CZ-USA are expanding their CZ 600 range of bolt action rifles. The new CZ 600 Range integrates “competition-born features into its design for the ultimate accuracy” which CZ boasts is sub ¾ MOA. The CZ 600 Range is available with an MSRP of $1,199.
Right: CZ-USA 600 Range Rifle (CZ-USA)
Here’s what CZ-USA have to say about the new rifle:
The CZ 600 Range is part of the exciting new 600-series rifle family. Built from the ground up, the Range integrates competition-born features into its design for the ultimate accuracy. So, how does it shoot? We’ll, CZ-USA backs the Range with an unprecedented 5-shot, sub ¾ MOA guarantee! It’s a production rifle that sets the new gold standard for accuracy and is taking the competition world by storm!
Rifle accuracy starts with an excellent barrel, and the 600 Range features the best; a heavy cold-hammer-forged barrel, threaded and suppressor-ready. At 24-inches long, the blued steel barrel squeezes peak velocities from the inherently accurate 6mm Creedmoor and .308 Winchester cartridges.
Shooters will love the rifle’s smooth and fast-handling 60-degree bolt throw, a design that increases clearance between the bolt and optic and cycles considerably faster than traditional designs. The Range features an oversized alloy bolt knob for improved control in all conditions. The steel receiver adds weight, stiffness, and longevity to the action, which are important attributes for a competition rifle. A detachable magazine allows quick reloads, and a selectable locking feature ensures magazine retention. Magazine top-ups, through the ejection port, add convenience.
The butthook-style stock comes equipped with QD sockets on each side, a pic rail for monopod mounting – competition-inspired features for better marksmanship – and a tool-free adjustable cheek piece that fosters a perfect cheek-weld. Laminated wood is a superb choice in stock materials, providing rigidity and excellent moisture resistance. The Range’s laminate stock features a classy black and brown layered pattern that looks as good as it performs.
Reliability was a vital consideration in the 600 Series’ rifle design. CZ 600 rifles, including the Range, uses a short extractor-controlled feed for its unfailing round-cycling consistency. A patented 2-position tang safety is intuitive, allowing bolt cycling with the safety engaged.
CZ-USA currently chambers the 600 Range in the popular 6mm Creedmoor and .308 Winchester cartridges, with other offerings in the works. The Range is the pinnacle of accuracy, building on CZ’s high reliability, durability, and versatility standards. The 600 Range rifle gives precision shooters every advantage!
Left: CZ-USA 600 Range Rifle (CZ-USA)
CZ 600 Range Features:
Steel receiver
Heavy barrel
Sub 0.7 MOA guaranteed with match factory ammo
Short extractor controlled feed
Silent two-position safety
Adjustable trigger – no disassembly needed, 4 positions
60 Degree bolt throw
Remington 700 scope base hole pattern
Magazine fed with magazine lock (selectable)
Ability to top off magazine through the ejection port
Cocking indicator
Laminate wood stock
Toolless height-adjustable cheekpiece
Monopod Picatinny rail attachment
Oversized alloy bolt knob
CZ 600 Range Specifications:
SKU: 07504, 07503
Chambering: 6 Creedmoor; .308 Win
Rate of Twist: 1:7; 1:10
Magazine Type: Detachable (locking)
Magazine Capacity: 5
Stock: Laminate, Precision
Length of Pull: 14.6 inches
Sights: none, drilled & tapped for Rem 700-pattern bases
Barrel: Heavy cold hammer-forged; Threaded 5/8×24 (suppressor-ready)
Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. He also runs Historical Firearms, a blog that explores the history, development and use of firearms. Matt is also co-founder of The Armourer’s Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms.
The Israel Defense Forces used the Ruger 10/22 operationally for years.
At 0900 in the morning on 4 December 2020, a group of young men began gathering in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayir northwest of Ramallah. These Palestinians were protesting the establishment of a new Israeli settlement near Ras a-Tin. IDF soldiers were posted nearby in hopes of keeping the peace.
The hate in this place runs unimaginably deep.
Emotions were running high, as seems always the case. Folks have been fighting over that remarkable patch of dirt since the very beginning of time. In short order the Palestinians were throwing rocks. The Israeli soldiers responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Presuming the reports are accurate, this unfortunate kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The main part of the conflict unfolded at a range of roughly seventy meters. Two hours after the first confrontation ten IDF soldiers were in firing positions with a direct line of sight to the protestors. The rocks were still flying hot and fast. Some 150 meters distant, around 100 local residents had gathered to spectate. Among them was Ali Abu ‘Alia, a local Tenth Grader. It was the boy’s fifteenth birthday.
