CZ 512, Coming to an Appleseed near you?

[The Wolfhound]

Being very fond of the CZ bolties my family has, we had to see if the .22LR autoloader, the CZ 512 was as good.  Found one at a gunshow today and added it to our ever growing assorment of rifles.  It is a bit pricey at a shade over 4 bills but seems to be a well made rifle like its bolt action cousins.  The fit and finish are top notch.  Weight and balance are excellent and the furniture are the usual CZ Turkish Walunt.  Since I have not seen any review for its Appleseed potential, I will give my first impressions now and a more function oriented review after we run a few hundred rounds through it.  Trigger pull is a bit stiff but not worse than a stock Mil-grade trigger.  It comes with quick release swivels as opposed to the standard 1 inch swivels found on many CZs.  It comes with a single 5 round magazine.  The standard 5 round and 10 round .22LR mags from the 452/453 series appear to work fine.  There is no last shot hold open feature.  The safety cannot be engaged unless the bolt is forward, a quirk that will be necessary to recognize on the line.  There is no description of a bolt hold open latch in the instructions but the lever in the front of the trigger guard (not shown in any of the pictures or descriptions included) will indeed lock the bolt open.  By the end of tomorrow I should have an idea what sort of shooter it is and will update the post.  Hopefully this info will help someone on the line when they run across this rifle.

[nmmi9100]

Look forward to seeing one of those soon.  Haven't yet.  Big CZ rimfire fan here.  11-year old Son has a CZ452 Scout.  I've got a CZ452 American 16" I run suppressed.  Love them both!

If it's like everything else CZ, it'll reek with quality.  Congratulations on your new buy, Wolfhound!

-David
Edgewood, NM

[The Wolfhound]

The action ran well and it was seemed quite accurate right up until the front sight fell off.  I did not have the right Allen wrench in the gear bag so the shooting ended.  Bummer

[The Wolfhound]

Shifted some scopes around among the family rifles and the CZ got  a 3-9X.  Every member of the family was shooting 1 inch groups at 25yards.  It will get its Appleseed debut in 2 weeks.  I suspect it will help another family member make Rifleman.

[The Wolfhound]

The 512s ran well.  There was a second one on the line as well at Montpelior this weekend so they have arrived at Appleseed .  The other owner also had had the front sight fall off, funny thing .  The Safe Rifle condition, for this shoot, was decided to be: bolt closed on the chamber flag, safety engaged.   

[Col Barrett]

Great to hear. I have had my eyes on them for about a year since they were discussed at shot show. I am looking forward to getting my hands on one. I was in a local shop a couple weeks ago, asked if they had one and was told no. I walked around for a bit and saw one in its box against the back wall. Asked if I could peak at it and they said no, it was already paid for. I was a bit disgusted, but will eventually get my hands on one. Thanks for the update.

[The Wolfhound]

Update:  The CZ 512 had another Applessed stress test this weekend as a loaner.  Performance was generally good and accuracy was superb up until mid afternoon on Sunday when it became a bit of a jam-o-matic.  Once home, I tore it down completely thinking it was probably quite dirty and found what I believe to be the problem.  The barrel is totally removable and the 2 set screws that are supposed to be the locking force between the barrel and the receiver had both backed out a bit and the barrel had approximately 2mm of play fore and aft.  Nothing like trying to hit a moving feed ramp to make an action unhappy.    I should have an opportunity this weekend to wring it out and see if that was the cause of the problem..  The set screws are accessed by removing the forestock ( one large flat screw ) and may be tightened with a 3mm hex key with out any further disassembly.  It did startle me to be admiring the hunting rifle ( no front sight) profile and then remember it has a nice covered front sight assembly which had fallen off.  Again a loose screw which fortunately had fallen on the shooting mat.  Now that I know to watch the screws I will see if it was just loose from the factory or if I need to introduce some lock-tite into the equation. 

[The Wolfhound]

Further update:  I sent an inquiry to CZ and their tech support admitted to "some" loose screw issues and recommended blue Loc-tite.  Before I wring it out this weekend, I will get that added.

[The Wolfhound]

The rifle was nice and clean and ran very nicely but I had neglected to clean the mags.  Feeding issues cropped up.  Took the mags apart (be careful of incredibly tiny plunger and spring that locks the bottom in place) cleaned over a years worth of crud (these fit our CZ452 also) and life is good.  We did discover that Remington Golden Bullet bulk is really really dirty ammo.  Back on my usual Federal Bulk and CCI for regular feedings from here on out.

[Johnnyappleseed]

Thanx for the report Wolfhound
Enjoyed reading your well written post's.

I have examined the 452 mags . they are well made and look expensive.
nice to know they can be broken down for cleaning .

Col Cooper was a fan of CZ ,looking forward to more info.

[Kosciusko]

Great to hear. I have had my eyes on them for about a year since they were discussed at shot show. I am looking forward to getting my hands on one. I was in a local shop a couple weeks ago, asked if they had one and was told no. I walked around for a bit and saw one in its box against the back wall. Asked if I could peak at it and they said no, it was already paid for. I was a bit disgusted, but will eventually get my hands on one. Thanks for the update.

You can order one here and have it shipped to your friendly FFL holder.

