Cowgirl Corner: wonderful CZ tangent open sights

[North Country Gal]

A lot of shooters on this side of the pond rate open sights at the bottom of the heap for accuracy work. That's not surprising, given that the typical factory supplied open sights on U.S. guns have all too often been, well, on the crude side. Most of us have a tendency just to go right to a peep sight or even a scope when we buy a new rifle, these days.

I was one of those shooters when I got my first CZ rifle. It was a 452 FS 22 LR equipped with standard factory tangent style open sights. Didn't even bother to shoot it until I had installed a Skinner CZ peep. I mean, hey, no one shoots open sights, anymore, right? Only problem was that I didn't have a tall enough front sight on the CZ to make the Skinner peep work, even with the front sight adjusted up to it's highest setting (CZ tangent sight setups have an elevation adjustable front sight). Darn! Rather than give up, I removed the Skinner peep and, just for kicks, decided to try the CZ open sights.

That was the beginning of a long love affair with shooting CZ tangent open sights. It changed my thinking, entirely, on what a good set of open sights could do in term of printing small groups, even with my aging eyes. Really did change my shooting.

So here's a couple of my favorite CZ 22s that I shoot, exclusively, with those tangent style CZ open sights. Bill and I shot both of these, today.

First is a scarce variation of what is basically 452 Trainer. This is a 452 SuperMatch 22 LR. The 452 SM is essentially a CZ 452 Trainer without checkering, but with a 12 groove barrel instead of a standard 6 groove barrel. A few of these showed up on dealer shelves, last year, so I grabbed one.


Next up is one of the most accurate 22 rifles I have ever owned and I make that statement having never used a scope or even a peep sight on this gun. It's a CZ 455 UltraLux 22 LR. The UL has an amazing 27 plus inch long barrel for the sake of a long sight radius between the tangent rear and blade front. This gun owns all my best open sight, 5 shot groups I've ever shot at both 50 yards (.36") and 100 yards (.93').


And here's a pic of that amazing tangent sight found on both rifles. It's called a tangent because by depressing a knob on the side of the sight, you can slide the tangent up and down the ramp to any of the indexed yardage/meters settings.


This works in conjunction with the elevation adjustable front sight, below. When sighting in at 50, you slide the tangent to the 50 setting, then adjust the front sight height to be on at 50. From then on, you can instantly change the rear sight to be on target for any distance marked. This allows me to go back and forth between 50 and 100 yards with the same rifle and maintain the exact same sight picture with only a simple change on the rear sight. Pretty slick.


So how did these open sight masterpieces shoot for us, today? Not my best groups with either rifle, but I''d say some very typical groups. All shot with Eley Club SV ammo.

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Good as I shot, today, I think this target of Bill's wins the best group of the day. Open sight work of art.
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Yup, all targets shot with open sights. Don't need no peep sight or stinking' scope on these rifles.

[RanchRoper]

Great report and shooting. Love the detail you provide. My reports are generally "windy, shot blah blah, big holes....". I always learn things in your reports. Thanks.

[North Country Gal]

Thanks, RR. Actually, I love your reports precisely because they are so different than mine. Your reports are a piece of art to my more blueprint style reports. I think I speak for a lot of people, here, when I say please, please don't change a thing on yours. Every time I read one of yours, I feel like I'm stepping back in time or opening a new western novel to read.

[tractortad]

More amazing rifles and excellent info - I always wondered what a tangent sight was...thanks, NCG.

[North Country Gal]

You're welcome. Tangent sights on bolt guns date way back to the days when the bolt action rifle was the standard battle rifle used by the military. Here's where CZ/Brno is showing its long military rifle pedigree.

[Sir Henry]

Great shooting Joanie. I have a CZ 9822 made in 1923 and it has tangent sights. I don’t shoot it much because all the 8mm ammo I have is corrosive and it takes an hour to clean it with boiling water.

I have a 455 Trainer in .22LR that I’ll shoot next week.

[RanchRoper]

Thanks, RR. Actually, I love your reports precisely because they are so different than mine. Your reports are a piece of art to my more blueprint style reports. I think I speak for a lot of people, here, when I say please, please don't change a thing on yours. Every time I read one of yours, I feel like I'm stepping back in time or opening a new western novel to read.

Appreciated. It's funny because when you read the sign in book at our range I see people there for hours on end. Mine are all in and out in under an hour. Just a show up, shoot, go home kinda guy I guess. But I really do enjoy the detailed reports that you and some others provide. And you sure can shoot.

[BigAl52]

Thanks, RR. Actually, I love your reports precisely because they are so different than mine. Your reports are a piece of art to my more blueprint style reports. I think I speak for a lot of people, here, when I say please, please don't change a thing on yours. Every time I read one of yours, I feel like I'm stepping back in time or opening a new western novel to read.

Appreciated. It's funny because when you read the sign in book at our range I see people there for hours on end. Mine are all in and out in under an hour. Just a show up, shoot, go home kinda guy I guess. But I really do enjoy the detailed reports that you and some others provide. And you sure can shoot.

Well thats easy RR those guys have more than one gun to shoot. They probably have 25 different calibers like I do and can never make up my mind which one to take so I take all of them.

[BigAl52]

Thanks NCG I really like it when the CZ's come out. I dont have a bolt action 22 but I have looked at the CZ's pretty hard at times thinking about getting one. I do really like the few I have a CZ75B in both 9mm stainless and a rare nickel 40 SW. I also own one of there rifles in 7.62 X 39 which a close friend gave me as a gift. I really like the mannlicher stock CZ in a 22 but I have always wondered how they shoot. Al

[North Country Gal]

Al, all the CZ rimfire rifles shoot well, but the full stock rimfire models have a rep for being especially accurate. Have had a couple and that rep is well deserved.

[Mags]

Great dialog. Very educational. Thanks for sharing.

[PT7]

There is another good chat on the tangent sight posted on the Gunner Forum back in April 2015.
Check it out, and see if you recognize any of the four participants. One I don't know; the other three are very active on our current Henry Forum. Fun read!!

https://gunnerforum.com/range-reports/1 ... ights.html

Someday I hope to find one of these CZ rifles with a tangent sight at my LGS, hold it, and look down the barrel through this sight. Sure sounds interesting. Great pictures and great chat on shooting "the way it used to be." Plus more shredded targets with so many POIs side-by-side!

Thanks to all who participated in this thread....it was very cool and I learned much!
PT7