The ONLY rifle I ever had a "first-round flyer" problem with turned out NOT to be a problem with the RIFLE, but rather a problem with the factory customer service's "adjustment job" on this fairly high-priced SCOPE which was designed for use on a center-fire rifle.
In fact, the CZ's new scope was a duplicate of the same scope I had installed on my Ruger #1 the year before this event occurred.
But for clarity's sake, here's the whole story. I originally purchased a new, well-known name brand, designed for a center-fire 4-12x40mm scope with A/O (adjustable objective turret to eliminate parallax) and installed it on my new bolt-action CZ453 (.22 rimfire "Varmint" model, heavy barrel, no iron sights, factory single set trigger).
The whole outfit shot great, but in order to have the scope parallax-free at 50 yards, I had to set the adjustable objective turret at an indicated 37 yards on the turret in order for the scope to be parallax-free at 50 yards. Since the scope was new and under factory warranty, I returned it to the manufacturer along with a note indicating the problem and asked them to adjust the mechanical setting on the objective turret so that it more truly indicated the actual range at which the scope was parallax-free. The scope was returned to me along with a checklist indicating they had gone completely through the scope and it was now "within factory specifications".
However, when I re-installed the scope on the CZ453, I had a terrible time getting the scope "zero'd". This was quite unusual for me since I'm a very experienced shooter and always bore-sight a new scope so that I'm "on-the-paper" with the initial shot and within 4 or 5 shots, I'm in the X-ring. Then I make "fine" adjustments to absolutely center each group in the X-ring.
Finally, I got the rifle to shooting consistently in the center of the X-ring after expending 30 or 40 rounds of expensive match ammo. I was puzzled... but I kept on shooting... and accuracy remained consistent.
The next time at the rifle range (a few days later), the first shot hit the target about 4 inches to the right of the X-ring... exactly at the 3 o'clock position. I didn't think I'd "pulled" the shot... and there was very little wind, so I decided to keep shooting to find out what happened.
The 2nd shot hit the target about 2 inches to the right of the X-ring at exactly the 3 o'clock position as well. The 3rd shot hit on the right side of the X-ring at 3 o'clock and, finally, all subsequent shots fired very soon (less than 3 or 4 minutes) after the first shot hit in the middle of the X-ring. I was puzzled.
I shot two more 5-shot groups... both of which were centered in the X-ring and thought my "troubles" were over, but I was still puzzled.
However, I soon found that if I let the rifle sit for 5-6 minutes while talking to the guy shooting next to me at our Club's rifle range or if I took a pipe-smoking break, the same sequence of events occurred again with the initial shot hitting about 4 inches to the RIGHT of the X-ring again... and then each subsequent shot working its way back to the center of the X-ring.
However, I found that as long as I kept shooting once I was hitting in the middle of the X-ring, the rifle would consistently shoot all shots to that point-of-aim (center of the X-ring).
While this was only a small "bother" when shooting at paper targets, it would be disasterous if it occurred in a HUNTING rifle. Regardless, I wasn't happy with this kind of performance out of a fairly expensive center-fire scope which I had installed on the CZ.
I eventually took the duplicate scope off my Ruger #1 RSI in 7x57mm and installed it on the CZ. Once I got it "zero'd", it shot perfectly (as the CZ's scope should have done) into the X-ring. I waited 10 minutes and shot another 5-shot group... all rounds were well into the X-ring. Thus, I found out it was, in fact, the CZ's SCOPE that had the problem... NOT the rifle or the ammo!!!
Since the CZ's scope was only 2 months old and the factory had kept it for 6 weeks when I sent it back for adjustment of the objective turret, the scope was still under factory warranty... I called the company and they asked that I sent it back once again... which I did.
A few weeks later, a new 6-12x40mm scope arrived (different serial number from the scope I sent in). I mounted that new scope on my CZ... and it shot perfectly as it should have done right from the beginning of this mess.
I won't mention the brand of scope since it is a well-known, decent quality brand and I don't wish to impune their good name... but this was my experience with a rifle that did what your rifle is doing... the ONLY rifle in over 60 years of shooting that EVER did such a thing.
If you can, put a different scope on your rifle and see if it does the same thing. But don't use one of the scopes off one of your other rifles that is doing the same thing... they could BOTH be having a "scope problem"!!!
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.
