Thread: CZ 455

What do you guys think of them? Thinking of getting one as my first rifle to shoot pigs goats and small game with. Wondering if i should just say fuck it and buy a .223 instead of a 22lr/17. The only thing holding me back is ammo cost and my low ish budget of 1400 for everything

Originally Posted by MatiriHunter

What do you guys think of them? Thinking of getting one as my first rifle to shoot pigs goats and small game with. Wondering if i should just say fuck it and buy a .223 instead of a 22lr/17. The only thing holding me back is ammo cost and my low ish budget of 1400 for everything

To be honest, I would suggest the 223. The price difference between 223 ammo and WMR or HMR or the 17m2 ammo is negligible and the performance difference is huge. Anything you can do with a WMR / HMR can be done as well or better with a 223. Cheap WMR / HMR ammo is about $30 per 50 ($60 per 00) and decent 223 ammo can be purchased for around $70 for 100 rounds. And if you start looking at 223 then you could also look at 7.62x39 ....

22LR would be worth it for practise, plinking and rabbits etc.

Especially as It’s your first rifle, but also just in general - please do not go targeting pigs and goats with rimfire rounds, they’re simply not sufficient for consistently humane shooting of game that size.
Can they do the job if you get everything 100% right all the time? Sure. But that’s not the real world..

Use a round with sufficient and reliable killing power such as 223 instead.

Alright, well my dad just got a 223 and i've shot multiple deer with them, but i want to get my own setup for close stalking and quiet shooting pigs and goats and a good all rounder, but i dont think he'd let me get a 223 since we literally just got one, even if i wont be able to use it very much. Any other calibres sound good for those purposes? I've heard good things about 7.62x39 and 30 30s but im not sure how quiet they are or how quiet i could make them. I'm a huge advocate of humane killing as every hunter should be so i dont want to buy the wrong calibre.

If pigs and goats are on the agenda then 223, but unless you have a suitably large property to shoot on 22 or 17hmr will be far safer for rabbits and shares, as well as less likely to upset neighbours.

Can effectively forget shooting possums also.

Usually I'd say start with a 22 as it's likely to be the one rifle/cartridge that you will always own.

IMHO
.22 plinking, or suppressed short range small varmints. Cheap ammo options available

.22mag (or .17 etc) Good for longer range small varmints where you don’t want to be overshooting your target zone. Prices similarly to .223

.223. The magic bullet for small to medium varmints, good range, inexpensive ammo.

.308 Large cal for red deer, pigs etc

There are many options, and opinions- but this identifies your core range

Safety rules always apply.

.22LR should not really be a consideration if targeting pigs or goats. Sure it might do in a pinch, or if you were a professional, but choosing a .22lr as your first rifle with the intention of taking it out after pigs and goats, imo is not good form.

I mean it can certainly do in a pinch with the right shot placement, loads of people will take a shot at a deer or a pig or whatever if they stumbled across one while out after small game with a .22- but its the choosing it for that purpose that is the issue, imo.
Kind of like picking the smallest hooks possible (like sprat hooks) and going snapper fishing..yea you will catch some, and its not illegal, but its real poor form.

A .223 or 7.62x39 would be a much better choice. Maybe even a cheap and cheerful used .22lr for a couple hundred $ (TOZ for example) and some sort of basic .223 etc aswell.

Looking at ammo prices 100 rounds of 223 is about $200 for 100 give or take, and 17 is 270 for 500. I don't think that a 223 is right for me right now just due to ammo cost, i think ill just buy a CZ 455 22lr and a 17 barrel and do pest control on the farm. I feel like a .17 would tip a little piglet over in an instant with a heart/lung shot but correct me if i'm wrong. Thanks for the help/suggestions.

Originally Posted by MatiriHunter

Looking at ammo prices 100 rounds of 223 is about $200 for 100 give or take, and 17 is 270 for 500. I don't think that a 223 is right for me right now just due to ammo cost, i think ill just buy a CZ 455 22lr and a 17 barrel and do pest control on the farm. I feel like a .17 would tip a little piglet over in an instant with a heart/lung shot but correct me if i'm wrong. Thanks for the help/suggestions.

With a perfect shot, sure, however you need to keep in mind that with a .17 you are shooting an extremely light weight projectile, that is made to fragment in small lightly built animals (varmints) as opposed to penetrate deep into the vitals of an animal that is more solidly built.
This means there is a strong potential that the small little fragile .17 projectile will not penetrate deep enough into a comparatively large and tough animal (pig or goat). If the wind blows your little tiny projectile into the shoulder of a pig or a goat, the projectile will probably explode near the surface creating a shallow crater, no penetration into the vitals, and probably a less than clean kill or a lost/severely wounded animal.

Its possible, but it only allows a very small margin for error.
If you are sure you cant go any bigger than a rimfire, then a .22magnum would be MUCH more appropriate for the larger animals (pigs / goats). It'll shoot a projectile that is up to 3 times the weight of the .17, that wont explode on impact, and will have the necessary qualities needed to hit bone and still make it to the vitals.

Ill buy a 22 magnum barrel then if you think it could kill pigs and goats, sounds perfect.

Originally Posted by MatiriHunter

Looking at ammo prices 100 rounds of 223 is about $200 for 100 give or take, and 17 is 270 for 500. I don't think that a 223 is right for me right now just due to ammo cost, i think ill just buy a CZ 455 22lr and a 17 barrel and do pest control on the farm. I feel like a .17 would tip a little piglet over in an instant with a heart/lung shot but correct me if i'm wrong. Thanks for the help/suggestions.

Might suit, might not.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Attachment 141699

Might suit, might not.

It's so cheap it makes me nervous

Originally Posted by MatiriHunter

It's so cheap it makes me nervous

You could buy the hunting and fishing branded 223 ammo for $1 per round of it makes you feel better. Comes from the same place but different packaging.

Originally Posted by MatiriHunter

It's so cheap it makes me nervous

No need to be nervous. I bought 3,000 rounds in Wanganui last week for the farms where I shoot. More of this stuff gets used for pest control in NZ than all the other ammunition sold put together.

I use hand loads in my rifle, but I went out with my mate’s very battered Sako .223 last week and smashed goats with Belmont ammo, with very precise shots out to 300m without a hint of a problem. Sometimes we tend to overthink things I reckon!

I’ll be straight up about your choices.

It would be a lie to say that a .22LR is completely ineffective, it’s not. But a .22LR will only cleanly kill small to medium pigs and goats if you (a) head shoot them properly, (b) use the correct ammunition, (c) are stalking in really close.

The minute you make even the slightest fuck up, you’ve got a wounded animal running away very fast, and you stand next to no chance of doing anything about it with a rimfire, because they’re out of range in the blink of an eye. Mistakes with this rimfire round are measured by the half centimetre, like very small margins of error.

So is it a sensible choice? Not in a million years. .22LR is a small game / vermin round, end of story.

This past few weeks I’ve reminded myself that the .223 Remington is incredibly versatile. If I were you, I’d be getting a Howa mini action with the 1:8” twist barrel with a package deal scope, shoot cheap and deadly Belmont softpoints, and get out there and get into it. Your primary requirement is to practice shooting cans and so on at different ranges from different positions - learning your drops is the key.

Every young bloke should start with a good .22lr. Good means good trigger, reliable scope and accurate in a hunting style rifle. Bolt action preferably.

Forget the multi barrels at this stage and practice with it until you can consistently shoot tight groups from all positions at 25-50 meters.

Borrow the old mans for hunting now. You will likely try a few other setups. It will give you time to work out what will work for you.