CZ 455 Ammo help

I will preface this post by saying that I understand rimfire rifles are finicky about ammo and the standard YMMV applies but I think I need some help narrowing down my choices.

Purpose of the rifle is going to be the PRC matches at Peacemaker and any local PRS style rimfire matches around here. I DON'T need to (and probably can't) shoot 1 ragged hole on paper but a good solid all around accurate round would be nice.

After EXTENSIVE research, these are the rounds that seem to be popular with CZ 455 Varmint Tacticool shooters for this particular style of shooting

Eley Club, Target and Action
Aguila Super Extra and Target Competition
CCI Standard Velocity and Green Tag
Federal Ultra Match, HV Match, Gold Medal Target, Champion
Norma Tac 22 and Match 22
SK Rifle Match and Standard Plus Match
RWS Target Rifle and Rifle Match
Wolf Match Target and Match Extra

TL;DR - should i test ~20 different rounds or can i cut some out?

Thanks!

Last year I shot the peacemaker matches with Lapua Center X and Eley Force on my CZ455. The force is not as accurate but has more velocity out to 300 yards. You can also see your misses easier. I will be going back to the Center X for the upcoming Mayberry event since I think it requires more accuracy. I haven't decided what I will shot for the March match yet.

I'm a big fan of Eley Club. It does well in all my rifles. Wolf Match Target and SK rifle Match are also great choices.

Thw only one you listed that I won't shoot is Green Tip, It has done poorly in everything I've ever tried it in

If you skip straight to the Eley , probably won't need to look farther . Just bring $$$ .

If not , then yes , you need to test a bunch .

Have a realistic expectation of group size you expect/ need . Test 4-6 of your proposed ammos . If at least one of those meets expectations, have another conversation with yourself of when to declare Victory , and how hard to chase that last .03 of group size .

I’ve tried about half of the ones on your list in my CZ 455 and my rifle likes the Eley Club in the orange box best. If you use Ammo Seek or just shop on line you can find it a lot cheaper than retail. YMMV though.

dontpanic said:

I'm a big fan of Eley Club. It does well in all my rifles. Wolf Match Target and SK rifle Match are also great choices.

Thw only one you listed that I won't shoot is Green Tip, It has done poorly in everything I've ever tried it in

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I've also had good luck with the Wolf Match Target in my CZ 455 Varmint. Federal Ultramatch also performed well as did some pricey Eley. 5 shot groups at 50 yards off a bench and bags shown below.

Note, Federal Ultramatch is made by the German manufacturer RWS. I've heard conflicting reports for Wolf Match Target (both RWS and Lapua as possible manufacturers). RWS is what CZ uses in their own evaluation of their rifles. Thus I've recently picked up some RWS to test in the CZ 455, as well as Norma USA Match-22 (that CZ rimfire owners on RFC report good results with).



And coming soon ...

OP, from your list, I would skip the Federal Gold Medal Target and Champion. Federal Ultramatch and Match might be interesting as they're both produced by RWS.

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Wolf = Nammo

Like Lapua and sk.

I would look at, or get the rifle looked at, by someone familiar with 455's before I started ammo testing. The most common and easy to check stuff is the leade, grub torque, and headspace.

I have had good luck with several versions of Nammo ammo. My goto is sk+ or Wolf MT because of price and capability of my rifles. They are not Annie accurate so I'm not feeding them $15+ a box ammo.

Thank you all for the quick and in depth responses. I will definitely trim my list.

I'm totally new to this and my expectations are tempered. I will be happy with .5 inch groups at 50 yards. Anything smaller is just icing on the cake. I'm not looking for top of the line accuracy yet. I'm looking for affordable and practical accuracy to hone my skills and have fun.

Robmints is there someone specific you recommend to check the rifle?

MacMoov I will be at Mayberry as well. Sadly my CZ won't be here in time for the match and I will be the one drinking from the firehose and shooting a less than stellar semi auto with bulk ammo. But it's my first comp and I just want to get out there and see what's it is like.

My 455 likes everything but Center X, sk yellow box, Eley CMP are top performers with the cmp out doing the yellow box by a hair. I use force for anything over 200 or if it's going to be windy. It does leave a little accuracy on the table but it's 2 grains heavier and almost 150fps faster than the std velocity rounds. That's a no brainer for less dial/wind call for me.
No matter how good of ammo you shoot the biggest variable is going to be the shooter every day of the week. Shoot the stuff that gets you closest to 1moa or better and has the least amount of fliers. Good luck tomorrow. I'll be there too..... 455 in a mdt chassis with a gen 2 pst 3-15 on top. There's 2 guys on my squad with vudoos so they'll be lots of people checking those out....

I practice with tac-22 because it was cheap and plentiful before the Eley cmp came out

The only person I can recommend is DJ at rfc. You can do some things like check grub torque. The recommended torque has been discussed at lengthy at rfc. Cz rifles have been sensitive to action screw torque also. You can do a quick and dirty headspace with plastigauge, think you are looking for .043. But any Smith that does rimfire will be able to check your headspace. If they can make the necessary changes correctly if it is wrong is another story. Cz is kind of known for letting tooling run a little past ideal and some people find some burrs where the rifling starts.

I didn’t ask, you do not have an A series receiver, do you? The barrels on those rifles had tight chambers, iirc.

