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The CZ SC550 Safari Classic Part II
Shooting Impressions - The .500 Jeffery Reaching its Potential
By Joseph D'Alessandro Editor
| RealGuns.Com
 The
personality of a hard hitting gun is unique in comparison to other
types of firearms. Every demand placed on the gun's design is
amplified by the power and size of its cartridge. Hardware is larger
and more robust, the stock must endure huge amounts of stress
without fracturing and the overall geometry of the gun must put
sights on a target intuitively, while managing recoil to minimize
the punishment the shooter has to endure. Beyond these noted
accommodations, the rifle has to be reliable to the point there is
never a concern the gun might fail at the worst possible moment.
These rifles are not used for deer or elk hunts, they are intended
to put down something large and dangerous that is perfectly capable
of making "a slow hunter" the punch line to the question, "What's
the gooey stuff between an elephant's toes". How much assurance does
a gun of this type need to provide for the hunter? I think a fair
test would be to imagine yourself locked in a large room with an
angry elephant, or a cape buffalo or a lion. How much gun would it
take for you to feel safe? The SC 550 in .500 Jeffery is a gun that
I believe would make anyone feel safe as long as the hunter could
handle the recoil.
I can't remember if it was Rocky II or III...
You may have noticed the sandbags in disarray
around the shooting rest. Live fire of the SC 550 was a little... howitzer like; stack on the
bags, squeeze off a shot, hang onto the rest as it came back a few
inches under recoil and restack the bags that were shaken loose in
the process. I kept
thinking I should holler "Fire in the hole", or at least "Four", but
then no one seemed to settle into a shooting spot close enough for
me to be concerned. Shooting from the bench, because of angle and
posture, is almost always the least comfortable for a heavy recoiling
rifle.
 Shooting from a standing position
is...interesting. No supernatural forces at work here, just a basic 145 ft-lbs of recoil.
Positioning my body at a 45° angle to the target and leaning
into the gun as though I were a trap shooter allowed me to make rapid follow up shots on the target, as
long as the target wasn't too small and as long as "follow up shots" meant a
total of two. This minor personal
achievement was somewhat diminished by profuse thumping about the head and shoulders. I even ended up with a
deep bruise on my middle finger
when it attempted to seek sanctuary behind the
gun's trigger guard. At the end of the day I looked like the loser in a
severely mismatched cage fight. Sort of like growing up in New Jersey.
Shooting the .500 Jeffery was outside of my frame
of reference, even though I am accustomed to shooting a .416 Weatherby with heavy
handloads that is two pounds lighter. If it wasn't battering from numerous
handloads, it was the shock wave concussion from the muzzle
blast that kept a dull headache going all day while blowing the sky screens
off the chronograph.
This is no reflection on the SC 550 rifle, which performed
admirably. With just the shallow "V" express sights and a rest I managed a
best effort long 1˝" 100 yard
group. Nothing else was more than an inch larger, which is
respectable for the gun's intended purpose. I believe a low power
scope would significantly improved that situation.
Don't shoot an elephant with
another standing behind it...
 I
had a lot of fun with putting together handloads. On the top
end of handloading, 600 grain loads delivered over 8,000
ft-lbs of energy, which is pretty serious territory. I
also loaded some
cast bullet ammunition; 350 - 400 grains at 1,400 - 1,800 fps.
It was like shooting a well mannered plinker, which isn't bad
for rounds that generate 2,800 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Getting
performance in between those extremes was easy with some of the
middle weights zipping along at 2,700
fps.
There is a precaution that is unique to these
larger bores. In a limited supply market place, almost anyone
with access to brass can declare themselves a custom loader and
anyone with a lathe or screw machine can claim to be a bullet
manufacturer and charge a premium for useless product. The end
result is ammunition that is not production quality and lacks
pressure certification or bullets that don't fly straight and
have no demonstrated performance on big game. High stakes, high
risk hunting isn't a great place to prove out other people's
hobbies.
What about handloads? We'll, it's a little like
who do you trust to pack your parachute. If you know how to do
it, you do it yourself. There are lots of good, tested
components on the market that are highly reliable with lots of
scientific and anecdotal evidence to support their success on
game. Not an endorsement, but names like Woodleigh and Barnes
would not be prevalent in use if they didn't have a long
successful record to stand on. Just be careful of bullet length
and cannelure placement.
The SC 550 Safari Classic
Personally, I loved the rifle and it was too pretty to put down.
The quality of wood and metal parts, as well as fit and finish,
were excellent. The only problem I encountered in weeks of
handling and shooting was a slightly rough feed ramp that caused
minor feeding
problems only with very short overall length cartridges and very
blunt bullets. The bullets that count, the 600 grain Woodleigh Protected
Point and Hawk Bullets 535 grain soft point products, all fed
without a hitch under any circumstance. I'm sure a little
ramp polishing would take care of the exceptions. The trigger is
very good, set or unset, but the set seems to make for more
accurate shooting. The sight configuration is appropriate for
the rifle and generally easy to use. I understand from CZ-USA
they are going to a larger white dot bead front sight. We
briefly discussed the use of fiber optic or light pipe front
sight. The rub here is an issue of reliability; how do you get
this type of sight to hold together hanging off the muzzle of
this cannon.
The .500 Jeffery, because of all of its
unique considerations and extremely high power output may not be
everyone's first choice. That is not as reason to drop the SC
550 from consideration as it is available in a number of heavy
cartridges including the .505 rimless magnum (Gibbs), the 450
Rigby, and the .404 Jeffery - all heavy hitters to various
degrees and all with the benefits of the SC 550 rifle and its
list of custom options. In addition to the rifle, the customer
gets the backing of the CZ-USA organization, a group that knows
their products inside and out and provides excellent support .
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