It’s tough to maintain control in a tactical space like this.
By 1330 hours the protest had been ongoing for four and one half hours. Everyone was tired. What happened next was naturally disputed by both sides.
The Israelis have had to get creative in an effort at mitigating the unending violence associated with the Palestinian question.
According to Palestinian witnesses, the boy was simply crossing the road. He suddenly clutched his midriff and shouted, “My stomach! My stomach! I’m hit! I’m hit!” before collapsing. Bystanders rushed the young man to the nearby Ramallah hospital. There was a small, almost bloodless entrance wound just above his navel and no exit wound. By 1830 he was dead, yet another tragic casualty of the never-ending war in the Levant.
The IDF’s customized Ruger 10/22 rifles were originally intended to be less-than-lethal riot control tools. Reality was something else entirely.
Abu ‘Alia was hit in the belly with a “Two-Two.” That’s IDF slang for a sound-suppressed Ruger 10/22 rifle ostensibly used for less-lethal crowd control. His sordid story serves as a somber reminder that the diminutive .22 rimfire, though small, is still plenty deadly.
It Only Takes a Moment…
Down here in the Deep South, riding four-wheelers is a popular fair weather pastime.
The man was going to kill a lazy Saturday out tearing up the swamp on his four-wheeler alongside a friend. The weather was gorgeous. In our part of the world that meant snakes. As a result, his pal produced a .22 pistol and a shoulder holster. Our hero threw the rig on, and the pair struck out for the wilderness.
These things are heavy. Manhandling them onto a trailer or into the back of a pickup for transport can be a chore.
It had been a great day, and the men were ready to get home. As they manhandled a four-wheeler into the pickup, the heavy vehicle slipped. My buddy threw his shoulder into it, and the hammer of the pistol caught on something, twisting in the holster.
You usually cannot tell a great deal about the mischief lurking therein from a cursory assessment of an entrance wound.
The hammer retracted far enough to light the primer but not far enough to catch the sear. When the gun went off it didn’t make a great deal of noise. That was because the muzzle was mashed against the man’s chest. The zippy little 40-grain bullet pithed the man’s left lung, missing his heart by millimeters. It then bounced off the inside of his right scapula before angling downward. The dying round tracked through his right lung top to bottom, penetrated his diaphragm, transited his liver, and finally came to rest nestled within his entrails. Never let anyone tell you the humble .22 rimfire lacks in penetration.
Yep, that looks about right. The trauma bays can be utter chaos under the wrong circumstances.
What followed was a frenetic ride to the hospital. The surgeons filleted the man like a fish but saved his life. He has fully recovered today. Part of that is because he had the good fortune to be shot in America and not Ramallah.
Some wounds are just unsurvivable.
Shot placement, particularly with small caliber weapons, is indeed critically important. What’s an even bigger deal, however, is the inimitable power of random. Both people were shot with the same round, but Abu ‘Alia likely had the little bullet centerpunch his abdominal aorta. Unless you’re in just the right place and very, very lucky, this is reliably bad.
The Round
The .22 rimfire doesn’t look like much, but it is a proven man-killer.
The technical appellation for the .22 Long Rifle is the 5.6x15mm R or Rimmed. Developed in 1887, the .22LR is hopelessly obsolete today. Despite its age, however, annual production of this zippy little cartridge is nonetheless estimated to be between 2 and 2.5 billion rounds per annum worldwide.
.22LR cases start out as this stuff.
I have seen these little cartridges made, and it is indeed fascinating. The cases are punched out of a big strip of brass and then formed to shape. A small pellet of moist primer compound is then inserted into the empty case. When this primer mix is wet it is inert. When it is dry it becomes shock sensitive. Each case is then spun vigorously in a big machine. Centrifugal forces push the wet primer mix out into the periphery of the rim. The case is then cooked to remove the moisture. There follows a fixed volume of powder and a bullet, most commonly somewhere between 36 and 40 grains. Repeat as necessary 2.5 billion times per year.
I occasionally used the M261 .22LR M16 conversion device back when I wore the uniform. It was an inexpensive way to get a little trigger time.
The .22LR is the most popular rimfire firearm cartridge on the planet. It is widely used by organizations ranging from the Boy Scouts of America to the US Army. .22 rimfire conversions for both M16 rifles and 1911 service pistols were used for decades as military training aids. Almost every serious shooter in the world got his or her start behind a .22. Amongst countless millions of .22-caliber firearms, one lithe little rifle reigns supreme.
The Gun
The Ruger 10/22 is a marvel of modern engineering.
Designed in 1964 by Bill Ruger and Harry Sefried II, the 10/22 is the most popular .22 rifle in the world. More than seven million copies have been produced. The 10/22 is one of those rare designs that has actually gotten cheaper over time.
