CZ 527 Varmint feeding problem

Bill

New member
I have a 527 Varmint in 204 Ruger that I recently won in a raffle that I’m having trouble with. The bolt is not picking up a cartridge from the magazine and loading it into the chamber.

When I try to chamber a cartridge from the magazine the rifle will not chamber the cartridge, ever.

If the bolt catches the edge of the case it will push the cartridge forward part way then slip off the edge of the case and the bolt will move up the side of the case at which point the cartridge will be jammed with the cartridge partially in the magazine.

It seems to me the magazine is not going far enough up into the receiver to allow the bolt to pick up a cartridge from the magazine because if it catches the cartridge it just barely catches the top edge of the cartridge.

I measured the distance of the lip on the detent on the rear of the magazine to the top edge of a cartridge and that was 1.45 inches. The dimension from the detent stop from the trigger guard/bottom metal to the bottom of the bolt was 1.42 inches, as best as I can measure.

Are any of you aware of this problem or have you heard of or encounter this problem with any of your CZ's?

Thanks for your help.

Bill
 
I had this problem, but it was easily fixed. Mine is a CZ527 Varmint Kevlar. When the action is bolted to the stock, the inner metal that holds the magazine slips into the receiver. It is a very tight fit and is hard to line up; however, it will bolt together just fine without you noticing. Take the stock apart, and put it back together insuring that piece is fully seated, it should fix your problem.
 
I tried your suggestion, took the action out of the stock and reassembled the bottom metal and barreled action without the stock so that I could see what was going on. I re-inserted the magazine with dummy rounds and cycled the bolt several times. It did pick up the cartridges but the cycling was very stiff and nothing like it should have been. It seemed like there was a lot of metal to metal and binding. Certainly this was not a smooth operation. I disassembled and reassembled the rifle with the stock and tried again. These attempts were worse than with just with the barreled action. The cartridge would be picked up about to the half stroke then bind up. Moving the bolt back a little bit and finishing the cycle would chamber the cartridge but after examining the cases they were all scratched and dented up. It seems your advice was going in the right direction but there is a lot of improvement to be made still. It seems there is still a problem with the magazine.
 
I've tinker, fiddled and fussed with the magazine and maybe made a little imporvement. It feeds better with the stock off but I'm still at square one with the stock on. There must be something wrong with an internal dimention of the stock. Tommorrow I hope to hear back from CZ.
 
Sent these rifles back to the Mfg'er so they can see the problem they have and fix it. Trying to fix something your self will only mess up your warranty and not get it fixed correctly.
 
I called CZ today and talked with a gunsmith. He said that there should be no gap between the mating surfaces of the receiver and bottom metal. There was, about 1/16th of an inch from what I could estimate. He said to take the barreled action out of the stock and reassemble it. He also said that is very easy to assemble it incorrectly. I’ve tried several times to assemble it correctly and I really got tired of proving him right. It still goes together incorrectly. There’s a gap wide enough to be able to get a small paper clip between the two surfaces. With the stock off the receiver/bottom metal mate up nicely. My CZ is a fine rifle but there in lies the problem, it’s to fine, there is no wiggle room. Everything is very precise. The inletting for the trigger guard/bottom metal, the inletting for the receiver and the mating surface dimensions of the bottom metal and receiver are all very precise. There does seem to be a problem with the depth the inlet was done and then there still is the magazine problem too. So I guess there isn’t anything further I can do but send it in.
 
send it in and you should be fine. Like I said, with mine, I had the same issue. It took a LOT of patience to get it into place, but once I did, it solved the problem. I took a small brass drift to set it into place. Then it was a bit easier to assemble with the stock. Let us know what happens.
 
This morning I received this email from the gunsmith at CZ. I’m posting this in case anyone else may have this problem and to post their solution.


Subject: RE: FROM CZ-USA WWW - Feeding trouble, 527 Varmint, Ruger 204


You might check to see if the magazine well of the trigger guard is fully
seated in the milled recess, in the bottom of the receiver. To inspect the
junction, remove the magazine and open the bolt. Check the mating surfaces
of the magazine well and the receiver. There should be no gaps larger than
the edge of a dime. If there is a gap present, loosen front and rear frame
screws and re-seat the trigger guard/magazine well by pulling sideways
toward the magazine catch, while pushing upward.
Then re-tighten the frame screws. This will close any gaps and allow the
magazine to feed.

I tried again and this didn’t close up the gap either. All during the time I was trying to eliminate the gap I did not try to see if the magazine/feeding problem had been resolved. In frustration I decided to check the feeding prior to sending the rifle back to CZ. I used a couple of dummy cartridges and tied them. They worked! Sorta. The bolt did pick up the cartridges and feed them into the chamber, but, there is a hesitation when the bolt first starts it travel forward and about half way along its travel. The first hesitation is probably the bolt stop spring tension. No big deal. The other hesitation still deals with the feeding problem. I my mind it “works” but it’s not “fixed”. The operation of chambering of cartridges seems stiff to me and it puts long scratches along the case body. I don’t think I will be sending it back to CZ because if functions. I’ll use it and shoot it. Maybe it will get better with use. Thanks for all the reply’s and suggestions.

Bill
 
This whole problem exists because of the pressure the magazine spring exerts on the follower. If the cases are crooked in the mag or if there is more pressure on the front of the case, simply take the spring out of the mag and use a long nose pliers and bend the rear portion of the spring in the upward position. This will change the pressure point to put more pressure on the rear of the case thus evening things out.


James Calhoon uses this method to cause his custom CZ rifles to feed 3 different cartridges. I told some folks to call James in a previous thread about feed problems, and he could tell them how to perform the modification.

You can lead a horse to water but ya can't make 'em drink.

Bill
 
Why send anything in ? Why cant we get what we pay for ? Wether it be foreign or USA made, why do we have to wait for things to be right? Sell a product, make sure its good, and then release it. I hate being the "test person" for Failure.. JMO ok carry on Boys...
 
Billyd - The problem is, the mag doesn't lift high enough for the bolt to pick up the back edge of the case. Bill has worked on this until the bolt does catch the case and it now feeds. He can now work on your suggestion to smooth our the rest of his case feeding problems.
 
I solved the feeding problem of my .204 Varmint Kevlar by lightly stoning the edge burrs from the magazine feed ramps. Plus, I bought an extra mag (same problem) and simply kept both of them fully loaded all the time to set the spring pressure in both (new) units a bit lighter. No more crazy stuff happening now.
 
I always found it easier to chamber a round in a CZ527 and some other bolt actions by putting my thumb on the back of the bolt and pushing forward instead of just using the handle on the bolt. I think the correct term is the cocking piece.
 
Back
Top