Kitty had an earlier thread about starter rifles, and the consensus was clearly for some variant of the CZ 452 but shoot what you do best with. An Anschutz 1712 is the bench mark everything else is measured against and it is just about perfect out of the box, but I inexplicably shoot better with a different, mechanically inferior, rifle.

jason ,nice 452! what kind of stock is that and where might i find one?

dave

silhouette13 wrote:jason ,nice 452! what kind of stock is that and where might i find one?

dave

That's my CZ 452 Varmint factory stock (like in the first picture) that I modified (add cheekpiece, add bigger palm swell and vertical grip, slimmed down forearms, added spacer to lengthen LOP, etc). The middle pictures are post-reshaping, but before the bright blue metal-flake paint when it's easier to see individual contours. My father-in-law (excellent woodworker) and I custom fit it to me, complete with adjusting for everything from my hand shape and finger length to arm length (for LOP) and face shape (on cheekpiece). It really wasn't that hard to do once we got into it. The glossy metal-flake paint wasn't worth it, though. I reshaped a prone rifle stock myself after that and used some textured paint on it. It was 10% of the work of the glossy and much better for grip and durability for competition use.

Anyone with the willingness to trash a factory stock that has some extra wood, bondo, sandpaper, and a LOT of elbow grease could do the same or better. The CZ was the first one that I had done, and due to learning on that one it was a lot easier on the prone stock.

thanks i think i will try and get my hands on a used cz stock and try my hand.what do you think of using one of the euro style hog back ones there seems to be a little more drop at toe so mabey it might bring the cheek a bit higher ala pharr

dave

I actually attached a block of wood (flatten area of stock at the angle I want the cheekpiece, drill holes, glue between pieces and around dowels, etc.) so I don't think it would make that much of a difference. I wanted the heft of the Varmint barreled action, so I just went ahead and used the Varmint stock it was sitting in.

silhouette13 wrote:thanks i think i will try and get my hands on a used cz stock and try my hand.what do you think of using one of the euro style hog back ones there seems to be a little more drop at toe so mabey it might bring the cheek a bit higher ala pharr

dave

I was kinda thinking the same right before I sold my 452 Silo. Search for "newazshooter" and look at what John did to the 452 trainer stock I gave him when he bought my Silo.........

I agree with Jason you can get going in great fashion with a CZ and be competitive. [/img]