And there I go……….

[dancer4life]

Right down the rabbit hole. Went into my LGS today here in Grove and walked out with a new CZ457 Varmint. They had the Varmint and the Royal but went with the Varmint because of the heavy barrel. I am primarily going to target shoot from a bench and hopefully, eventually get into Benchrest competition. I am going to dress it out with a Athlon Talos BTR 4-14-44 APLR2 IR MIL next week.
I’m a newby in rimfire so any suggestions on bipod, trigger adjustments, mods of any kInd would be helpful.

​

 

[Firpo]

“You done it now gringo.”

Nice score dancer. Looking forward to a range report once you get it running.

 

[okierider]

@mightymouse

 

[Aries]

Congratulations!

Now all you need are interchangeable barrels for .17 HMR and .22 mag and you have three new rifles. Unfortunately they are out of stock right now, but only $179 per extra caliber.

457 Barrel Sets - Rifles - CZ-USA Products | CZ-USA

shop.cz-usa.com

 

[dancer4life]

Congratulations!

Now all you need are interchangeable barrels for .17 HMR and .22 mag and you have three new rifles. Unfortunately they are out of stock right now, but only $179 per extra caliber.

457 Barrel Sets - Rifles - CZ-USA Products | CZ-USA

shop.cz-usa.com

This is good to know. Thanks.

 

[tim]

Good buy I am wanting a 457 mtr just can't find one.

 

[retrieverman]

If you’re shooting benchrest, I’d get the trigger weight as low as you can, and there’s some u tube video on changing the trigger spring on that gun. My Tikka T1x is adjusted down to about 1.5-2# but still has the stock spring. If I didn’t intend to hunt with it, I would’ve already changed it, but in my opinion, you get into some safety issues carrying a rifle with a trigger lighter than 1#.

 

[Cowcatcher]

Good buy I am wanting a 457 mtr just can't find one.

There’s one in the classifieds here or atleast it was yesterday. There’s also one on the shelf at SportsWorld or there was last week anyhow.

 

[ejg]

I have a 20" 452 so it won't be an apples to apples comparison, but I use mine for target shooting only and here are a few things I have went through getting it set up.

I got into all this with the .22s to help me get better with wind calls for my centerfires and trust me, even 200 yards on a breezy day can be pretty frustrating with a .22.

I've shot several of the older model CZs and those all shared a common malady - gritty triggers. I have a few precision centerfires with very light triggers and hate crappy triggers. The 457s probably will take a Timney much easier than my 452 would without a lot of wood having to be hogged out (or any from what they say), so I went with a Yo Dave's spring kit on it. I bet a Timney will "drop in" the 457, so that might be something you can look at. While your 457 may not have a "crappy" trigger, the trigger usually is the number one thing to look at to improve groups and you have several options available if desired.

My 452 has a beautiful grained stock instead of being plain and I didn't want to bang it up, so I bought a Boyd's At-One Thumbhole for a 452 and there was no drama getting the receiver/barrel into it. You get the length of pull and adjustable cheek piece that is very useful getting the thing to fit you for consistent shooting. However, your stock may work perfectly for you.

I set my 452 to shoot 400 yards so I had to add a Area 419 30 MOA rail and mounted a Vortex Viper PST 5-25 on it raising things up high enough to run out of stock cheek piece adjustment so I built up the cheek piece with foam pipe insulation split in half. Getting that cheek weld fit correct is important to consistent shooting.

Now the fun part ... shooting it. First off, it will take a lot of rounds through the barrel to season it to start seeing the accuracy potential. I also have a Vudoo with a 22" Bartlein and they say it takes about 500 rounds to season a barrel to start seeing the accuracy which pretty much was true. My CZ was seasoned when I started this long range endeavor, but I used cheaper ammo such as CCI Standard velocity breaking in the Vudoo.

There are two main things I will mention to finish up, ammo selection and cleaning.

Depending on your accuracy expectations, .22 LR ammo is not all the same. Me, I enjoy shooting the smallest groups I can so that means shooting the high dollar stuff such as Lapua Center-X and Eley Tenex. My 452 will consistently shoot sub MOA groups at 100 yards with the Center-X. The Vudoo prefers the Tenex and also shoots stupid small groups. As long as there is no wind and the nut behind the wheel does his job. Both will shoot a few of the SK varieties fairly decent up to 200 yards, but I have to use the Lapua and Eley to have consistency past 200 yards. You will just have to shoot several kinds of ammo to see what your 457 likes and what you want to use it for after getting the barrel broke in.

