I have also had wonder barrels from CZ
Cut clean and shoot wonderfully.

 

Mine looked good as well.

 

I have seen a few rough barrels however in general they are fantastic and shoot great with the right ammunition. For a factory barrel they are wonderful.

 

I could be remembering wrong but aren't the CZ barrels hammer forged?

 

Yes cold hammer forged

 

The whole bore is hammer forged, but they have to come back with a reamer to cut the chamber. I've seen & owned several 457 bbls that had rather rough, even 'smeared' lands in the leade; looked like they'd been cut with a dull reamer. And - at least in the case of American & VPT barrels on my own rifles, bought new - they didn't shoot very well either. I've posted about both those rifles here, and about replacing both with Shilen select match ratchet rifled blanks.

 

The whole bore is hammer forged, but they have to come back with a reamer to cut the chamber

Yes, understood

The rifling in my 452 American is good but the leade is smeary. Not optimal but the rifle shoots well. So not the end of the world

 

I've got 9 of their factory barrels and they all look great.. the barrels are from 2023, 2024 and 2025.. guess I can't speak for anything older than that.

 

Never had a bad cz barrel Either. Although my judgment is based solely on how they shoot, not on colonoscopies.

 

What "Toomany22s" said!

 

2 452's and 2 457's. Out of the 4, 3 have proved to be fantastic and the 4th is still being broken in.

 

CZ453 plus 1. .

 

Here's my, new, out of the box pictures, $2,000 rifle, Manners Stock, "Match Grade", precision 22, bought last year. I contacted CZ, their gunsmith said the marks looked "cosmetic" but that I could send it in and they would do an accuracy test. I told them how about a "defect in materials and workmanship" test?

 

My 457 VPC had jagged leades, but still shot well. I’ve seen some rough looking 452’s too.

 

I have to admit, I am embarrassed I paid for this, I have slingshots that have better looking barrels and chambers. For the most part, it shoots "OK," occasionally MOA at 50 yards, but far from predictable or match quality, with a definite penchant for flyers at odd moments, tested with maybe a dozen or more grades and brands of ammo, enough for me to stop shooting it because I got tired of fiddling with it, and hit the patience wall, because "something is wrong." I have done the basics to try to find the problem, including action screw testing, and concluded the barrel is the limiting accuracy factor, which has obvious defects.

I am also surprised by the reaction of CZ home base to these and more pictures I emailed them. I even called CZ on the phone after the initial email back from them telling me they consider the marks being "cosmetic, but send it in if you want" to get the details of the return process, and surprisingly, for the most part I was dissuaded from returning it because I was told they (CZ) were "very busy" and the "gunsmith would just send it back" if it passed the accuracy test. For my part, just barely meeting MOA is not why I bought this "match grade barrel" rifle as I could get it to do that occasionally, anyway. So I am soured pretty hard on CZ. I have since solved the problem by purchasing a VuDoo, and life is good, as it shoots well and predictable, with a next level of accuracy over my "gravel barrel" CZ. It's no contest between the two, and the CZ has long been stripped of its ATACR and sits in the original box waiting to be sold when I get around to it. I figure I would be lucky if I could trade for a Rimex action and only lose a thousand bucks on the experience, a new $2K rifle for a $1K action. Educations cost money.

So after seeing the pictures of the nice looking barrels of the original post, I am reconsidering sending it back in, I'm just not sure if I want to deal with it.

 

I have to admit, I am embarrassed I paid for this, I have slingshots that have better looking barrels and chambers. For the most part, it shoots "OK," occasionally MOA at 50 yards, but far from predictable or match quality, with a definite penchant for flyers at odd moments, tested with maybe a dozen or more grades and brands of ammo, enough for me to stop shooting it because I got tired of fiddling with it, and hit the patience wall, because "something is wrong." I have done the basics to try to find the problem, including action screw testing, and concluded the barrel is the limiting accuracy factor, which has obvious defects.

I am also surprised by the reaction of CZ home base to these and more pictures I emailed them. I even called CZ on the phone after the initial email back from them telling me they consider the marks being "cosmetic, but send it in if you want" to get the details of the return process, and surprisingly, for the most part I was dissuaded from returning it because I was told they (CZ) were "very busy" and the "gunsmith would just send it back" if it passed the accuracy test. For my part, just barely meeting MOA is not why I bought this "match grade barrel" rifle as I could get it to do that occasionally, anyway. So I am soured pretty hard on CZ. I have since solved the problem by purchasing a VuDoo, and life is good, as it shoots well and predictable, with a next level of accuracy over my "gravel barrel" CZ. It's no contest between the two, and the CZ has long been stripped of its ATACR and sits in the original box waiting to be sold when I get around to it. I figure I would be lucky if I could trade for a Rimex action and only lose a thousand bucks on the experience, a new $2K rifle for a $1K action. Educations cost money.

