CZ's Safari Classic Magnum Express Part II

The selection of a 450 Rigby chamber for this project rifle was a personal choice, based on my desire to see how it performed in comparison to other large bore firearms like the 416 Rigby, 458 Lott, 460 Weatherby and my old friend the 500 Jeffery. However, time spent shooting reminded me that the rifle is the special ingredient here, not so much the chamber, and that perhaps I was inappropriately shifting the focus away from this exceptional custom firearm and not providing readers with a useful perspective on the Safari Classic.

Accepting that the .450 Rigby might be a bit much for western whitetail hunting, I would be remiss in not saying the CZ Safari Classic Express and Magnum Express offer alternative chambers to suit just about everyone’s applications. Express products are built on CZ 550 standard length actions, the Magnum Express on CZ 550 magnum length actions, which allows finished rifles to be somewhat scaled to chamber. Safari Classic rifles are hand assembled for CZ-USA customers by Triple River Gunsmithing in Warsaw, MO, a shop.

Aesthetically, Safari Classics have an appearance of understated but not hidden elegance. They are accurate and reliable custom rifles in every respect. Stock grade and metal work can be as fancy or as plain as the customer desires, as can barrel and pull length and fitted accessories. Option details and associated pricing can be found on the CZ-USA site.

The Magnum Express versions are built by people who understand the special requirements of rifles of this type, which is why they have: three round magazine capacity instead of two, dovetailed receivers with scope ring interlocks, a single select trigger, steel and glass bedded recoil lug systems, removable brakes, multi leaf express sights, proper long cartridge feed ramps, extra recoil absorbing heft, good recoil pads, non-reflective wood and metal finish as options – and they still have fancy grain walnut stocks and nicely cut checkering. Magnum Express rifles are designed for this application which is why they are reliable, they are accurate and don’t crack stocks under any form of acceptable use.

For North American hunters who are up to the task, the 450 Rigby may not be too much gun as you can never kill dangerous big game too much. For those who hunt bigger and more dangerous game, the 450 Rigby ballistics ranks right up there with some of the most powerful cartridges in the world. The Rigby can be handloaded up and down the power and bullet weight scale to the point some loads are easier shooting than the .45-70 Gov’t round and some produce a level of heavy recoil that can only be described as “thrilling”. With 350 grain bullets it is a substantial near 3,000 fps varmint rifle. With 550 grain bullets it is useful for elephant bowling. In virtually all cases, it is a relatively flat shooting round manageable by just about any experienced shooter.

A considered scope and mount selection…

The CZ receiver has integral 19mm dovetail scope ring mounts. The aft location has a recess that locks that scope ring to the receiver, preventing any fore or aft movement. Medium height rings were selected that place the scope’s objective bell a little high off the gun’s barrel, but clearance is needed for bolt handle to eye piece clearance. Inside of a couple hundred yards, the increased angle of incidence between optical and the bore centerlines isn’t of consequence and the scope height above the receiver places the eyepiece in perfect eye alignment when the rifle is in a comfortable hold.

The Bushnell 6500 Elite 1.25-8×32 is ideal for this type of application. The scope is a compact 11″ long but the mount length, the maximum space between rings, is a longish 5.9″ which assures the scope can bridge the gun’s long ejection port and still be positioned correctly for eye relief. The big 30mmm tube and erector lens make for a bright image even at low ambient light levels and 6″ of eye relief assure there will be no recoil induced relocation of a shooter’s eyebrow.

Magnification is more than enough for the farthest practical 450 Rigby range and the extremely wide field of view make the scope a good choice for close-in dangerous game hunting. Any scope with greater magnification, regardless manufacturer, would compromise field of view and any less magnification would needlessly limit the 450 Rigby’s reach. Of course, I am coming from a perspective and age group where 1.5x was once deemed appropriate for woods hunting, 4x for hills hunting and 6x for long range western style antelope hunting. I understand, from the whining of some younger hunters, that game animals now stay farther away and are much smaller targets. I think they have mixed their millimeter and yard units of measurement so that now shots taken always seem much longer and cars seem so much faster.

Elevation and windage adjusters are protected by dust caps. The adjuster cylinders and sleeves are cleanly indexed in crisp contrasting color. Pulling up disengages adjusters, pushing down engages them for 1/4 MOA incremental adjustment. Adjusters can be reset to zero, once set, to facilitate field finesse adjustment. .

The magnification setting ring is a quick twist type. There is enough friction in the fit to assure the setting will stay put and changing magnification does not shift point of impact. The eyepiece adjusts to accommodate individual shooter’s eyesight, even mine. Bushnell centerfire rifle scopes with less than 11x magnification do not have parallax adjustment. They are, instead, factory preset to be parallax free at 100 yards.

Beyond that, the Bushnell Elite 6500 now sports new Ultra Wide Band Coating and Rain Guard HD anti fog coating. The unit is of one piece tube and magnum recoil proof construction. Elite scopes are 100% waterproof – fog proof and shockproof and argon purged. This scope comes with a limited life time warranty, Elite Bullet-Proof Warranty and one year “No Questions Asked” replacement coverage.

This stamp on the scope is important. It means quality optics and mechanical design and tightly controlled ISO assembly. Not cheap at $700 though discount retailers, but it is still half the cost of European glass that can’t match this scope’s optical or mechanical performance.

Back to the 450  Rigby

Norma brass left, Jamison, right. Notice the difference in color. Cartridge brass is the name of a standard copper alloy of 70% copper and 30% zinc. A lighter cast is typically the result of a higher zinc content. The ductile properties of brass cause it to respond well to cold forming, however, brass is prone to season cracking. During manufacturing, cold forming of cases causes the material to change from ductile to somewhat brittle as a result of work hardening, however, annealing processes give restore the material to near its original properties.

