Picked up this today (cz527 17 rem)

[lawsie]

Finally shot the cz on the weekend.
Its only wearing a vx1 4-12 but it performed well considering no load development was done.

It was 9pm on Sunday night when I finally got to shoot it. Ran the barrel in (nice and cold in Goulburn) and sighted it in at 50m. I was only shooting off a bipod but it was shooting the same poi with 3 different loads that were given to me. After seeing that i went and shot some furry things with great success.

The lack of recoil was surprising. The cross hairs didn't move at all. Another impressive thing was that a head shot on foxes resulted in pop eyes with no exit. My 221 fireball with 40gr HP leaves big exit wounds on head shots.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it but will have to do some load development and see how well it actually shoots.

Cheers

[Camel]

Good to hear its working for you Lawsie, fun starts at 17 and then goes upwards in small increments.

[trevort]

fun starts at 17 and then goes upwards in small increments.

I like that, yes very well put. Almost poetic

[barryb]

Lawsie , & or is it Brendan? that's certainly a nice looking rifle so don't let anyone talk you into a 20 conversion until you have at least worn out 2 barrels. Regarding scopes , I have both Zeiss & Meopro & haven't been able to tell any great difference . If I had to make a choice I would probably lean towards the Zeiss , but there's a fair bit of dollar difference for leaning. Good luck with your load development project.
BarryB

[lawsie]

I'm yet to shoot a 20cal so I might stay away from one or my wallet maybe become lighter.

Yeah it's Brendan Barry. I will be lucky to wear the barrel out that's on it, let alone a couple. I'm definitely impressed with the .17 though.
Thanks for the advice on the scopes. I'm looking at the 6-18 meopro but can't find anyone with them in stock.

[Dr G]

Outstanding piece of timber lawsie, I love the Circassian Walnut CZ uses. Way more figure than black walnut or young English walnut and without the expense.

[lawsie]

I finally managed to shoot some reloads I made up. I had waited well over a month to shoot them. It was dark when I started shooting so I used my night master xsearcher (led torch) to illuminate the target. It was also about 3 degrees at the time of shooting but there was little to no wind which was good.

I mounted a leupold vx1 4-12 on it as it was on nothing. The stock touches the barrel right in the middle at front. I was worried this would affect accuracy as everyone goes on about free floating barrels being the best.

With the target at 100m I started banging away. All groups were 4 shots. All loads used brand new Norma brass and bm8208.
I started with the 25gr HP with 22.8gr of 8208. These didn't even land on the paper as I hadn't sighted it in properly. I worked my way up to the 24gr load and it was looking promising but I had a flier an inch to the left on the 2 hotter loads. The top left group was a starting charge of 24gr with a 20gr vmax. I shot these one after the other with no break and it was the final group shot. I was over sitting out in the cold and dark shooting at a piece of paper.
When I got down to the target I mainly looked at the 25gr HP loads as they are the bullets I want to shoot. That was until I seen the group with the 20 grainers. It measured 7mm centre to centre which was mighty impressive for my ability.
Looks like I will be loading up some 20gr vmax this weekend!

Cheers

[LoneRider]

geez,the 25's dont look much chop.
stick with the 20's and develope a load.

[Waldo]

The 23.6g load of the 25HP certainly shows some potential too so I wouldn't walk away from that one just yet if the 25g HP is the pill you'd prefer to use. Take out the flier and maybe a seating depth adjustment may tighten it a little.

That said the 20g pill is looking pretty neat off the bat. Some of the 25g holes don't look real tight, maybe a stability issue there??????

Great little cal the .17Rem, enjoy.

Cheers,
Waldo

[lawsie]

Yeah the 25gr are the ones I want to shoot. I've never been a fan of the poly tipped ammo.
The bullet holes look a bit funny as I had it stapled to a cardboard box that was out of shape. It has a 1 in 9 twist barrel so it shouldn't have any trouble from what I've read.

I will definitely give the 25gr HP another go as suggested. The fliers were probably me.
It was still suprising to see a starting load with the 20gr shoot so well.
Also after 20 shots the barrel looks no dirtier than my 22 cal rifles. I was worried about most people saying the 17 rem is only good for 10 shots before cleaning is required

Thanks

[Waldo]

When I had my .17Rem out the other day the last group of the day was also the best. My old Sako refused to shoot the poly tip 25g'ers, never tried the 20g'ers.

Save your preferred load till last and you may end up where you wanna be

Cheers,
Waldo

[trevort]

9 twist is the recommendation for 25s. should work well, mine does!

[lawsie]

Made up some more 25gr HP loads to try. Again they were shot using torch light as I didn't get time to do it earlier. I removed the actual target as it was raining and ruined the paper. The cardboard box was fine though and it shows the groups.

This was the 23.8gr load.



And the 24.2gr load.

[lawsie]

Shot a few loads over the chrono as I had some huge damage on 2 foxes. 1st one was smack on 100m and he was facing away at 45 degrees. I sent one into the rib cage and it exited out the front of his chest leaving a fist sized hole. The second was at 155m front on. Went for the front on chest shot and it exited on it's underside ripping her guts out along with her heart.

24gr 8208 with a 20gr vmax and 23.8gr 8208 with the 25gr HP were the loads shot over the chrono. The foxes were shot with the 25g HP.
I may have to look for some heavier pills. I wasn't expecting them to be so quick and damaging as they are not hot loads. The 24gr of 8208 is a starting charge in the book for 20 grainers.

[Tackleberry]

if these are the hornady 25ghp i'm not surprised as they are as hard as buggery

we used to use the rem plated 25g pills they were perfect for fox's in the day

of good prices pitty they are discontinued .