So after seeing the pictures of the nice looking barrels of the original post, I am reconsidering sending it back in, I'm just not sure if I want to deal with it.

If you choose to not send it back, you could keep a sharp eye out for a replacement factory CZ Match barrel of a known pedigree. A lot of folks are adding aftermarket barrels to their CZ’s so there may be some good factory barrels available at fair prices. I have an excellent 24” match grade factory barrel that I replaced with a Muller … but I am holding mike for another project. But you may be able for find someone that wants to sell theirs. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

Hammer forged barrels have nice looking lands and grooves depending on the age of the mandrel they were produced on. Pictures of both my CZ457 and Ruger RPRF look very similar. I read that match barrels are always button or cut rifled.

 

CZ doesn’t seem to maintain the tooling in good enough condition to consistently produce “match grade” barrels. Good results like OP’s after a tooling change with a nice sharp cutter, mangled messes like I’ve seen quite a bit, like 80% of the barrels I’ve inspected, when the tooling is far too dull and should have been changed long ago. I had decent success with post-chamber lapping in the past, turning a 1”+ groups at 50 yards rifle into a 0.4-0.6” shooter. Got a post here somewhere about it.

 

So, where can one find Thorro Clean? First I've heard of it and although forums talk about it, no reference to where one can buy it.

 

Bullet central is where you can get it.. them and iosso went together and came up with this stuff.. it's superior to any other cleaner in my opinion.. I've been using it exclusively for a couple years now on both centerfire and rimfire barrels .. I want my barrels squeaky clean and thorro clean works ...

 

Cz Is hammer forg

You can call me impressed by the quality of the cz457 factory barrels.. you can just tell by looking at the inside of their barrels that these folks take pride in the products their sending out the door.. whether it's a mtr match barrel or a varmint barrel or even the American barrels..
I have several of their barrels and they all look like this inside.. the lands are perfect.. no chatter marks up and down the bore.. I also run alot of custom barrels and these cz barrels are not lacking in appearance.. kudos to cz for putting out really nice barrels..

This mtr barrel has a couple thousand rounds down it.. been cleaned to bare metal every 100 rounds or so with thorro clean only.. shoots great. Looks great.. View attachment 585266 View attachment 585267 View attachment 585268

CZ are hammer forged barrels like many other top tier.
Looking

You can call me impressed by the quality of the cz457 factory barrels.. you can just tell by looking at the inside of their barrels that these folks take pride in the products their sending out the door.. whether it's a mtr match barrel or a varmint barrel or even the American barrels..
I have several of their barrels and they all look like this inside.. the lands are perfect.. no chatter marks up and down the bore.. I also run alot of custom barrels and these cz barrels are not lacking in appearance.. kudos to cz for putting out really nice barrels..

This mtr barrel has a couple thousand rounds down it.. been cleaned to bare metal every 100 rounds or so with thorro clean only.. shoots great. Looks great.. View attachment 585266 View attachment 585267 View attachment 585268

 

I have two factory barrels and two factory rifles 455's Both shoot like they should, Never have a 22 well 2 22's that shot as good as these two. I am just talking about my guns. I had a savage MKII that still does not shoot, The savage is why I bought the 455's P.S still have the savage I dont want to sell a bad gun. Match 22 ammo 3 in groups lots of different ammo no good thanks CZ's bug eyes at 50 and at 100 1 1/2 inch groups norma tec

 

You can call me impressed by the quality of the cz457 factory barrels.. you can just tell by looking at the inside of their barrels that these folks take pride in the products their sending out the door.. whether it's a mtr match barrel or a varmint barrel or even the American barrels..
I have several of their barrels and they all look like this inside.. the lands are perfect.. no chatter marks up and down the bore.. I also run alot of custom barrels and these cz barrels are not lacking in appearance.. kudos to cz for putting out really nice barrels..

This mtr barrel has a couple thousand rounds down it.. been cleaned to bare metal every 100 rounds or so with thorro clean only.. shoots great. Looks great.. View attachment 585266 View attachment 585267 View attachment 585268

I agree. My CZ457 shoots 0.60 groups at 50 yards with Eley TENEX. My Shilen barreled 40X shoots 0.30 groups for comparison.

 

Eley may not be a good ammunition for your CZ.

 

 

Cz453, next time use the [/sarcasm] font.

 

I also fall into that category of less than thrilled with my CZ barrel. Constant, excessive leading (lots of expensive flavors of ammo tried), and less than thrilling accuracy. I’m going to quietly go for the aftermarket barrel like so many others have.