Reflex sights on CZ 550 and Bruno 602 Rifles

[Frederik]

I have found a practical solution to mount reflex type sight to CZ550 and Brunos 602 rifles in big bore calibers.
For those of you who are interested please have a look at the attached PDF file with the idea behind the Apex Predator mount.

I didn't want to have the sight mounted on the action as with an extra base would make it higher and not natural to use with a straight stock and so investigated what can be done. In the end I think this is a solution for all CZ fans to have a reflex sight mounted.

Let me know what your thoughts are.

 

[Shootist43]

Frederik, I think your setup should work just fine. I'd like to see a follow up article showing your range results once you get everything adjusted properly. I'm currently undecided what to put on a recently acquired ZKK 602. I was leaning toward an illuminated reticle but your solution looks to be a credible option. Please keep us posted.

 

[Hunter4752001]

My first thought was 'what an abomination, you should be burnt at the stake for heresy'. But the more I looked at it the more I thought it had considerable merit. The test will be in how instinctiily it handles and what sort of accuracy you can achieve with it. Accuracy only needs to be minute of buffalo.
The only downside I can see is that if the sight fails for whatever reason, you have no backup. With a QD mount on the action dovetail, the sight can be removed and the irons come into play. Its a personal choice if you think that matters.
Let us all know how the sight performs.

 

[sestoppelman]

You mean BRNO? Don't see no U in there, do you?

 

[Scrumbag]

I went through a similar process of having a gun I liked and struggling with irons. This was a 9.3x62 with a barrel mounted express V and a bead front post. It was not drilled and tapped and I didn't want to try with the round action bridges. Randy and I seem to have had similar thoughts on this.

I ended up using a mounting block from JP Enterprizes (fits the Leupold Delta Point, Delta Point Pro, Shield RMS, Shield SMS, and Redfield Accelerator maybe others) and can be machined to fit in a dovetail (Perhaps if you remove your irons you will have a handy dovetail, often can be drifted out)

Block where the base is machined to fit your dovetail (https://jprifles.com/buy.php?item=JPA-GS)

Then with the adapter plate, sits on top of the block (https://jprifles.com/buy.php?item=ARR-JP/DR)

It will accomodate sights with the Docter pattern footplate (Docter / Noblex, Leica, Kahles, Burris Fastfire and possibly some others I'm missing)

I swapped out my express V at the back of my 9.3x62 for a reflex red dot sight, started with a Burris Fastfire but swapped to a Leica Tempus for the smaller dot.

Original folding rear express sight in dovetail

Block milled to fit dovetail with adapter plate for Docter footprint optics:

(Sorry is rather grainy image - make sure smith fits facing forward, adapter plate seen extending rearward)

Image of block with a grub Allen head grub screw drilled and tapped through it. On a high recoiling rifle I was advised this might be a good idea to stop the block and sight walking / drifting sideways under recoil. (Should think this would apply to a slug gun too)

Burris Fastfire mounted to block

Overall view of rifle – put a leather cheek riser on the stock just to lift sight like a little agter some shooting.

Really bad attempt at photo of sight picture (Actually looks much better!)

Seems we got to the same point and I live it!

Scrummy

 

[Frederik]

My first thought was 'what an abomination, you should be burnt at the stake for heresy'. But the more I looked at it the more I thought it had considerable merit. The test will be in how instinctiily it handles and what sort of accuracy you can achieve with it. Accuracy only needs to be minute of buffalo.
The only downside I can see is that if the sight fails for whatever reason, you have no backup. With a QD mount on the action dovetail, the sight can be removed and the irons come into play. Its a personal choice if you think that matters.
Let us all know how the sight performs.

Hunter, if you look closely you will see a V cut into the back of the mount for backup should the sight fail. There is more info and pictures in the attched PDF document. So there is a backup as of accuracy I'm not struggling to hit and ring the 200 meter steel plate gong size 12" x 12"

I'm actually going to the range today again to double check loads and speeds will come back with results later today.

 

[Frederik]

Scrumbag,

See you had the same idea I just wanted a base as low as possible and got the base machined out of steel and got it quite low. The dot on the sight is 12mm above the the barrel basically only 1/4".
Like you with special collectable rifles it means you dont have to drill and tap big bonus.

 

[John Telford]

I went through a similar process of having a gun I liked and struggling with irons. This was a 9.3x62 with a barrel mounted express V and a bead front post. It was not drilled and tapped and I didn't want to try with the round action bridges. Randy and I seem to have had similar thoughts on this.

I ended up using a mounting block from JP Enterprizes (fits the Leupold Delta Point, Delta Point Pro, Shield RMS, Shield SMS, and Redfield Accelerator maybe others) and can be machined to fit in a dovetail (Perhaps if you remove your irons you will have a handy dovetail, often can be drifted out)

Block where the base is machined to fit your dovetail (https://jprifles.com/buy.php?item=JPA-GS)

Then with the adapter plate, sits on top of the block (https://jprifles.com/buy.php?item=ARR-JP/DR)

It will accomodate sights with the Docter pattern footplate (Docter / Noblex, Leica, Kahles, Burris Fastfire and possibly some others I'm missing)

I swapped out my express V at the back of my 9.3x62 for a reflex red dot sight, started with a Burris Fastfire but swapped to a Leica Tempus for the smaller dot.

Original folding rear express sight in dovetail

Block milled to fit dovetail with adapter plate for Docter footprint optics:

(Sorry is rather grainy image - make sure smith fits facing forward, adapter plate seen extending rearward)

Image of block with a grub Allen head grub screw drilled and tapped through it. On a high recoiling rifle I was advised this might be a good idea to stop the block and sight walking / drifting sideways under recoil. (Should think this would apply to a slug gun too)

Burris Fastfire mounted to block

Overall view of rifle – put a leather cheek riser on the stock just to lift sight like a little agter some shooting.

