02-05-2020, 04:27 AM
tdbru Wrote:well, here's my 2 cents are worth, and that's probably all it's worth. LOL. i looked at the cz 527. a friend had one and i wasn't really keen on how they did the back end of the bolt. the handle, etc. it's not one piece bolt. and the safety works backwards from what most other bolt guns here in the USA work. and i didn't like the mag hanging below the action. on the other hand many here say the CZ527 shoots quite well.
i have two bolt Grendels. long before the Grendel became popular i was looking for a light handy carbine in 7.62x39. bolt gun. back when you could get really cheap chi-com plinking ammo. about all i could find was a Rem 799 which is/was actually a Zastava M85. liked the bottom metal a lot. hinged floor plate. but it wouldn't keep 5 rounds on the side of a barn from inside the barn. finally got a throat slug and it measured 0.338" despite Rem's insistence that they adhered to the SAAMI chamber spec. bah! so i rebarreled it to 6.5 Grendel. now Zastava is direct importing and maybe they'll bring in the M85 in 6.5 Grendel. who knows. the pluses are one piece bolt. fixed ejector. to me the fixed ejector is a plus for a range gun. the recoil lug on the M85 is not much. that's a minus. and the extractor is pretty lame. with the fixed ejector, the extractor HAS to keep side pressure on the round to keep the case on the bolt face or it just comes out of the chamber and then lays there on the follower. mine had little to no side pressure so once it got the case out of the chamber it would come off the bolt face and just lie there on the follower. i've had to file and tweak the extractor to get it to somewhat work. so for a field rifle, it ended up being a no-show so to speak. had the extractor put enough side tension on the case head to keep the case captured against the bolt face until the fixed extractor hit it, i would have been happy. so it's fine for a range rifle. not so good if you positively need to get cases ejected clear of the action. couple years ago i got excited when Howa announced the mini howa in 6.5 Grendel. i found a fully camo'd 22" bbl 6.5 Grendel and took it home. pluses are one piece bolt. also plunger ejector and a better design extractor than the M85 so it never has a problem clearing the case from the action. good for hunting / field work. not so great at the range if you want to keep your brass to reload. also in both of these designs, the recoil lug is part of the action. that's a plus to me. and the mini howa has a nice big recoil lug. the front action bolt on the M85 goes through the action into the bolt lug recesses like on a Winchester Model 70 or a Rem 700. if the screw is ever too long or the stock compresses over time there's a small risk of the end of the front action screw sticking up in the bolt lug raceway enough to bind up the bolt. the Howa front action screw goes into the center of the big recoil lug like the Mauser Model 98 does. never a risk of binding up the action due to stock compression over time. both have a nice triggers though the howa is a 2 stage trigger and the M85 is single stage. well, both can be nice if adjusted. both had pretty heavy trigger pulls out of the box. at least mine did. but they were both adjustable and so they're much nicer now. another plus with the mini howa is it's pretty light weight overall. i don't like the mini-howa tupperware stock, but it is quite rugged. it does have aluminum pillars in it. but the forend is a bit flexible. another dislike on the mini howa is the bottom "metal" that's plastic and when you tighten the action screws you crack the "bottom metal". and the magazine release is right where you'd carry the rifle and if you're not overly careful, you'll drop the magazine out of the rifle when you don't want to. and the magazines are plastic. the CZ's were metal. i prefer metal. but the plastic ones are working so far. because the ejection on the mini-howa is much more reliable than my M85 it makes a much better field rifle. the rugers i've not seen or handled yet. looking at the reviews i don't particularly like the way the action recoil is dealt with, milling slots in the action and the stock and dropping a steel plate in that fits in the slots in both the action and the stock and calling it a recoil lug. but that's just me, there are good reviews of the rifles performance. again it has a tupperware stock. rugged but not super stiff. and the ruger can take AR magazines, and that can be a plus or minus depending on what you think of that. in the cz's you can get in wood stock. they too have had good reviews on their performance. the cz tend t be a bit pricier than the Howa around here.
so there you go. 3 commonly available actions/rifles. perhaps Zastava will offer the M85 in 6.5 Grendel in the near term and make it 4. none of them are "perfect" to me. all have their pluses and minuses. in terms of the action alone between the 3 common one, i personally prefer the Howa in design and execution, but have no experience with the Ruger so take that for what it's worth.
one thing all these mini bolts have an issue with, of the 3 i've handled, is that the bolt handle has also been made petite like the rest of the action. this makes it more of a two fingered operation rather than your whole hand. they're short in length, with small knobs. so getting a good grip on them, quickly, isn't as easy for me as a full size bolt action bolt. again i can't comment on how the Ruger feels in that regards. another thing with the small bolt handles and knobs, they also come quite close to the scope eyepiece rather than stick out past it. this also makes operating the bolt a 2 finger finesse kind of thing. you won't get your whole hand on the knob and then past the scope eyepiece. littler hands may not have as much of an issue. so in the end due to the more modest price, light weight and design of the action/bolt i'd recommend the mini howa. members on this forum have all 3 of the major bolt offerings and i've heard both good and bad about all three.
so you pay your money and take your chances.
-tdbru
I too was worried I would have issues with the backwards saftey on my CZ grendel.
But it wasn't a issue, smooth transition from American style to it, basiclly after on range session it was second nature already.
There is a company you can send the CZ bottom metal and mags to and they will mod them for a flush fit.