17 Hornet CZ 527 Magazine Issues!

C

cgc

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I have a 17 Hornet that I have been only shooting rounds to fire form. I have not shot any factory rounds from this rifle. I am using Remington brass, 7.5 primer, and 12 grains of 1680.

The rounds would chamber ok but the bolt was a little hard to close ( but this is expected when fire forming rounds).

Now I am using fireformed brass that have been neck sized using a Redding neck bushing die and a .189 bushing.

The rounds seem to be getting hung up now. They don't go in the chamber all the way, unless I sit there and fidget with the rifle.

I have two magazines that it does this with.

Anyone else have this problem?

( I posted this on cz forums, thought I post again for more traffic)
 
Yes, I have checked the length. The brass are 1.350" . I made up 5 dummy rounds with oal of 1.720".

I am going to buy some factory rounds to see if they chamber correctly.

I have also used a full length die on some and they still have the same problem chambering.
 
Not quite clear with which issue/s you are having trouble with. Is it getting them to feed from the magazine up into the chamber or are you having trouble getting the bolt to close on a chambered round?

Also, overall case length doesn't really tell the whole story. Base to shoulder datum is the important measurement especially with regard to issues with closing the bolt on a chambered round.

If you're neck sizing only and having trouble closing the bolt on a loaded round you probably need to FL size and bump the shoulder back until your brass will chamber on bolt close with little to no resistance.

Which bushing you use has everything to do with neck thickness. I don't know what brass you're using but Hornady's brass for the 17 Hornady Hornet is kind of all over the place on neck thickness at least my Hornady 17HH brass is. I use a Redding neck size only die for my two CZ 527 17HH's but I keep my brass segregated by neck thickness and the size bushing I use is determined by the neck thickness of the particular batch of brass I'm loading.
 
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I'm having trouble getting them to feed. I'm using Remington brass.

They fed better when I was forming them and they had that weird shape to them. They would go into the chamber ok but the bolt was harder to close which is from what I understand what you want.

Now that they are formed and I neck sized them I also full length size some as well, the rounds seem to be getting hung up. They are not going into the chamber unless I play around with the bolt.
 
Ok, I bought some factory ammo and it does the same thing.

This time I would would work the bolt harder and it seemed to work better.
 
The bolt in CZ 527's is fairly sloppy and there are a couple techniques that really seem to help with 527's chambered in 17 Hornet.

#1 Use the bolt handle to open and cycle the bolt rearward like you normally would but once the bolt is all the way to the rear let go of the bolt handle and push the bolt forward with only your thumb pushing forward behind the bolt shroud then once it has picked up a new round and is all the way up inside the chamber grab the bolt handle and close the bolt. I think that will solve nearly all of your problem/s.

#2 Try lifting up on the bolt handle as you push the bolt back forward.

Either technique works but I've had the best results using #1 and pushing the bolt back forward with just my thumb behind the bolt shroud with both of my CZ 527 17 Hornets.

Give it a try and let us know how it works.

Also, you can get a single shot follower from James Calhoon and eliminate the magazine all together. Once I figured out the trick to getting mine to feed I went back to using the magazine instead of the SS follower I bought from James.
 
Ok, that actually worked better. I really have to drive the bolt with a little bit of force and it goes in. Sometimes it will stop, just short of being inserted fully into the chamber and then I apply more force and it goes in.

Shame this has to happen.

I'm wondering if the Anschutz 17 Hornet has any issues with feeding. Of course it's much more expensive!
 
One of my magazines does this. It get stuck and points upwards. Any idea why
 

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My CZ Hornet acted a lot the same way when it was new. I was highly discouraged that a rifle of that type would have any issues at all. I cleaned, oiled, tinkered, repeat on several occasions. I don't think that my tinkering ever had anything to do with it but after a few seasons of use, it did start to move more freely. I chalked it up to the rifle just needing to be used a bit to loosen things up a little. I've only ever shot factory ammo in it as I bought a bunch and had some given to me that was purchased by mistake by a friend so I can't speak to the reloading process, but it sounds like you shouldn't have any problems by the way you're treating your reloads. If it is a new rifle, it may just take some use as mine did. They shouldn't require it to function properly in my opinion but that little gun has quickly climbed to the top of my "favorites" list for a calling gun. Hopefully you find a remedy and if not, Let me know if you'd like to sell it! I have been looking for a 527 action for a future build!
 
I've had numerous CZ 527's and the only ones that had feeding issues were my 17 Hornets. Being that it's a rimmed case and the 17's are a pretty straight case with very little taper presents its own set of issues and doesn't really lend itself to smooth feeding which is probably why so many guys go to the single shot followers and stop using the magazine all together.

For me changing the way I cycled the bolt and only using my thumb behind the bolt shroud to push it forward was a game changer. I do recall some years back talking to James Calhoon who is kind of a CZ 527 specialist and him telling me sometimes that big claw extractor needs to have a little tuning done to them because they can be a bit tight and cause feeding issues but I don't remember exactly what he told me he does to them to fix the problem. He was getting up there in age and I haven't talked to James in probably six or seven years so I don't even know if he's still with us or not but I hope he is because he is a real character to chat with. If you get your feelings easily hurt or you're more the politically correct kind of person James Calhoon probably isn't the right guy for you to talk to because he pretty much calls it how he sees it and doesn't beat around the bush saying things. I always enjoyed chatting with him but I know others not so much.

If your 527 doesn't want to act right for you I'd give James a call and see if he can help you out. He was always very willing to chat about all things CZ 527 related when I called him.

 
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