According to the 16th Edition of Cartridges of the World, development on the 223 Remington case started in the late 1950s and was adopted by the U.S. military in 1964. As of this writing, the cartridge’s use in M16/M4 variants make the pair the longest-serving rifle/ammunition combo in our nation’s history. One of the reasons for that longevity is that both the platform and the round lend themselves to further development, including different powders, barrel twists, barrel lengths, bullet weights, bullet shapes, bullet construction, sighting systems, and much more.

The 223 Remington (the military version is called the 5.56 NATO and is slightly different) may easily be the number-one-selling centerfire rifle round in the U.S. right now. While the 223 may be the most popular centerfire rifle round in the U.S. at this point, we have no intention of claiming it is the best — for anything. But many people forget how many roles there are in which it serves very well, such as a varmint and small-game hunting round, along with, believe it or not, long-range shooting.

We selected three rifles from three companies to see how well and how easily they fired the 223 Remington cartridge. The first was a Ruger Hawkeye Predator 17122, $1359. The second was a CZ Model 527 03019, $785. Last was a Tikka T3X Varmint JRTXH312, $999. We wanted to test bullet weights from across the spectrum. Since that kind of selection was impossible to find during the ammo drought, and because we have several decades of experience in loading good 223 rounds, we rolled our own. We relied heavily on the Lyman 50th Edition Reloading Manual and Hodgdon’s online reloading sources at Hodgdon.com. We used bullets from Barnes (36-grain Varmint Grenade 30171), Berger (55-grain Flat Base Varmint 22311 and the 80.5-grain Fullbore Target 22427), as well as from Sierra (69-grain Tipped Match King 7169). We tested various loads, using all Hodgdon powders: H322, H335, Varget, and CFE 223. We also made exclusive use of CCI BR4 Benchrest primers and Lapua brass.

Gun Tests Grade: B+

$785

Once locked behind the Iron Curtain, CZ (Ceska Zbrojovka) is now set to become a major player on the world stage, especially after CZ’s recent acquisition of Colt Manufacturing, The CZ Mauser-type actions have been coveted by dangerous-game hunters for decades. Here, we got to check out one of the CZ rifles designed for hunting varmints and smaller predators.

The stock was Turkish walnut with smooth lines and a figure to the grain. Both sides of the wrist and the fore end were checkered. Double lines were cut as a border on the checkering. That was a pretty fine pattern, clean and well executed. Included on the stock were dual sling-swivel studs and a recoil pad. The barrel was free floated in the stock, though the stock can be compressed so that it touches the barrel. Bottom fixtures were polymer with a lot of room in the trigger guard for gloves and to operate the single-set trigger — more on that in a minute. The trigger guard and magazine well attach to the receiver via two action screws threaded through pillars.

While both the Ruger and the Tikka employ receivers sized for standard short-action cartridges, using a spacer of some kind to fill in any gap, the CZ action is sized specifically for a 223. The action on our Model 527 American measured less than 7 inches from the front of the receiver to the rear of the tang. The Tikka, in contrast, measured almost 9 inches in length. The Tikka and the CZ look to be the same overall length, but the CZ has 2 more inches of barrel because of the shorter action. That extra length on the tube produced 5% to 10% more velocity and correspondingly higher energy for the CZ versus the Tikka, and in a package that weigh less. The round bolt knob was big enough to grab and small enough to stay out of the way of any optics we tried. The magazine inserted and dropped freely, though we had a bit of trouble feeding rounds from it. On inspection, we found longitudinal scratches on the brass we believe were left by the magazine feed lips. Time and further break in, or perhaps some 600-grit sandpaper, might well fix this problem. As Mauser-style actions tend to be, the bolt was controlled-round feed with the ejector being a blade that slides through the left locking lug. Everything operated smoothly, though this rifle liked to be operated enthusiastically for the empties to eject properly. The safety was a two-position piece that rotated front and rear from just behind the bolt handle.

Operated in a conventional manner, the trigger required 2.7 pounds of compression with a bit of creep and overtravel. However, if the shooter preferred, he could use the mechanism as a single-set trigger, requiring the operator to push forward on the trigger first. Once set, the trigger had very little creep, though still a good bit of overtravel — watch your follow through on this one. Required compression for the trigger when set averaged a mere 12.75 ounces. It took a little bit of work for us to get used to the trigger, but we really liked it.

The CZ 527 American came in second in our accuracy tests, averaging 1.08 inches for multiple five-shot groups for three kinds of ammunition. It showed a definite preference for the Sierra 69-grain Tipped Match King load, posting a 0.82-inch average for those groups. We graded it down half a mark for the rough magazine, but we honestly suspect that problem might sort itself out.

Our Team Said: The CZ is easy to handle and balances well in the hand. If we were choosing one of these rifles to walk around with all the time, the CZ 527 American might well be our choice.

223 Remington Range Data

Value Guide: Short-Action Bolt Rifle Scores