CZ 527 6.5 Grendel

[Dinny]

As usual the bolt was rather rough in cycling. I discovered a lot of mill marks on the rear upper receiver, just behind the scope mount bridge, where the bolt handle strikes and rubs when cycling. A little work with a fine ceramic stone smothed the marks, not so much as to remove all the blueing, and made a big improvement in cycling the bolt. This morning I removed the action from the stock and lubed the trigger with a mixture of moly slide paste and some synthetic superlube grease and got the unset pull down from just under 5 lbs to about 2.5 lbs, and got the set pull from 2 lbs down to about 12 oz, all much better. I am planning to make a trip to the range tomorrow, weather permitting.

That's too bad. Seems like production was rushed. I wonder where there are other tooling marks, the chamber or bore?

Thanks, Dinny

[jkingrph]

That's too bad. Seems like production was rushed. I wonder where there are other tooling marks, the chamber or bore?

Thanks, Dinny

I doubt that it is rushed production, as the receiver is the same across the 527 line. I actually had the same thing on my 527 Lux, which was supposed to be a better finished model, about 15 years ago. Sticky stiff bolt movement seems to be a problem in this line. I also had the same problem in a nice 550 Safari a few years back, it just took a lot of cycling the bolt to smooth things up. I just seem to be learning what to look for and how to take care of minor problems as I go forward.

[SDguy]

I doubt that it is rushed production, as the receiver is the same across the 527 line. I actually had the same thing on my 527 Lux, which was supposed to be a better finished model, about 15 years ago. Sticky stiff bolt movement seems to be a problem in this line. I also had the same problem in a nice 550 Safari a few years back, it just took a lot of cycling the bolt to smooth things up. I just seem to be learning what to look for and how to take care of minor problems as I go forward.

jkingrph: PM me some time on what to look for in taking off the rough edges on the CZ527 actions. Like to have a chance to trade notes. Had the new 527 6.5 Grendel out with just 8 rounds down the tube to sight in and start to get to know this rifle. Break in loads are with CFE 223 and the CFE looks to be doing its job well. No copper when cleaning just carbon build up. This is a new to me experience. Noticing one of the smoothest barrels I have had yet. I am optimistic for the accuracy she is going to give up.

Another first experience for me is this barrel seems to be choked tighter for the last 4.5" of the barrel. Not sure if I am just paying closer attention or if this is my active imagination at work.

[jkingrph]

jkingrph: PM me some time on what to look for in taking off the rough edges on the CZ527 actions. Like to have a chance to trade notes. Had the new 527 6.5 Grendel out with just 8 rounds down the tube to sight in and start to get to know this rifle. Break in loads are with CFE 223 and the CFE looks to be doing its job well. No copper when cleaning just carbon build up. This is a new to me experience. Noticing one of the smoothest barrels I have had yet. I am optimistic for the accuracy she is going to give up.

Another first experience for me is this barrel seems to be choked tighter for the last 4.5" of the barrel. Not sure if I am just paying closer attention or if this is my active imagination at work.

Sent you a pm. I had planned on going to range today, but it looks like I might rain. The range I use is about 50 miles one way, so will put it off until Friday. My initial outing will be using some Wolf 120 gr hp ammo, I got a good deal on a quantity several years ago and it will do to get things on target. I have had good results with it in my AR. I also have some Hornandy 123gr SST and will follow up with it. I also found a box of 50 loads of 7.62x39 brass to be fireformed. I had good luck with them in my AR so will give them a try in the Grendel also. Back when Grendel brass was very expensive and hard to find I bought a large quantity of this II brass which is very good. I found that the fireforming loads were accurate and cycled my AR just fine.

That CFE powder sounds interesting, I am going to have to try some. I have such a good stock of other powders I do not care to add another. I wonder if it would help if you shot a number of rounds with conventional powder, then ended a session using the CFE..

[TMac]

Had the same rough action on my 527 from 15 or so years ago. It has gotten better with use, but is still not what I'd call smooth. I may try some smoothing, but have been hesitant to try. Thanks for the ideas.

[jkingrph]

Had the same rough action on my 527 from 15 or so years ago. It has gotten better with use, but is still not what I'd call smooth. I may try some smoothing, but have been hesitant to try. Thanks for the ideas.

You're welcome. Stoning those mill marks made opening the bolt smoother, the only other thing I did was to barely knock off all the sharp edges and corners on the locking lugs, not touching surfaces that lock up and control headspace. Everything together seems to have made a big difference. I have this one, a 527 Prestige about 15 years old, and a big 550 Safari. They were all rough and stiff out of the box, and honestly I don't think anything will make them as smooth as some of the old military Mausers like my Swedish M 96, or my old Winchester 70.

[Kilco]

Odd... I've only owned 1 CZ, a 527 in 17 hornet. That is one of the most refined guns I own as far as out of the box goes.. action is like butter... purchased it 8-10 years ago... discouraging to read about the current rough actions..

[jkingrph]

Odd... I've only owned 1 CZ, a 527 in 17 hornet. That is one of the most refined guns I own as far as out of the box goes.. action is like butter... purchased it 8-10 years ago... discouraging to read about the current rough actions..

