Cleaning the work rifle

[Camel]

After Friday nights efforts shooting in the rain, I decided it was about time to pull the CZ 22 apart and give it a bit of a clean, haven't given it a clean for the last two cases of ammo, and I only have one brick left out of the last. so that's around 11,500 rounds since a strip down and barrel clean.

Stripped down the bolt and cleaned all the powder residue from it.

Half way through stripping the action, only trigger to be removed.

some of the crud that I removed from the extractor groove in the side of the barrel. Shit like this will build up in the grooves that the extractor and holder sit in on either side of the bolt, enough so the extractor cant close properly on the rim, making stuck cases a regular occurrence. I usually strip the bolt every week and get rid of it.

Muzzle showing a little bit of cleaning is needed, I couldn't see the rifling at the breach end. I could scrape the crap off the end of the muzzle with a small scribe.

Bit of dirt/dust under the scope mounts, and a little surface rust stain from the rain.

And that's all for the photos, my battery went flat.

I gave everything a complete scrub, washed it all in petrol and then after it had dried gave it a good going over with Ezox, bolt is now so smooth that if you hold the rifle vertical and chamber a round with out closing the bolt, it will eject the round with out having to pull it back. Gravity does the job. All back together now, will just have to check the POI, generally it only takes a couple of small adjustments to get it back on track, then run 50 shots through it to recoat the barrel, then go shoot some more bunnies.

[Teepee]

Hi camel,
On avg, how long does a 22 last?
And what's the time frame with these 11500 rounds?

[Camel]

I cant honestly tell you mate, 200,000 or more shots then a new barrel, as long as nothing else breaks.
those 11,500 were gone in the last 6 months, maybe less, but close. Things were a little quiet in the bunny game last year.

[Jacko9]

have you thought about cerakoting it mate? so it handles the weather a little better?

[Camel]

Nah mate, I cant see the point, its not that it rains out here that often, and if it does, its not that often that I shoot in the rain.

[B4408]

Camel
I don't feel so bad now if I don't clean my 22 after a couple of packets. The CZ are pretty good aren't they, will out last me and probably the boys as well.
11500 rounds, what % of kills do you work on or is that a trade secret.

The rain is good for catching up on the odd jobs.

Regards
Bruce

[220]

Only know one person who has shot out a 22lr barrel and he reckoned about 250000 it started to loose accuracy.

[Camel]

Bruce, shots fired to rabbits hanging on the back usually works out to around 220/230 pair per 500 shots. some nights with the wind, toey rabbits, no moon, operator error push the ratio down, other nights I can get lots better. There is also the odd one that doesn't go off.

There are maybe prettier rifles out there than the CZ/Brno, but nothing comes close to them with reliability, there is only one rabbit shooter that I know working in the last few years who used something else, Ruger, he had no ends of trouble with it, mainly the two piece bolt, he now uses a CZ

[Teepee]

Camel,

What range do you operate at to get that strike rate with the cz

[Jacko9]

been looking at trying to find a left handed cz 452 22, cause as you say mate, they have no peers for reliability, imho, anyways, one popped up on abused guns, $1500 Me thinks it won't sell for a while And fair point on the cerakoting mate, just thought I'd ask

[Camel]

Camel,

What range do you operate at to get that strike rate with the cz

The closer the better mate, I have the Zeiss scope I use focused at 35m, sight in to hit poa at 30, a long shot would be around 45 to 50m, but there would only be one or two that far each night, mostly they are around the 20m mark.

been looking at trying to find a left handed cz 452 22, cause as you say mate, they have no peers for reliability, imho, anyways, one popped up on abused guns, $1500 Me thinks it won't sell for a while And fair point on the cerakoting mate, just thought I'd ask

Yeah I had a look at that one and nearly spit my coffee everywhere, wonder if he is getting such good prices for them if he would buy my slightly used 22 and the HMR that does nothing, I would only charge him 1000.00 each, that way he could make a nice little profit.
There are some people out there with some weird ideas, hey.

[trevort]

Camel my CZ was bought second hand but the original owner had only fired two packs of ammo. Turns out he hadnt cleaned the grease out of the barrel properly. I was out with Missed and plugged a few bunnies then all of a sudden it was spraying them all over the place. I cleaned it at Andrew's place using everything I had and some stuuff he sprayed down the barrel a few times. I still dont reckon it's properly clean and I have scrubbed it a fair bit. Still shoots well though BUT after maybe 200 rounds I start getting stuck cases and reckon its exactly what you described.

Could you bring your toolkit to the Missedathon and show me how to disassemble the bolt and clean it properly please

[Camel]

Ok mate, its a very precise and delicate operation, the tools required are very specialised and require a great amount of time and effort to manufacture. I have designed and developed my own over the years and I would hazard a guess that they are a one of a kind set and of immense value. I will put up a photo later on, maybe you can come up with an idea for your own. But I will gladly bring them down to help you out, and anyone else who has a Brno/CZ rimfire. They are rifle make specific. If you like I could probably copy mine for you, but the tooling required is pretty specialized and too big to lug around the country. Can deliver to you at the Missathon.

[trevort]

hazard a guess you are talking about your hands

[Camel]

No mate, but there is a little tongue in cheek stuff there.