CZ 512 22 wmr input requested

[Hatchdog]

Very interesting the seller contacted me last night after several days of no response. He has 400 rounds of Armscor ammo that he will include which makes the deal more appealing to me. He told me he bought the rifle off an auction and has not fired it. He is going to take it to the range today and do a function test. I respect that he is doing that, shows responsibility. I’m leaning towards making the deal as the only other offer I have had for my rifle in a month was a Smith M/28 4”. I was interested in the 28 until I saw some pics of it, pretty beat with odd grips on it.

The scope on it is the now discontinued Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40. I have this scope on my Mini 14 and really like it. Forces me to learn about Mil-dot. If I do this trade I’ll move the scope to an AR I have that is wearing the Burris AR-332 magnified red-dot and put a rimfire scope on the CZ.

Al, I stopped into a local shop yesterday and they have the Remington 33 gr on hand for $16 ish. They also had another offering (can’t remember) for around $14 so that’s encourging.

NCG I can’t get any info from him on function other than what he discovers today. Hopefully if he has misfires he will let me know. I tried the tipped bullets when I had my Ruger American wmr and didn’t have much success with them. It really liked the Winchester hollow point, 38 gr as I recall.

Sir Henry, I hear you on the semi-auto, I much prefer levers and bolts. I do have a 10/22 and know exactly what you mean. I’m thinking this wmr will mostly be my ground squirrel gun which will keep the ammo consumption down somewhat (he says with a wink)


Not to go political here so please everybody don’t expand on this but here in Washington State we have a mandatory 10 day waiting period to purchase semi-auto rifles. The law was intended for AR type rifles but all semi’s including 22’s are caught up in it. So if I make this trade the other guy will walk out of the FFL with a bolt rifle in .223 and I will wait 10 days to take a 22 home. Go figure.

Hatch
Thats a deal on the Remington ammo. Wish I was there I would buy as many as they would sell me. The Hornady ammo vmax shot good in my mag but not like the Remington and the Norma did. Im curious about the 30 gr CCI ammo and if I run across a box I will buy one to try.

Just heard back from the guy and we’re meeting right across the street from the store with the Remington (Bi-mart, a name I know you know Al). If we do the deal I’ll stop and pick some up.

[John E Davies]

Sounds like a deal with the ammo. I was initially interested in a 512 until I got my hands on one. No thanks. NOT at all impressed. The bolt action guns are way nicer, especially if you luck into some choice wood. If you can find a 453 Varmint with single set trigger, woohoo!

John Davies
Spokane WA

[Hatchdog]

I made the deal today so my 10 (+) day waiting period has begun. I grabbed a box of the Remington and the other was Federal Champion. $17 plus tax for the Remmy’s and $14 plus tax for the Fed’s.

I would have much preferred the bolt gun and in fact the shop where we did the transfer is the place with one in stock. I took another look at it and it sure is much nicer than this 512. Unfortunately nobody made me a cash offer so I did the trade. I believe the bolt gun was $570.

He test fired the gun but only shot three times, no failures reported. I dry fired it a couple of times and while the trigger wasn’t great it wasn’t too bad. Of course firing live ammo will be a better test.

Here is the ammo I picked up today and when looking for the ammo pic I saw the m/28 pic that I declined the trade on. A pic of the frame with the cylinder out showed the outline of a case and primer scored onto the part behind the cylinder. Must have had some hot loads run thru it.

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[North Country Gal]

Nice grips, but not stock. Good eye catching the probable use of hot loads. 28s are tough guns, so those had to be nasty loads.

[Shakey Jake]

I understand that CZ's are great rifles but I'll keep my Marlin 783 WMR. Great groups at 50 and 100 yards with an old school "TV" Redfield 2X7 scope.
Jake

[Hatchdog]

I understand that CZ's are great rifles but I'll keep my Marlin 783 WMR. Great groups at 50 and 100 yards with an old school "TV" Redfield 2X7 scope.
Jake

You betcha, don’t mess with success.

Lucky me, I scored another one of those discontinued Nikon P Series 2-7X35 rimfire scopes. That’s two in the last few months. Guy in Calwell, ID which is about six hours away had one listed for sale on the local gun trader site for $125.00 plus $25 for shipping. He figured out the exact shipping at $17.40 so for $142.40 I’ll have it delivered to my mailbox in two days.

I’m going to remove the Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40 which didn’t fit anyway. It was mounted too far back in order to not hit the rear sight. This 35mm should (hopefully) clear the sight but if not I’ll just remove it. I’m putting the Leupold on an AR that currently wears a red dot. I much prefer a scope to a red dot on a rifle.

[Hatchdog]

Received my Nikon scope for the CZ and found another box of ammo. So now I have four loads to try in it and a scope better suited for the 22wmr. Now if only I had the dam rifle…

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[roddy]

I've had 3 of these...2 Carbines (early model, sequential serial numbers) and 1 American (late model). All WMR. Though there are various models and trim levels, the 512 WMR is better broken down into early or late (current). Both function great in my experience, and are surprisingly accurate (as NCG mentioned) for a semi.