Zinc is added to copper to give it memory and to stiffen the material. Dimensional memory cause cartridge cases to contract after firing, which facilitates extraction. The Norma brass, with a higher zinc content, has more of this quality than the Jamison brass. During initial handloading, there were times when a soft Jamison case would deform at the shoulder when a bullet was seated. It is also the reason each of these brand cases are different dimensionally, even after full length sizing.

It was easier seating a bullet, and getting adequate pre-crimp neck tension, with Norma brass. The Jamison brass sized 0.007″ under tended to expand and take the shape of the a bullet’s shank.

Nominal capacity for this case is 133.00. New Norma cases wet checked at 138.10 grains and average fired wet checked 142.5 grains…. which would probably explain the absence of compressed loads. The handload data that follows is based upon handloading once fired brass with a full roll crimp. All loads utilized CCI 250 Large Rifle Magnum primers.

You may notice that the Barnes Banded Solid, second, from right, is a round nose and not the truncated form of prior issues. Barnes has gone round nose for the sake of reliable rifle function and has withdrawn the truncated tip from retail channels. I’ve never had a problem with the truncated version in the past, just as I experienced no problems with North Fork’s cupped and flat nose products, but I will defer to Barnes and their stated reasons. The bullets appear on the table below in the order they appear above, left to right.

Usually I can trick my wife into shooting handguns and light rifles for accuracy and clock time. She is a much better shot and, because I don’t usually credit her with the work, the data makes me look good. For big guns, my go to guy is the young man who does landscaping for us, or contractors if a project is in progress. If all of that fails, I’m up at bat.

It isn’t the handful of shots that gives cause for concern, as much as the several blocks full of ammo that are required to establish credible handload data. It wouldn’t be the first time big cartridges left me unable to type with my right hand. Fortunately, being a wimp is not beneath me when required. Alligator mouth and…

I loaded 75 pounds of shot on the sled and had a wonderful afternoon measuring the CZ Safari Classis Magnum’s performance, rather than my ability or inability to grin and bear it. That much weight is about the limit, as much more would have made the sled so stiff in resistance to recoil it could have resulted in a cracked stock. Restraining a rifle in a rigid rest causes the rifle bedding, recoil lugs and action tang to absorb much more energy than would be the case is shot from a non restraining rest.

With the muzzle brake in place, the rifle barely moved the rest and the muzzle stayed down on discharge with only one hand gripping the wrist of the stock and a finger on the trigger, regardless how stiff the handload. I stood and fired some 500 grain full up loads and was surprised by the lack of shoulder thump. Recoil was about like shooting moderate 375 H&H loads from a gun without a brake. I removed the brake and took a few shots and it felt pretty much like a lightweight 375 Ultra Mag without a brake. The fact that the gun went off did not go unnoticed, but it didn’t discourage me from shooting some off hand 100 yard groups… size which we will not discuss at this point in time… or ever. Shooting from the bench, with the sled, was something quite different.

I originally intended to shoot some 25 yard groups through the express sights and a fifty through the scope. I shot the 50 yard 1/2″ group first, on the left, and figured the gun had a lot more in it so I shot the sub MOA 100 yard group on the right. These are from the H414 North Fork Bonded SS 500 grain handloads, but this is indicative of how the gun shot all afternoon. I love this rifle.

I think the 450 Rigby is a cartridge that is meant to be handloaded. First of all, the resulting cost is 1/3rd to 1/4th the cost of factory ammo. Second, improvement over factory performance is easy and bullet selection is huge. For target practice, Hornady and Speer are accurate and relatively inexpensive. For hunting, based on hunting results and ballistic medium assessment, North Fork Bonded solid shank bullets are almost impossible to beat from 350 grains through 550 grains, with 500 grain Nosler Partitions a close second.

In the end…

This is my second saturated exposure to a Safari Classic Magnum that was produced by CZ from a 550 magnum action in the U.S.. Both were excellent. Fit and finish are comparable. The American black walnut stocks have dense but fancy grain, the checkering is clean and the satin finish doesn’t hide the beauty of the wood beneath. The recoil pad fit is clean, the inletting is tight and the beaded metal finish is flawless. Metal parts fit, actuation is tight, but slick and there is no Mauser bolt drag when chambering a round. Load and feed are smooth and reliable. No bullet type failed to feed cleanly. But this one’s personality is that of a shooter. In fact, I made three passes at the loading bench before I was willing to put the gun up and begin writing.

 

Minor consideration – I think one of the most useful things CZ-USA could do is to clearly descrptions amongst the various Safari rifle offerings. Safari Classics listed as under “Safari Classics” are priced at $3,000+ with fancy stock in all chambers, but otherwise standard CZ 550 model features. Under the “Rifle” selection on the CZ-USA site, under the Safari Classic sub heading, the CZ 550 American Safari Magnum chambered for the 416 Rigby or 458 Lott with fancy stock carries an MSRP of $1,968. The former is a custom rifle, hand assembled, where the customer has lots of input into the selection of barrel and pull length and finishing touches. The latter is their standard rifle, only with the option of fancy grain stock. Can’t lose with either, but they are different guns. Makes it tough for dealers who are selling the custom product and trying to explain the difference to customers who have seen Safari Classic Magnum being sold, new, on Gun Broker for under $1,000.

CZ’s Safari Classic Magnum Express Part I
CZ’s Safari Classic Magnum Express Part II