Two rifles of the same make and model may work best with different ammunition; the same rifle may shoot the same type ammunition from different production lots differently. Nothing beats testing as many different types and lot numbers as you can get your hands on.

Ammo testing
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8711043/m/7531057281

Additional ammo testing threads
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/8711043

Unfortunate that Mayberry is cancelled. Positive note is that it gives some of time to work on ammo selection. Lapua center x shoots very well in my rifle to 200 yards. I am going to try some ammo with a little higher velocity for 300.

robmints said:

The only person I can recommend is DJ at rfc. You can do some things like check grub torque. The recommended torque has been discussed at lengthy at rfc. Cz rifles have been sensitive to action screw torque also. You can do a quick and dirty headspace with plastigauge, think you are looking for .043. But any Smith that does rimfire will be able to check your headspace. If they can make the necessary changes correctly if it is wrong is another story. Cz is kind of known for letting tooling run a little past ideal and some people find some burrs where the rifling starts.

I didn’t ask, you do not have an A series receiver, do you? The barrels on those rifles had tight chambers, iirc.

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i am sort of aware of DJ at rfc. don't know that forum well enough yet. just started out over there as a lurker.

my rifle is new. the proof sheet shows manufacture in april 2017.

been reading alot about torque specs and torque testing at the range but not alot of about head space. there seems to be a decent sized camp that says its not a big deal because these newer 455's are designed to have the barrels swapped at home by the user.

also, i don't know if i need to start chasing headspace yet, as i'm still very new to this platform and prs style shooting. i want to attack as few variables as possible at a time and i figured ammo was the first place to start after shooter technique.

should i be looking at those things before ammo?

bbradshaw21 said:

i am sort of aware of DJ at rfc. don't know that forum well enough yet. just started out over there as a lurker.

my rifle is new. the proof sheet shows manufacture in april 2017.

been reading alot about torque specs and torque testing at the range but not alot of about head space. there seems to be a decent sized camp that says its not a big deal because these newer 455's are designed to have the barrels swapped at home by the user.

also, i don't know if i need to start chasing headspace yet, as i'm still very new to this platform and prs style shooting. i want to attack as few variables as possible at a time and i figured ammo was the first place to start after shooter technique.

should i be looking at those things before ammo?

Click to expand...

Yes. IMO. I don't currently have any 455's, but. At a minimum I would free float, set grub screws to 30 in# and action screws to 20 in#. Take your screwdriver to the range and experiment a bit, you may end up at 33 in#, maybe 35 but not much more. Try a couple of pressure points. Try starting at about 12-14 in# and working up with the action screws. I normally shoot sk+ or MT to start out with tuning. It is cheap enough/ consistent enough/and fits most chambers well enough to arrive someplace pretty close to where any good ammo is going to shoot well. If you have a different preference like rws, fine, but I stay away from cci for testing because it is known to be a little tight.

You are little late getting started wringing the most out of a CZ with a trip to DJ. But you can try a few of his tricks on the cheap. Like gluing the barrel in once you have found the grub torque (if I was making a guess and wanted to glue in in one shot, I would use loctite and 33 in#). And full length bedding with aluminum tape ( kind of a Ricochet/DJ combo.) That would take a little experimenting. You might be able to use some strips and bed the action too. I'm going with 16-18 in# on the action screws if I wanted to make a guess and be close.

Headspace you are not going to be able to fix without some time and equipment, but you can help yourself a little. I would use my trusty 223 once fired range pick up that a 22lr fits in and chamfer the inside neck so the 22lr fit to the rim. Measure the 223 empty and then with the 22lr stuck inside to get the rim thickness. Might be around .040. You can remove the extractors or not, just have a feel for how much force it takes to close the bolt. Removing the extractors should be easier because you are not pushing them over the rim. But. Safe direction. Pull the bullet , put a layer of scotch tape on the head the size of the head, and put the brass in the chamber and test force to close bolt. Should be easy, should be about .043 (scotch tape about .003, but you need to measure). Two pieces of tape, easy still ok. Three pieces of tape and you may still be in spec., but I would get it set back when time allowed.

Random thoughts. I know nothing. Be safe and don't do anything you are uncomfortable with or don't know what I am trying to explain. I just used to sit in my yard and shoot CZs to see what I could do on rfc games.

Long story short. 33 in# grubs. 16 in# action. Free float and pressure points. Once you get a tune you like. Pick an ammo and separate by rim thickness.

^
Thanks for the post. Synthesizes a few threads that I have bookmarked on RFC to go back to once I get time in the summer to do the basic tweaking on my CZ 455 Varmint. Intermediate goal is to see which ammo types (with different lot numbers for some, or specific lots that I can reorder for others) that I get more consistency with ... and this mostly for fun and working on my on technique in the process ... not drawing hard and fast conclusions.

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robmints - thank you so much for that. that is WAY more than i can digest now as a beginner. i feel like this rifle will outshoot me right now. i will definitely look into the screw torque as that is something i'm comfortable with doing on my own and do with my other rifles. bedding not so much. i'm also planning on dropping it in a chassis at some point anyway and i know that will likely meet my needs regarding the bedding blocks. i also don't plan on chasing headspace on my own. if i notice a problem, that is something i will definitely let someone way more experienced than me look at it.

again many thanks to you for the time and effort to explain these topics to me!

Oh. And since you are going to compete at distance I would really consider Aguila Interceptors or CCi velocitors. 100 and in I would use sv. 300?, I'm going hyper.