Luck of the draw I guess. My prestige model in 22 hornet, probably 15 years old was rather rough, but slick now.

[SDguy]

Had this factory CZ 527 American out for a little get to know you time for the second time this evening. CFE 223 was the propellant we were working with again & the bulk Nosler Custom competitions was the bullet choice. Seating cone on my Redding seater die was not treating the bullet so well for the first 5 rounds reloaded here. Switched over to an relatively inexpensive seater die that came with my Lee collet neck die and all was well. I will have to try sorting bullets for next outing for base ogive measurement.

Seems to be a fairly wide node around 30 grains +/- 3 tenths of a grain the t will stack up 3 of 5 with the other 1 or 2 flyers that may open her up to MOA. ran her up to 31.2 grains and primers were starting to show signes this was a good place to plato. Winds were nun and temps were in the low eighties. This was a rare occasion where no one else was at the range @ was able to back out to 192 yards. Sure wish we had a range that stretched out a lot further some days. 200 was just fine for todays work and the 3x12 scope.

The way this barrel has been cleaning up she may be hard to break away from the CFE 223. Have to say I am very pleased with this barrel & clean up.

This was virgin Lapua brass. Next outing I think we will give this same brass neck sized a go with both the Nosler 123gr CC & Lapua 123 gr & 123 gr Scenar a try over CFE 223 again.

[SDguy]

No dice on the collet neck die. She was custom made for brass fired in the CSS chamber, .295 neck diameter. Brass with the .300 fireformed neck in this Sami chamber gets crushed when attempting to fit in the collet. Oh shucks

[dpw4x4]

SDguy how do you like the cfe223. I've been at the bench and loaded some to nosler spec with nosler 120gr etip over cfe and new nosler brass I've also had really good results with 8208xbr in some loads

[jkingrph]

I took my rifle out for the first time last Friday, and had two problems. First was the scope mount, I had gotten a Leupold vx3i back in Feb when I first started lusting for one of these rifles, and went ahead and put the scope in a set of Warne qd rings, so I could remove it quickly for easier cleaning. I used my older CZ hornet for proper spacing and that worked fine. I did not tighten the bottom screws tight enough, so after shooting found the scope would wiggle just a little. I did not have a torx t15 wrench so could not fix at the range, but still got the gun reliably on target, and actually shooting fairly well, getting groups around 1.5" at 100 yards without a rock solid scope mount. Second it was so hot and humid sweat was running into my eyes which did not help.

I started with some Wolf ammo, 120gr hp I think, I have some other which I think is 123 sp, both of which I bought in bulk a few years back for my AR. I then followed up with some Hornandy 123gr SST. Both brands shot about the same, I had expected to do better with the Hornandy, but it might be due to the scope mount. I also tried a few 140 gr loads I had prepared a while back for fireforming cases from 7.62x39, using good IMI cases. They were acutally quite good, grouping about 1 3/4", but abut 6" lower than the factory loads, which I expected.

It's about 50 miles to the nearest range, so may be a couple of weeks before I get back, and will go much earlier before it gets hot. It's a private club and the range officer who is part time, was there the other day told me the gates were unlocked at 6:30 so I could get there very early.

My rifle has nice I guess you could say conservative figured wood, but extremely flat, almost as though it had no finish. I started yesterday, a linseed oil prep I had mixed up and the wood is like a sponge, soaking it up, so will continue that for however long it takes to fill the pores and build up a little sheen. The wood is taking on a nicer color already. The formula I use on everything is a mixture called Slackum oil, an old British formula which I found over on the Doublegunshop.com forum. It's slow, on bare wood sometimes taking several months to get a good finish, but I like the looks better than any of the quick commercial finishes. Ingredients are boiled linseed oil, turpentine, venetian turpentine, and carnauba wax.

I like the sound of that CFE powder, but I have so much of the Ramshot powders, Win 322( I think) Varget and IMR 8208xbr I really don't care to purchase more. I may consider abandoning those if it really does help with copper fouling. What's the experience with the CFE powder?

[SDguy]

SDguy how do you like the cfe223. I've been at the bench and loaded some to nosler spec with nosler 120gr etip over cfe and new nosler brass I've also had really good results with 8208xbr in some loads

You have some other very good options for the 6.5 Grendel cartridge depending on the bullet choice, velocity & accuracy desired. Tac, AR-comp, Benchmark and 8208 XBR can offer some fine accuracy at a somewhat lower velocity & the latter three tend to offer great temp stability.

CFE 223 Surprised me this time around to tell the truth, I did not experience what I considered favorable results in the first Stainless steel CSS barrel & gave up early.

Still I wanted to minimize copper build up when breaking in this barrel so I opted to give CFE-223 another try. I think I am dealing with 2 factors here.

1st I feel I got an excelent factory barrel.

2nd CFE seems to be working well to assist in minimizing copper build up. Not exactly sure why I am liking this propellant so well this time arround. The real test will play in when I start working with other propellants. Currently I have worked with only 1 propellant in this barrel. Thus far I am seeing encouraging enough results with the CFE 223 to hold off on experimenting with other propellants.