The Ruger 10/22 has been around since the mid-1960’s.
Those first 10/22 rifles cost $54.50. However, those are 1964 dollars. That would be about $519 today. The MSRP for a new-made 10/22 nowadays is $379. That is because the gun is designed from the outset to be easy and inexpensive to make in quantity.
One of the more extraordinary aspects of the 10/22 design is its novel ten-round rotary magazine.
The 10/22 sports an investment cast receiver mated to a cold hammer-forged alloy steel barrel via a unique two-screw, V-block system. The rifle comes from the factory drilled and tapped for an included scope mount. It feeds from a ten-round rotary magazine.
There is just no end to what smart folks have done using the 10/22 chassis as a basis.
The 10/22 is one of the most customizable firearms ever made. There are companies thriving today that produce rifles on a 10/22 action that do not include a single Ruger component. The rifle that the IDF sniper was wielding when he shot Abu ‘Alia was itself heavily customized.
IDF Use
The original intent was that IDF marksmen use the 10/22 for applications wherein full-power weapons would be excessive.
Beginning with the Intifada in 1987, Israeli soldiers found themselves beset by angry rioters with limited defensive options. Live 5.56x45mm rounds were proven manstoppers, but shooting otherwise unarmed rioters would have been a great way to win the battle while losing the public opinion war. Given the range limitations of CS gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, IDF planners went looking for something else. That something else was the humble 10/22 plinking rifle.
IDF 10/22 rifles were fairly heavily modified.
The IDF began with standard wood-stocked 10/22 rifles modified by the Italian firm of Sabatti. These guns were fitted with heavy bull barrels and integral sound suppressors. The receivers were drilled and tapped for a full-sized Weaver base upon which was mounted a 4x optic. A Harris-style adjustable bipod rounded out the package. Here are the published applications of these custom weapons:
Killing hostile dogs.
Injuring leaders of violent demonstrations or violent participants of a violent demonstration.
Use as a mid-range system that is “less lethal than” military-caliber rifles (5.56mm/7.62mm) while remaining capable of dissuading demonstrators from committing further violence (e.g. throwing rocks or Molotov cocktails).
Providing greater accuracy at longer distances than rubber bullets or baton rounds.
Applications when it is not safe enough to get sufficiently close to use a rubber bullet or baton round.
The IDF 10/22 ideally offered more precision than rubber bullets and less raw destruction than standard combat rifles.
Ideally, IDF sharpshooters could use these little rimfire rifles to shoot critical leaders in violent protests in the shins, taking them out of the fight without killing them. The illustrious Colonel Jeff Cooper had this to say about using the .22 rimfire for riot control in his 1998 classic To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth—
“It would seem desirable to devise a system which would make sure, first, that the riot would stop; and second, that only the leaders would feel the weight of social disapproval.
“Let us consider such a means – the 22-caliber rimfire rifle. This weapon, properly sighted and equipped with a noise suppressor, may be used with surgical delicacy to neutralize mob leaders without risk to other members of the group, without noise and with scant danger of death to the subject. A low-velocity 22 bullet in the lung will not knock a man down, and in these days of modern antisepsis it will almost never kill him if he can get to a hospital in a reasonable time. It will, however, absolutely terminate his interest in leading a riot.”
This is a Ruger SR-22. Apparently the IDF still uses .22 rimfire weapons in some capacity.
The problem is that the real world of violent confrontation is seldom so sanitary. In the heat of battle it can be tough to confine your rounds to extremities. That and extremity wounds can be unexpectedly deadly as well. Additionally, these are still firearms. As in the case of Abu ‘Alia, this battlefield was absolutely dirty with noncombatants. Between 2015 and 2020 local commentators claim there were ten Palestinians killed by IDF marksmen wielding Two-Two’s.
Israel seems to be forever at war.
And therein lies another problem. You cannot believe anything anybody says over there. Everyone has an agenda, even me. I have spent some time in Israel, and I was powerfully moved by the work ethic, patriotism, and sense of community exhibited by the Israeli people, something we could use a great deal more of over on our side of the pond. However, I will admit that if Native Americans tried to push me off my family farm because their ancestors owned it 250 years ago that would aggravate me as well. I’m just not sure I would blow up a school bus full of children in response. Alas, I don’t pretend to know the answer to those timeless problems.
Ruminations
Palestinian apologists are quick to rationalize this sort of behavior. However, after a while IDF troops get tired of being pelted by slingshots and Molotov cocktails.
One observer to Abu ‘Alia’s shooting made this statement: I…can’t find any justification for the sniper’s shooting. He killed a boy who was standing quietly and wasn’t endangering anyone. He didn’t even take part in the protest.
