Review & video: the superbly accurate CZ 600 Range

Any rifle that comes with a factory guarantee of .75 MOA accuracy over five shots is sticking its head above the parapet. Sure, there’s the caveat on the guarantee: it must be factory match-grade ammunition, a fair stipulation. Still, it’s a seriously tough promise to live up to.

It’s scary having to prove whether or not the rifle can do it, too, because it means I’ve got to live up to the promise in my preparation and shooting. In my first session, I didn’t, and if I’d stopped there I would have said the CZ didn’t shoot as it should. I would have been wrong.

See the CZ 600 Range in action in this video version of the test

As well as going away to remount the scope, re-torque the action screws and check other details, I gave myself a stern talking to. Shooting again another day, the end result was that of the six factory loads I settled on for testing, on average, three showed the 600 Range lived up to its promise.

In the test rifle, two good-quality factory hunting loads went under .75, which made me cheer because I had some goat culling to do. The CZ excelled at picking them off across gullies and on cliff faces, where most shots were in the 300-400m range.

The barrel and stock are the two main elements that give the Range its bragging rights. They also make it the heaviest and most stable rifle in CZ’s fairly new 600 series. This model is built on a steel version of the 600 receiver with an attractive and exceptionally strong nitride finish. It’s the medium-sized of three action lengths in the 600 series.

The thick barrel ensures accuracy remains excellent over more than five shots with little sign of groups expanding. Firing a 10-round group of each of the two most accurate loads, the rifle remained sub-MOA. The 61cm (24”) barrel tapers from 26mm at the receiver to 22mm at the muzzle thread, floating over its full length. Inside, it has a 1:10” twist, fast enough to stabilise the weightier .308 bullets.

CZ 600 Range rifle — The 600 Range is an attractive rifle in its laminate stock, and it out-performs many chassis rifles

It is clamped into the receiver by three cross-bolts and can be swapped if you wish to change calibres — but only by a gunsmith, CZ instructs. The flat-bottomed receiver sits on a bedding plate under its front section, spreading the load a little wider than the receiver can do on its own. Where the action contacts the stock behind the magazine, a notch in the receiver’s base fits over a square-section cross brace slotted through the stock from side to side. Both the cross brace and the plate serve as recoil lugs.

The inherent strength in the laminated timber stock offers plenty of support, too, and the stock’s target-style design then takes things further in the shooter’s favour. It’s intended for supported shooting, whether on a bipod, tripod or bags. Even the heel of the butt is fitted with a pic rail on which to fix a foot (and the rail is thoughtfully wrapped in a detachable rubber slip to protect your hands from sharp edges).

The large cutout under the butt includes a bag hook. The comb can be raised in a moment without the need for tools. A vertical pistol grip with heavily textured stippling and a large palm swell is generously sized to fit most hands very well, as long as it’s a right hand. Length of pull is fixed at an adult-sized 370mm.

If push comes to shove your left hand can hold the fore-end for offhand shots, with your grip aided by scalloped grooves full of stippling running just under the barrel.

There are two sling swivel studs under the fore-end to which you can also attach a bipod. Cups on left and right of the fore-end and butt accept QD swivel studs.

You can get very comfortable behind the Range, which then adds a super-sweet single-stage trigger to the mix. There are four set weights of about 650g, 900g, 1200g and 1400g. I used it set at the lightest setting, where it always released within 30 grams. It’s a very, very consistent and crisp trigger — one of the best around.

The trigger mechanism includes the unique safety. Using the vertically mounted button from behind the butt is a natural movement. Curl your trigger finger back to push it up from behind the trigger guard and activate the safety; push down with your thumb to put it in the firing position. The safety completely blocks the trigger mechanism.

It also locks the bolt down but there’s a bolt unlocking button on the receiver, just in front of the bolt handle, which also moves the bolt stop out of the way so you can remove the bolt.

Bolt movement is super-smooth. The bolt’s 20mm diameter is a close fit in the receiver, with virtually no wiggle or wobble. The bolt stop is a vertical pin that doubles as the guide, engaging in a 4.5mm wide slot running the length of the bolt body.

The separate bolt head can be swapped if you are changing calibre groups in your CZ 600. It has six lugs in two rows, with cammed edges to help pull them into engagement in their slots.

CZ calls the 600 bolt-action a controlled round feed, but that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s not at all like the old Mauser-type system. The bolt’s bottom locking lug pushes a round out of the magazine, and as the shell clears the lips and rises to enter the chamber, its base slides up into a 3mm wide overhang around the top and left of the bolt face, the rim sliding under the extractor claw at the same time. The control (that is, the bolt’s grip on the shell) starts when the rim slips under the claw in the final couple of centimetres or so of chambering the round.

It is, however, a little more controlled than a straight push-feed bolt.

The 60-degree turn down to lock the bolt is light and slick. Bolt lift and extraction is not heavy despite the short throw.

For ejection, when the bolt reaches the last centimetre or so of its rearward travel, the back end of the ejector mechanism hits a stop while you keep pulling the bolt and shell backwards. If you’re pulling fast the shell is ejected forcefully; if you pull slowly it will drop into the open receiver; if you pull with just the right amount of power you can make the shell drop beside you on the bench. It’s a convenient system and well executed.

The polymer magazine is a squat double-stacker and therefore low and compact, fitting flush with the bottom of the stock. The release button underneath and in front of the magazine well can be pressed to release the mag or pushed forward to lock it in place for when you’re single-feeding, just to ensure it doesn’t come loose. Top loading is easy, but you must ensure the cartridges are slotted into the mag for them to feed; you can’t just drop rounds on top of the magazine.

The box will allow you to load cartridges up to an overall length of 76mm, the same length as the ejection port, which in turn is just big enough to allow quick top-loading as long as your scope isn’t too low and bulky, or you don’t fit a rail that closes it off.

The action of the Range is drilled and tapped to accept Remington 700-type scope mounts, and this one had a pair of Weaver-style bases fitted. I was spoiled with a Meopta Optika6 4.5-27×50 FFP scope, a relatively compact yet perfectly specified scope for the Range’s long-shot potential. Rather breezy conditions meant I kept shots within 400m, where I never needed even 20x magnification, but the combination would have been good for as far as a .308 round can accurately fly.

The scope was in Recknagel QD rings, which come on and off easily and went back to point of aim when replaced. They’re very good.

The bare rifle weighs 4.6kg and the whole rig weighed 6kg with bipod and a full magazine, not excessive to carry a short way into a shooting position and snipe with. With this mass, felt recoil is minimal and I could recover quickly enough to clearly see my fall of shot generally before the bullet had gone 300m. With the long-ish barrel, shooting over a deep valley that dissipated the sound, I fired three shots without realising I’d forgotten to don my earmuffs. Firing dozens of shots through this big CZ is no chore at all, and this ease of shooting is no doubt part of the reason the CZ is so accurate.

You could screw a brake onto the muzzle’s M18x1 thread, giving your Range the kick of a legless lizard. I wouldn’t bother.

No, the Range is fine as it comes, and the proof is in the accuracy. As always, there were a couple of loads I didn’t persist with after the first few shots indicated they weren’t going to excel, something that’s common to most rifles, but the CZ found a fondness for loads with light, medium and heavy .308 bullets.

On top of that, it is very well made and beautifully finished, it’s very pleasant to shoot and has a host of worthwhile features to make it the long-range hunting and target rifle it is.

Thanks to Mudgee Firearms for help with transfers and having a good range of ammo.