Without getting into internal differences, the most notable changes between the 2 versions are the trigger, and bolt operation 'on safe'. On the first version, the bolt cannot be cycled all the way back with the safety on, while the later version will allow it. The early trigger could be a little gritty, is heavy, and has a fair bit of creep, but it's predictable. I found the 2nd version to be smoother, lighter, and with a bit less creep. However, I never could warm up to it...the release was unpredictable. Either design can be improved with a little time and effort.

I wouldn't worry about the polymer lower...if you do, just remember the Remington Nylon 66 rifles that pretty much run forever. The upper is aluminum, but no worries there, either. None of the moving parts touch it. After many rounds, mine still looks like new inside after a cleaning. Speaking of cleaning, these rifles are very simple and easy to field strip.

Regarding ammunition, all of mine function as designed with many different loads (except one), from the pointy 30gr varmint rounds right up to the 50gr Federal hollow points (the American really liked the 50gr round). They all did really really well with the Aguila 40gr semi-jacketed flat nose offering. I don't have pictures of paper with holes in it, but as far as feed/function goes, here are some that have worked for me:
Aguila: Semi-Jacketed flat soft point 40gr
CCI: Maxi-Mag HP+V 30gr (not very accurate, though), V-Max 30gr, Maxi-Mag HP 40gr. I have some 30gr VNT, but haven't tested it yet.
Hornady: V-Max 30gr, Critical Defense 45gr FTX
Remington: Accutip-V 33gr, PSP 40gr
S&B (Sellier & Bellot): SB (copper washed flat soft point) 45gr
The only ammunition mine had trouble digesting was the 30gr 'Speer' offering from Federal. Something about that cavernous hollow point wouldn't let them feed smoothly. It's a shame 'cuz I find that round to be even more destructive (explosive) than the varmint tipped ones.

Be sure to post your thoughts when you get it, and if you have any questions, I'll try to help.

[Hatchdog]

Thanks Roddy, that’s some great information. Hopefully I’ll be picking up my rifle this week. Can’t wait to get the scope mounted and do some ammo tests.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with the 512.

[BigAl52]

Im curious why you got rid of the Ruger American in that same caliber Hatch

[Hatchdog]

Im curious why you got rid of the Ruger American in that same caliber Hatch

Good question Al. In 2016 we moved my Mother In Law in with us and as expected that really limited our ability to be away from the house. We used to always spend several days at “ground squirrel camp”. We have some property up north by the Canadian border that has a population of squirrels on it. We would take our trailer up there for several days and shoot squirrels as well as work on the place. My Ruger was my primary squirrel gun.

Well I don’t remember the specifics but I’m sure something came up for sale on the local trader site that I just had to have. So I took a look at what I had on hand that wasn’t being used and I’m sure I selected the American wmr. I remember the guy I sold it to but I don’t remember what I bought.

I listed my long range rifle for sale/trade as I haven’t shot a match since before Covid and I really wanted to enjoy a CZ that several folks on here have. I found one for sale here locally but nobody made a cash offer for my rifle and other than that M/28 nobody made a trade offer either. Then along came this CZ, exactly what I was looking for other than the action and the caliber. So I decided to make the trade also because I wanted the Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40 that is/was on it for an AR I wanted to upgrade the optics on.

And as Paul Harvey used to say…”that’s the rest of the story”

I picked it up yesterday and here shortly I’m going to go down and do the scope merry go round. I think that it doesn’t have the correct rings on it. These CZ’s as you know have an 11mm dovetail and I think the rings on it are just the regular old 3/8”. So I’ll probably have to pick up a set of 11mm dovetail rings before I can scope the CZ.

[North Country Gal]

You don't absolutely have to have 11mm rings on 11mm dovetails. I've been able to use some, but not all, 3/8" rings on various 11mm dovetail guns. As long as you can get 3/8" rings that center evenly over the 11mm dovetail, you'll be fine. It's when you get a set that that sticks off to one side or the other over the dovetail, that you can have issues. Just depends on the 3/8" rings.

[BigAl52]

Sounds good Hatch. I for one will be interested to see what kind of accuracy you get with it. I looked long and hard at one here locally and decided on the Ruger. Im not sorry I did as it is a very accurate 22 WMR

[Hatchdog]

You don't absolutely have to have 11mm rings on 11mm dovetails. I've been able to use some, but not all, 3/8" rings on various 11mm dovetail guns. As long as you can get 3/8" rings that center evenly over the 11mm dovetail, you'll be fine. It's when you get a set that that sticks off to one side or the other over the dovetail, that you can have issues. Just depends on the 3/8" rings.

Thanks NCG for the tip. The cheap aluminum rings that came with the rifle were off center and looked funny to me. I tried to take a pic but it is too blurry to be useful. I tried the Talley rings that came on the Nikon scope but they are too big. I measured the part of the ring that enters the dovetail and they are 12mm…??? I had a set of steel Burris 22 rings on hand and they look to be centered so I used them. The proof will be in the range trip of course.

Did some more limited dry firing and I find the trigger to have a little bit of creep and a somewhat stiff release. Not as bad as a 10/22 thankfully. Hope to get to the range this week but we’ll see. Leaving next Monday for a week at the lake and have “stuff to do”.

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