Beyond the standard SC 550 Safari Classic features, customers can request custom touches: an ebony tipped forend, jeweled bolt body and extractor, removable muzzle brake, optional barrel and stock length, etc. In fact, pretty much any of the work that is done at a full service custom shop. Unlike the rifles sold through CZ-USA that are made in the Czech Republic, in the case of the SC 550 Safari Classic, only the magnum action without barrel is sourced from the parent company. All other parts are sourced and/or assembled in Warsaw, MO. This includes barrel installation, final inletting and finishing of U.S. sourced American walnut stocks and all metal part finesse fitting and finishing. That's more American content than a current model Ford or Chevy. The Real Guns .500 Jeffery Project series rifle is representative of a SC 550 Safari Classic.

The SC 550 Safari Classic...from back to front

The SC has a good recoil pad, a very soft and resilient 2"x5½" HIVIZ Xcoil. The silver cylinder is a C&H Research 3" 8 oz mercury filled recoil suppressor. It fits into the hole bored into the stock and is anchored with a screw to fix its position in the stock.

Besides the 8 oz of recoil dampening weight it adds to the rifle, the heavy liquid mercury encapsulated in the cylinder tries to stay put when the rifle comes back under recoil. This  inertia at rest offers resistance to the gun's reward movement and softens the already gentle push of roughly 162 ft/lbs of recoil.

I have never seen a CZ 550 that was casual about holding onto a stock and the SC 550 Safari Classic is no exception. Glass bedding is standard as marked, which beefs up an already tough mounting system.

The recoil lugs are integral to the barrel or action and they are going to stay put. The stay's fingers, seen in relative position above, drops into two close fitting recesses in the stock and is reinforced with glass bedding. It locks behind the front barrel recoil lug and takes the hit on discharge, sharing the load with the recoil lug at the front of the action. Of course the action has its own footprint that mates closely to the stock inletting. The whole sandwich is held together with two guard/floorplate screws and one forearm screw where the barrel is located by the stay and floats in the barrel channel.. The wood pores are sealed inside and out. The two cross bolts add some strength to the area gutted for the large magazine box and keeps the box where it is suppose to be during live fire.

The Magazine release button is at the front and outside of the trigger guard where it won't get accidentally bumped and empty the mag in the midst of a rampant lemming charge. All the metal parts are stout, function well and have a clean finish.

As noted in the table, the gun holds three rounds of .500 Jeffery in its magazine. Owners of big Weatherby rifles that are based on the .378 Weatherby Magnum are limited to just two. My guess is four rounds is the limit, as shooters might prefer being run over by the game than shooting more rounds of this cartridge.

The trigger on the SC 550 is outstanding. Of single set design and fully adjustable, the trigger is set by pushing it all the way forward. When not set, the trigger pull range is more typical of a standard sporting rifle. Mine was received with just under 4 lbs for standard pull and a little over 1 lb when set. The "set" range can be adjusted down to a few ounces, the standard trigger can be adjusted between 2.4 - 4.4 lbs. Because the set trigger lightens the pull by minimizing sear engagement, smack testing is always be at the conclusion of an adjustment session. Set or unset, the trigger is very clean with virtually no creep or roughness. It also sits back in the guard to make access easy even under stressful circumstances.

"A" is the normal trigger pull adjustment, "B" determines trigger travel prior to release, "C" is trigger travel after discharge. "D" is the set trigger pull adjustment. Adjustments are made with the stock removed from the firearm and very specific procedural instructions are provided in the manual.

When I bought my 375 H&H CZ 550 American Safari Magnum, I thought this would be a weak spot; there was no way the 19mm dovetail bases machined into the bridge would keep a scope in place. Then I mounted a large tactical scope, with a set of Warne steel rings, and proceeded to fire several hundred rounds of full up loads from the bench, then more while the gun was locked up in a stationary and non-shock absorbing shooting rest.  The scope never moved, nor did it break, however, the constant pounding in the cement solid rest eventually chipped a divot in the stock. My fault. There is a good argument for aluminum rings; low mass means less inertial effect under recoil, but I have not been able to turn that corner on the current millennium.

A locking tab on the rear ring prevents fore and aft movement and those steel claws lock up just fine in the dovetails. I torqued them on at 20 in/lbs and did not use any type of thread locker. High rings are required with large diameter eyepieces for clearance with the high lift of the bolt handle.

In the next part in this series you'll see where, when I did quite a bit of live fire testing, I elected to go with open sights in anticipation of recoil presenting an eye opening problem... literally. Shooting off a bench can be a very awkward position and create problems that would never arise under normal shooting circumstances.

The rear express sight is functional, tough and will not fall off even of under heavy bashing. The two forward leaves fold down out of the way, the 100 meter is fixed. Windage point of impact adjustment is accomplished by drifting the sight in its dovetail base. With the 500 Jeffery at least, I have to believe the longer range leaves are superfluous as large dangerous game is rarely shot at long distances with this type of cartridge. The 100 meter leaf is about all that is needed for game that can provide its own shade.

The theory is that a raised asymmetrical mass on a barrel, like the one that retains the express sight, disturbs normal harmonics and causes groups to stray and shifts point of impact. I personally love the theory, I've just never seen it happen. My 375 H&H groups sub MOA with decent handloads and bullets and that has one of the lumpiest barrels around.