$420

http://www.jgsales.com/product_info.php/p/cz-model-512-22lr-semi-auto-rifle%2C-new-/products_id/5845?osCsid=76b386b8d8c015e4e27e4842da099310

mags are steep, IIRC,  $25-35 each

I do love the 452 Lux

[The Wolfhound]

Had 2 shooters (father and son) on the line this weekend with scoped CZ 512s, both made Rifleman.  The son (multiple times) on Saturday and father joining him on Sunday.  No issues with either rifle.  The 512 seems quite capable of delivering for a prospective Rifleman.   

[The Wolfhound]

Further CZ512 update:
I still love the way it shoots; that is at least when it will shoot.  It is broken again.  There have only been about 300 rounds since the last repair.  The bolt will not retract more than about a centimeter.  This is exactly what it has done before.  At least this time it does not have a round stuck in it.  I suspect that the firing pin retaining pin has broken again.  If so this will be the third broken pin.  CZ has been very good about sending me replacement parts (free) but the metalurgy seems lacking.  If  you have one on your line that stops running and you cannot pull the bolt all the way back, be aware that it will likely require complete bench disassembly to correct.  Without the pin it is not functional.  The pin in question runs transverse through the bolt holding the firing pin in place. This rifle seems troublesome and fragile.  I still consider it to be about the most accurate semi-automatic .22LR I have run into but I no longer feel I can recommend it for Appleseed.  As a plinker it might do fine but a rifle that has had 4 major stoppages in under 2000 rounds just doesn't cut it.  If CZ gets better metalurgy or redesigns the part, I will let you know.  Bummer!

[Stuart McKim]

I've had mine since November and have liked it quite a bit. Comments:

• The trigger out of the box was pretty bad. Rough finishes on the engagement surfaces. Polishing with a dremel wheel made it much better. Also added a shim to remove some of the creep. It's just stiff now, but close to an M1. CZ really needs to work on their triggers (452 requires work as well).
• My front sight fell off my first time at the range as well.
• My screws holding the barrel on came loose as well.
• The rifle is wonderfully comfortable for me and a pleasure to shoot. It's definitely sized for adults, which is one reason I love CZs.
• The Tech Sights CZ 452 sights require modification if you want to use them on this rifle. Everything fits, but the front sight is too short. If you are creative, adding 4.4mm of JB Weld to build it up gets the job done, but the ears don't protect it at that height. I've spoken with the folks at Tech Sights and I'll be sending in drawings of my modifications.
• The bolt lock-back lever is very shallow, which makes it a bit hard to lock back. Not a big deal unless you are wearing winter gloves.
• Magazines are great, thousands of rounds through mine in some lousy (dusty, dirty) conditions and I have no problems. I like the stick mags - easy to tell which way they are oriented without even looking and very reliable.

So far, I have about 750 rounds through it without any serious problems (except for what I mentioned above).

I'll be putting this through an Appleseed in May and an RBC in June. Looking forward to it. Will have my 452 on hand as a back-up, but don't think I'll need it. I love my 452, but I went from shooting around 200 to the mid-220s just by switching to the 512.

[Alex]

Something important to note about these rifles. I have seen where they get dirty and do not eject properly. Sometimes the spent shell does not get ejected all the way and instead of stove piping out, it is trapped between the bolt and the chamber. Unfortunately it will still cycle a new round into the chamber and then let you fire with the bullet not all the way into the chamber causing it to blow out the side of the case and cause a squib to get stuck in the barrel. This is something to be aware of when they are on the line and start to malfunction. 

[Stuart McKim]

Something important to note about these rifles. I have seen where they get dirty and do not eject properly. Sometimes the spent shell does not get ejected all the way and instead of stove piping out, it is trapped between the bolt and the chamber. Unfortunately it will still cycle a new round into the chamber and then let you fire with the bullet not all the way into the chamber causing it to blow out the side of the case and cause a squib to get stuck in the barrel. This is something to be aware of when they are on the line and start to malfunction.

I've had this happen once, sort of. The rifle was not dirty, though. Normally, I shoot CCI Standard Velocity and have no problem. That time I was shooting a bit of cheap Federal loose-in-the-box stuff and it did this to me. The scarier part is that it chambered the next round and then when it rammed the partially-ejected case into the chambered round, the rim of the first case hit the rim of the chambered case and the round discharged. No squib, but plenty of smoke out the receiver vent holes. (Another reason to wear safety glasses!) I assign that event to a bad round though, considering I went straight back to shooting the CCI and the problem did not reoccur. I didn't feel like experimenting, though. So far, that's been my only malfunction in that rifle in about 1500 rounds.

[The Wolfhound]

After confering with the good folks at CZ-USA, my rifle has gone back for a visit to see if they have a good and permanet fix for my firing pin retainer issue.  I will advise as this works its way out.  As long as the barrel was tighly attached, I have had no feeding issues.

[MikeCee]

I took my brand-spanking new CZ-512 to my first Appleseed and ran into some feed issues with it using the magazine that it came with along with another new one that I picked up at the same time. I gave it a good cleaning after the first night and used some older mags for the second day and had no issues.

My wife took it to her first Appleseed as well and reported no issues at all. The instructors were impressed with the CZ's performance during the shoot.

[The Wolfhound]

It has been a while and the CZ-512 has run well for about 2 years with no further issues.  It has cranked out a couple of Riflemen, too, including one more in the family.  I think I can in good conscience take it off the "fragile" list and return it to the recommended list.