a flat shooting and hard hitting handload.

 The CZ 550 is an easy rifle to shoot. Felt recoil is modest regardless loads and the stock does a good job of spreading it around while affording good control. I adjusted trigger pull to approximately 4 lbs which felt right for me. I guess I spent too many years shooting cheap guns with bad triggers to have enough shooter’s finesse to benefit from a very light trigger. I laser bore sighted the scope, which put the gun just about on at a hundred yards, and it didn’t shake zero during the shooting sessions. Other combination of components shot tighter groups, but all groups for this typical handload stayed in the ¾” to 1¼” range. Hardly something to complain about.

I have to admit, it was a little odd shooting this combination. There was very little muzzle rise, no thump on the cheekbone, no ocular lens time sharing with my eyeball… Follow up shots were fast and it is really easy to concentrate on shot placement without wrapping up the day with a bottle of aspirins and an icepack on my shoulder. Heavy bullets, loaded to maximum, change the gun’s personality a bit, but not so much that it is unpleasant to shoot. The handload portion of this project was interesting and the results rewarding. The data will appear in the next issue.

Personal preferences…

There in only one aspect of the CZ 550 American that runs counter to my personal. I’d like to see a shade of finish closer to black walnut rather than the slight reddish hue of Turkish walnut. I’ve seen both from CZ-USA and their black walnut stocks are beautiful. Again, this is a subjective issue, not a value issue, as the current stock is very similar to the CZ 550 Ultimate Hunting Rifle, a product with a $3,450 list price. My other preference is for the simple checkering and more angular lines of the original CZ 550 American. That said, as you can see from the pictures, it is a good looking rifle.

Additionally… Nope, there is no “additionally”, that’s it. The rest is fine as is. At a time when the market is flooded with cheap .30-06 Springfield with cheesy plastic stocks and bottom of the line hardware cost reduced to the point of junk, the CZ-550 American offers a nice contrast and a heck of a hunting rifle. The CZ-USA organization: service, support and custom shop are all top notch, so there is an excellent organization standing behind and excellent product.

More CZ 550 American and .30-06 Springfield information:
The CZ 550 American – A Classic .30-06
The CZ 550 American Part II – Metric Rehab – Handloads for the 30-06 Springfield
Handloads for the .30-06 Springfield
9.3x62mm Handload data

The CZ 550 American
The CZ 550 American Part II