Thoughts/ experiences with the CZ 457

Evening all,

As above, keen to hear about anyone's experiences with the CZ 457, particularly the CZ 457 Royal, as I'm looking at trading up my little Marlin. Also interested to hear how people have found the 455 / 457 barrel change option

Cheers

I do not have the 457, but I have 452 and 455. I have also been researching into 457 for some time.

It would appear that 457 represents All round improvement over the 455, including accuracy.

I bought my 455 in 17 hmr and I did in the buying a 22 LR barrel. While it's an interesting system, in reality it's not that useful. Every time you change the barrel, you would have to rezero the gun. It certainly is more trouble than it's worth. If you are chasing after absolute accuracy, you would not frequently switch barrels. If it is convenience that you are after, then it is easier just by a cheap second rifle. You can easily get a decent enough second hand 22lr rifle for $500 and a simple scope for another 200. I can't imagine anyone would want to save 500 dollars ( Since your second 455 barrel is not free either) and put themselves through the trouble of constantly switching barrels.

The real appeal of the barrel switching system is that you can buy a high end barrel and fit it without having to go to a gunsmith. However, this appeal is significantly diminished in New Zealand because almost no one offers high end 455 barrels. Dead eye dick can order Lilja for you but i have never seen them having any in stock. Truflight may or may not do a custom order. I suspect if you can get a high end barrel, it will cost you close to $1000 here. By which time you may question why you didn't buy an anschutz in the first place.

In other words, do not make barrel switching a reason to buy a 455 or 457, and Be prepared that you will be using the factory barrel only.

i have a positive attitude to switch barrel rifles . . if you want to try a .17hmr or .22magnum for awhile but want to have the option of going back to a .22lr it will work for you. If you want to shoot the .17 on saturday and go to the .22 on sunday you will be unhappy.
Remember any barrel you buy can be onsold later if you decide that caliber is not you . . you might loose a few bucks if you paid top dollar but not enough to make it a deal breaker . . to me.
With my switch barrel i started off with a .17hmr when i got sick of reloading for my .222, shot that for a few years and then picked up a mint .22lr barrel off TM for a couple of hundred bucks . . still have the .17 barrel if i want to go back to it, no gunsmith envolved, half a dozen shots to zero and i am good to go . . to easy.

I had a 452 which was a lovely action, however it was the older one with the action screw going into the lug on the barrel. Along with the cost of upgrading the trigger and stock I decided to move it on and get a 457 Varmint.

As Ultimitsu says, it improves all of the aspects of the previous rifles that could have been better. The trigger is night and day better from the factory.

I've never had any thought of switching barrels for the same reasons as above - just not practical.

One aspect of the 457 that is a con compared to the 452/455 in my opinion is the shorter bolt open/close - in combination with the shorter, stiffer firing pin spring it is stiffer to cock on opening. I'm going to put a bigger and longer bolt knob on to add some leverage to help flicking it open with the back of my hand.

When I got mine there was the choice of the walnut stock or synthetic. Now there are more target/range shooting type stocks available I think that I would probably have preferred.

Just to clarify-my understanding is the 455 and 457 barrels are all the same. I found it moderately useful to play with a few barrels to identify the best-it’s the luck of the draw with CZ and some shoot much better than others. Also if one has an unusually well figured stock and tuned trigger it makes it more worthwhile having switch barrel capability. But ultimately I’ve kept the older 452 and moved to high end Anschutz bolts and 10/22 clones.

Just picked up a 457 in the beech stock (all that was in stock and I have a hair brained idea maybe someone will make a carbon fibre stock for them - cause carbon fiber is cool).

Key things; the trigger is fully adjustable for pull weight, travel before let off, and travel after let off. I've adjusted mine to the limit least travel and weight, while being drop safe/safety operation, and fast and rough bolt cycling safe. Ignore what the trigger feels like in store - the few I have picked up have been vastly different from factory so it depends how you adjust.

Accuracy was that I held Winchester USA 42grn subs inside an inch at 50m (15 shots), Aussie made stuff better. Note: I believe the USA ammo is crap so I discounted three out of 15 which sounded hotter (one broke the sound barrier) and hit 1" higher outside of the group.

Aussie made ammo was more accurate but I'm not keen on burning a whole bunch of that non-renewable resource plinking.

I shot about 200 rounds through it and the accuracy got more consistent from about 100 rounds onward (new barrel so there was a settling in and fouling period) with an apparent continued settling in as the arvo progressed. All shots on a very stable bench rest so I wasn't worried about shooter error.

We'll see how it goes, currently my partner's 1969 TOZ-17 that I "restored" is more accurate... but also 1000s of rounds older.

It was also very sensitive in POI between ammo with high velocity Aussie Winchester 40grn going 1.5" high and 1" right at 50. Was an inch different POI between Winchester made subs and USA made subs. Although the TOZ does exactly the same for HV ammo throws them high and right.

Overall accuracy was probably bellow expectation but also I am fully confident that is not just the rifle and I'll have to find a ammo it likes as the absolutely waxy dogs breakfast of a mess that is apparently acceptable to the USA manufacturer of Winchester subs is not very similar to the old Aussie manufacturer.

Thanks for all of the feedback guys, appreciate hearing about a few different experiences. The one I'm looking at is in 17HMR, and the ammo I've got is all from one manufacturer/ lot so provided it likes that as much as my Marlin does, there should hopefully be a bit less variability than with a 22LR.

Now I just need to empty out the cupboard a bit first to save up my shekls