Ok, I'm about done and now to discuss cleaning. This one is a hoot and if you want to entertain yourself, grab your favorite beverage and search the internet for "how to clean a .22 LR rifle". Geez, there are literally internet wars over this topic and I am not going to wade into it either. Based on what a gunsmith told me about 25 years ago after cleaning my 452 using a brush and it shooting like crap all of a sudden, I called the gunsmith I bought it from trying to find out what happened and he asked "Are you cleaning it with a brush?" I said "Yes", then he simply said "Stop it". So, I have only ran patches down the bore over the years until I saw the Vudoo video on how to get the carbon ring out. I pretty much do what the Vudoo folks say to do on their video at their site on how one of their competition shooters cleans his. Both of my rifles POI do not change after this process, so I doubt that I will ever change as it works for me. As they say YMMV.

I bet you will enjoy that 457. Good luck!

Ed

 

[dancer4life]

I have a 20" 452 so it won't be an apples to apples comparison, but I use mine for target shooting only and here are a few things I have went through getting it set up.

I got into all this with the .22s to help me get better with wind calls for my centerfires and trust me, even 200 yards on a breezy day can be pretty frustrating with a .22.

I've shot several of the older model CZs and those all shared a common malady - gritty triggers. I have a few precision centerfires with very light triggers and hate crappy triggers. The 457s probably will take a Timney much easier than my 452 would without a lot of wood having to be hogged out (or any from what they say), so I went with a Yo Dave's spring kit on it. I bet a Timney will "drop in" the 457, so that might be something you can look at. While your 457 may not have a "crappy" trigger, the trigger usually is the number one thing to look at to improve groups and you have several options available if desired.

My 452 has a beautiful grained stock instead of being plain and I didn't want to bang it up, so I bought a Boyd's At-One Thumbhole for a 452 and there was no drama getting the receiver/barrel into it. You get the length of pull and adjustable cheek piece that is very useful getting the thing to fit you for consistent shooting. However, your stock may work perfectly for you.

I set my 452 to shoot 400 yards so I had to add a Area 419 30 MOA rail and mounted a Vortex Viper PST 5-25 on it raising things up high enough to run out of stock cheek piece adjustment so I built up the cheek piece with foam pipe insulation split in half. Getting that cheek weld fit correct is important to consistent shooting.

Now the fun part ... shooting it. First off, it will take a lot of rounds through the barrel to season it to start seeing the accuracy potential. I also have a Vudoo with a 22" Bartlein and they say it takes about 500 rounds to season a barrel to start seeing the accuracy which pretty much was true. My CZ was seasoned when I started this long range endeavor, but I used cheaper ammo such as CCI Standard velocity breaking in the Vudoo.

There are two main things I will mention to finish up, ammo selection and cleaning.

Depending on your accuracy expectations, .22 LR ammo is not all the same. Me, I enjoy shooting the smallest groups I can so that means shooting the high dollar stuff such as Lapua Center-X and Eley Tenex. My 452 will consistently shoot sub MOA groups at 100 yards with the Center-X. The Vudoo prefers the Tenex and also shoots stupid small groups. As long as there is no wind and the nut behind the wheel does his job. Both will shoot a few of the SK varieties fairly decent up to 200 yards, but I have to use the Lapua and Eley to have consistency past 200 yards. You will just have to shoot several kinds of ammo to see what your 457 likes and what you want to use it for after getting the barrel broke in.

Ok, I'm about done and now to discuss cleaning. This one is a hoot and if you want to entertain yourself, grab your favorite beverage and search the internet for "how to clean a .22 LR rifle". Geez, there are literally internet wars over this topic and I am not going to wade into it either. Based on what a gunsmith told me about 25 years ago after cleaning my 452 using a brush and it shooting like crap all of a sudden, I called the gunsmith I bought it from trying to find out what happened and he asked "Are you cleaning it with a brush?" I said "Yes", then he simply said "Stop it". So, I have only ran patches down the bore over the years until I saw the Vudoo video on how to get the carbon ring out. I pretty much do what the Vudoo folks say to do on their video at their site on how one of their competition shooters cleans his. Both of my rifles POI do not change after this process, so I doubt that I will ever change as it works for me. As they say YMMV.

I bet you will enjoy that 457. Good luck!

Ed

Thanks for this Ed,
Some really good advice.