Nobody has ever accused me of being a gun snob, but I can say I would be very, very careful about buying a CZ for a DG gun.

This is where my habit of rough functioning guns has really paid off. Granted, my CZ550 wouldn't function with gentle handling and as for my previous CZ527, well...

Now as I've said before, I have a dead reliable 550 that is one of my favorites. But the work to get it there, WOW.

All the while, there sits my SAKO AIII/V in .375. Never a bump along the way till after years of near abuse I got some foreward bedding issues that needed attention. Nearly 3,000 rounds thru it, reblued as it was white. What a gun!!

Would I buy a DG gun from CZ?

Maybe, in one of the more "normal" calibers; .375, .458 Win/Lott, maybe .404.

I would MAKE SURE I had at least a year before any hunt I planned to use it on and I would require it to shoot at least 500 rounds without a hitch before I'd rely on it. I would function it with a full magazine, part mag, from each side of the mag, absolutely dry, soaking wet and gobbed with oil. I would learn its quirks {they all have them} and I would address each one as it pops up AND FIX IT. I'd bed the gun and would not trust factory "wood-only" bedding regardless.

Yes, it would take about a year, probably, and that would barely give enough time to get it to and back from CZ for them to fix any big snag I ran into.

Some guys like their guns to be pristine. I don't give a damn about blue wear or a ding here and there. I do require every gun of mine to be dead reliable.

And my CZ527??

I lost a shot at a stock killer one time. I saw the pack of dogs from the house heading for my horses, grabbed the rifle by the door and ran down to the pheasant cage to get closer. There the high grass obscured them, but when a piece of hip appeared I put the crosshairs on the point and broke the trigger. Number one went down screaming. The rest of the pack ran to it and one gave me a clear shoulder shot. I had already worked the bolt and leaning against the cage I broke the trigger. Nothing. Looking down, I realized the round had not risen and needed to be fumbled with. Done fumbling, the pack was on the railroad tracks heading east fast.

That little CZ527 jammed right when I needed it most. It had a problem no amount of work could repair, a true engineering design fault. It is gone. Tho we shot a number of deer, coyotes and ground squirrels and of course that one dog with it, I couldn't rely on it so out the door it went. Good riddance.

DG Game? Not to me, but those things are dangerous to my stock, and that gun let me down. No other gun will ever do that to me if I have anything to say about it.