The front sight is a hooded ramp type, silver soldered in place like the barrel band. The hood is removable and windowed to get light on the post under most conditions. The small button just forward of the post is spring loaded and permits easy post height changes. It is comfortable enough for the range and easy to bring into alignment with a little experience.

The sight picture is good, between the deep V rear leaf, the circle of the hood that helps bring everything into alignment and the bead. The only problem is that the bead is small and a little hard to find against dark objects. I think this is one place where I could let go of tradition and maybe hope for a good set of large dot light pipe sights in bright green. There are lots of 1x-4x scopes out there for boomers. Something with bright optics and an excellent lens mounting system. The better ones provide a 100' field of view at 100 yards when set to the lower magnification range. Lots of eye relief would be a big plus.

General Observations

One of the difficult tasks when summarizing a rifle's performance and/or appeal, is separating the personality of the cartridge from the hardware, especially in these types of combinations. The SC 550 Safari Classic handles as through it were much smaller than it is, and that's a good thing. I never had the sense that I was swinging a nose heavy piece of pipe when tracking to a target and the gun's balance seemed to put the mass between my supporting hand and shoulder where it was comfortable. The bordered cut checkering is clean, well laid out and just sharp enough to establish a good grip without being a cheese grater on recoil. The HiViz recoil pad is actually pretty good, even behind this recoil, and the pull length is just about right for shooting from a standing position without hyperextending or deep bruising the rotator cuff.

The gun is by no means "Plain Jane" but it also isn't overdone. As an example, the butt stock of the rifle is really pretty. Lots of color and tiger tail and the grain flows with the lines of the gun. I've seen expensive fancy stocks where the company had no sense of mating a wood to metal and the fancy grain looked at odds with the hardware. The grain on the SC 550 begins to straighten at the wrist of the stock and carries through the length of the forearm, which is perfect. Where the grain is more straight, there is still lots of contrasting color streaks to keep things interesting, but the straighter grain in these areas means no weak spots or odd barrel pressure from wandering grain and varying wood density.

I know that CZ has done a lot of work to Westernize their firearms and I think they deserve a lot of credit for being that respectful of a market preference. I am also quite certain this tact brings them a lot of business. I'm just not so wrapped up in the straight stock concept where there is a real need for open sights. In the case of the SC 550 Safari Classic, the physical drop from bore centerline to heel of the stock measured 1". Where this works just great with a scope, it makes for some creative neck craning when looking down the express sights. No, this isn't a crisis problem. Owners are hardly going to spend the day popping a hundred woodchucks, but it would make the gun feel a little more natural when bringing it up to the shoulder quickly.

Nothing to do with CZ's approach to the rifle, but rather the design of any gun built on a magnum Mauser action and cartridges of this size. Working the bolt with the gun still at the shoulder requires some care in regard to head position. The red line marks the position of the head/eye when shooting from the standing position. I can surmise that knocking yourself out with a cycling bolt is probably not good defense against the charge of a major horned mammal. 

In terms of smoothness, this is a Mauser design and prone to the usual mechanical clanking and motions associated with an empty gun. Closing the bolt from full open, there will always be the short bump when the slot in the bolt body contacts and compresses the spring loaded ejector. From then on, with necessary clearance, there will be the drag of the bolt's lugs and extractor running along the tracks in the action. Mauser actions, in particular, should be cycle checked with a magazine full of dummy rounds, as cycling an empty rifle is indicative of just about nothing...unless you hunt with an empty gun. There is no resistance of a case head to square and center the gun's bolt in its tracks when chambering and an empty follower applies a resistance to the bolt that is not present when a rifle is loaded and in use. I had someone write a while back, advising that his Mauser type rifle felt as though it would bind at half bolt travel on an empty gun - see above. The gun should be checked the way it is designed to be operated; feeding, extracting and ejecting cartridges, not empty and dry fired.

The example I used was a little gritty, a slight burr on the action's rail just forward of the rear receiver ring. A few cycles of the bolt smoothed out the surface and everything worked fine from that point.

And if I had my wish...

I'd like to see CZ-USA open up the hunting gun selections with a few more choices, especially something that would be low maintenance and optimal for dragging around in a rough environment. I'd love to see an 8 lb version of the .500 Jeffery; good synthetic stock with integral frame, maybe a little more drop, same length barrel, but with an efficient muzzle brake. Any of the new matte black corrosion-resistant finishes to cut glare and remove concern over fingerprints and high humidity would be perfect. I'm still holding out hopes for a .30-06 length FS model at 7 lbs chambered for the 375 Ruger. What a compact big bear gun that would make! I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting.....

In the end, the SC 550 Safari Classic performed well, the cartridge as part of this combination was pretty sensational and CZ has demonstrated they can just keep on making excellent firearms. Details of shooting performance  and handload data are covered in the .500 Jeffery Project series.

The CZ SC550 Safari Classic Part I
The CZ SC550 Safari Classic Part II
The 500 Jeffery Project - Part I - When Way Too Much Is Just Enough
The 500 Jeffery Project Part II - Handloads and Range Results - Good Grief!