Really bad attempt at photo of sight picture (Actually looks much better!)

Seems we got to the same point and I live it!

Scrummy

is that 9.3 an FN Rifle? It looks like a superb bush rifle.

 

[John Telford]

I have found a practical solution to mount reflex type sight to CZ550 and Brunos 602 rifles in big bore calibers.
For those of you who are interested please have a look at the attached PDF file with the idea behind the Apex Predator mount.

I didn't want to have the sight mounted on the action as with an extra base would make it higher and not natural to use with a straight stock and so investigated what can be done. In the end I think this is a solution for all CZ fans to have a reflex sight mounted.

Let me know what your thoughts are.

View attachment 369191

Boet- I like the low profile. When is the next BASA shoot? Keep us posted.

 

[Scrumbag]

is that 9.3 an FN Rifle? It looks like a superb bush rifle.

It is indeed sir. I have a bit of a thing for FN Commercials owning 3 of them in 257 Roberts, 9.3x62 and 404 Jeff

 

[John Telford]

Nice guns - I have one in 458 win mag

 

[Hunter4752001]

if you look closely you will see a V cut into the back of the mount for backup should the sight fail. There is more info and pictures in the attched PDF document.

Thanks Frederik. I completely missed seeing the pdf document. Sounds like you've covered all the bases with a really well thought out product. I've been using reflex sights on my handguns for several years and am hooked for that application.

 

[Scrumbag]

Nice guns - I have one in 458 win mag

I do like them. Shot the 9.3 and 404 a bit this morning at a comp at Bisley.

Good fun stuff!

 

[Frederik]

Boet- I like the low profile. When is the next BASA shoot? Keep us posted.

John, next shoot is on the 17th of October then there is another the last one of the year 28 Nov and somewhere before also in November the Safari DGS shoot.

 

[Frederik]

Frederik, I think your setup should work just fine. I'd like to see a follow up article showing your range results once you get everything adjusted properly. I'm currently undecided what to put on a recently acquired ZKK 602. I was leaning toward an illuminated reticle but your solution looks to be a credible option. Please keep us posted.

Shootist43, I was at the range yesterday to finalise my range loads the ones I will use shooting competitions. The rifle was shooting 2" right at 50 meters and a tad high but that is now resolved and I got the velocities I was hoping for and load data.

Before you shoot me down I shoot about 120-150 rounds on the range each year between competing/practise and components are not cheap so even with my 375 H&H I have hunting loads and cheap bullets for range time.

Just for interest sake my hunting ammo setup is 480gr Woodleigh soft bullets at 2175fps and range setup non bonded Claw bullets in 480gr at 2270fps using Norma 203B powder.

So as of yesterday I have put 145 rounds through my new rifle (From May till now) with the reflex sight on and am very happy with it. Hunted with it a bit walked a lot of miles with the rifle while hunting and am impressed and confident with everything achieved and a dream coming true after many years of wishing for a bigger bore rifle.

 

[Scrumbag]

Just as a thought for people, there are other ways of mounting a red dot to CZ / Brno / dovetails on rifles.

If you are going to use a Docter / Noblex footprint optic recknagel make these things

Those things attach to the dovetail (Primenbreite) and are QD. I have a couple, one for use on my .223 y Rem and 1 for use on my .22lr

I haven't tried one on a high powered rifle yet but they seem to work well so far (I use those to replicate shooting my 9.3x62 for sight picture)

The catalogue is here:

https://www.recknagel.de/en/info-service/catalog/ (p.24)

Recknagel also make dovetail mounts for the Aimpoint Micro, Meopro and Zeiss Compact I think as well.

Hope that helps people,

Scrummy

 

[Frederik]

Scrummy, I have personally seen some reflex and aimpoints come loose on mounts fastened on the dovetail at our BASA shoots these gents then get them custom made.
I just went different and added the sight much more forward where it helps with alingning the sight and dot much quicker and easier and it can't go anywhere.

 

[Shootist43]

Frederik, just like you I practice with cheaper bullets than I hunt with. Especially for the big(ger) bores. I purchase "overruns" and "blemished" bullets whenever possible. At times, I've paid as little as $0.30 apiece for .375 and .416(s.) My hunting bullets are generally Swift A Frame(s.) I tried to purchase some Rhino bullets several years ago, but they are not available in the States. Do you have any photos of targets shot with your sighting setup? If so, would you mind posting them? I'm more interested in group sizes, centering them is a no brainer.

 

[Frederik]

Shootist43, I don't always keep the targets but this was from my second session sighting in from sandbags before moving over to Norma Powder as our local supplier has run dry and is juts not consistent anymore even if they get back into production.

I was obviously very happy that I could aim small with the 1 moa dot and achieve this 3 shot group at 50 meters.

 

[Scrumbag]

Scrummy, I have personally seen some reflex and aimpoints come loose on mounts fastened on the dovetail at our BASA shoots these gents then get them custom made.
I just went different and added the sight much more forward where it helps with alingning the sight and dot much quicker and easier and it can't go anywhere.

Frederick I could believe it. The one I have has a hole for a pin presumably to stop sliding. I guess those have not been used? (Though I think some of the 550s don't have a hole to receive a pin between the dovetails either)

I was shooting my FN 404J yesterday at the British Sporting Rifle Club (Think some of our lot came down to shoot against some BASA guys a couple of years ago?) - Anyway, the little "slider" that operates the bolt release fell off during a shoot.

Scrummy