I’m sorry, but this is just stupid. Getting hurt while doing stuff like this is simply an occupational hazard.
Pelting heavily-armed soldiers with rocks for four hours seems like a great way to get shot. Standing close by watching heavily-armed soldiers get pelted by rocks for four hours seems like a great way to get shot accidentally. There seems to be plenty of blame to go around.
The Israelis have used sound-suppressed versions of the Beretta 71 in .22LR for decades.
The .22LR has a long history of military use with Israeli forces. Modified versions of the ArmaLite AR7 survival rifle were issued to IAF aircrews. Israeli air marshals, Mossad operatives, and Sayeret Matkal have long used the .22LR Beretta 71, often with a suppressor, in covert operations. These guys know a thing or three about armed combat, and they clearly still take the humble Two-Two quite seriously.
Reloading success for the .30 Luger was achieved with Redding dies and
the Lee Factory Crimp die — after plenty of experimenting!
Late last year I was trying to organize my reloading room a little better and as I was checking out my cabinet full of reloading dies I stumbled on both .30 Luger and .30 Mauser dies. A thought came to mind as to whether I could fit a 9mm-chambered 1911 with a barrel chambered in .30 Luger and be able to use the same magazine. It turns out you can!
The next step was to contact Bar-Sto to see if they could make a barrel for my 9mm 1911 Springfield Armory chambered in .30 Luger, also known as the 7.65 Parabellum. They just needed to know which 1911 it would be used in and whether I wanted a standard or a match barrel, with the latter requiring fitting. I went for the former and when it arrived I took everything over to my gunsmith at Buckhorn Gun where they proceeded to fit it tightly with a new bushing. We were able to use the same recoil spring.
This was the easy part! The headaches began when I started reloading. I gathered up proper Hornady and Sierra .30 bullets, ordered 500 brand-new Starline brass cases and did my load homework. I already had two sets of dies so I figured everything would work fine. It didn’t. I had many problems getting cartridges to feed no matter what I tried. I even had 0.005″ taken off the bottom of my sizing die so I could adjust it to push the shoulder back.
I tried different settings, took 0.002″ and 0.005″ off the shell holder, with the only result being fired cases showing excessive headspace. Success did not come until I put the old dies away and ordered a new set of Redding .30 Luger dies and a Lee Factory Crimp die. Success! All worked once I got the settings right.
The .30 Luger compared to the 9mm. Who’d a-thought this would work?But it did!
Now I only had trouble with the first cartridge out of the magazine seating into the chamber. I was taught at least 60 years ago to pull back the slide on a semi-auto pistol and let it go to chamber the first round. Success with this operation came when I began letting the slide go forward on its own when releasing the slide stop. For some reason, this worked.
For powders I chose Accurate #2, Accurate #5 Accurate #7 and the old standby, Unique. I also tried several factory loads and found some of the modern loads — at around 1,050 fps — wouldn’t operate the slide. An old box of Remington Kleanbore .30 Lugers clocked out at over 1,250 fps and worked perfectly. With this info, I came up with different powder charges to begin my experimenting. When I began hitting muzzle velocities in the high 1,100’s and mid-1,200’s, everything came together. Some of my best loads for both function and accuracy were the Sierra 85-gr. bullet over 4.5 grains of Accurate #2 for 1,250 fps and a 5-shot 20 yard group of 11/4″ and the same bullet over 5.0 grains of Unique for 1,300+ fps and a solid 1″ group.
Bullets are easy to find for the .30 Luger. John had good luck with all of these.
Dialing In
Switching to the 86-gr. Hornady with 6.0 grains of Accurate #5 resulted in a 1″ group with a muzzle velocity of 1,235 fps. Five grains of Unique with the same bullet clocked out at 1,333 fps delivering a 11/2″ group. I’ve finally settled on the 90-gr. Hornady as my favorite bullet. With 4.5 grains of Accurate #2, velocity is over 1,250 fps with a resulting 11/4″ group. I hit the really sweet spot with this bullet using 5.0 grains of Unique for right at 1,300 fps and it’s my most accurate load at 7/8″ for five shots at 20 yards.
The .30 Luger is such an easy shooting cartridge it really puts fun into shooting. The .30 Luger is especially appreciated since my “shoot-big-bores-all-day” era is long gone! It’s certainly not a first choice for self-defense, but for varmints and small game — and especially the great sport of plinking — it’s right at home. Bar-Sto can supply high quality barrels for converting 9mm Luger 1911’s to .30 Luger, and brass is also easily obtainable from Starline. How fun is that!
