Someone once said, “CZ, you come for the pistols and stay for the rifles.” I keep finding that to be more and more true. I’ve slowly fallen head over heels for CZ’s bolt guns. I’m not even much of a bolt gun guy, but the charm and stylings of CZ keep me captured. I, like many, have awaited the CZ 600 series. I recently got my hands on the CZ 600 Trail, the model I’ve desired since CZ first showed the new series of rifles.
Let’s dive into the CZ 600 Trail and the CZ 600 series as a whole.
The CZ 600 Series
The CZ 600 series isn’t just one rifle but a rather broad category that’s made up of numerous models, calibers, and even action lengths. The 600 series will replace every other centerfire rifle in CZ’s catalog. The action lengths include the mini, medium, and long. These actions represent their calibers.
The CZ 600 Trail uses the mini action for .223 Remington and 7.62x39mm. The Medium action chambers your standard .308 and 6.5 Creedmoor. The long action chambers rounds like the .300 Winchester Magnum.
Besides the trail, other models will be the Alpha, Ergo, Lux, and Range. Each model will offer a few different features. The Lux has classic wood stylings and iron sights and would be my second choice to the new, rather interesting CZ 600 Trail model.
That being said, regardless of what you are looking for, it’s likely that one of the 600 series models will suit your needs and caliber preferences.
The CZ 600 Trail
The 600 Trail series is designed to provide a very lightweight and capable bolt-action rifle platform. This gun is meant to be light, handy, and easy to carry on the trail. It’s perfect for hiking, hunting, and general-purpose rifle. It’s a ranch rifle that’s perfect for a variety of users.
The Trail uses the Mini action and comes in both .223 Remington and 7.62x39mm. I have the .223 variant. This rifle uses AR 15 magazines, and it comes with a single 10-round P-MAG. The CZ 600 Trail series features a semi-heavy cold hammer forged 16.2-inch barrel with a 1:7 twist. The tip of that barrel is also threaded for adding a can as needed.
The receiver is aluminum with a monolithic, full-length scope rail and an M-LOK handguard. The rifle sits in a polymer chassis system. CZ outfitted the gun with a PDW-style stock with a cheek rest that can be swapped to fit wrong-handed shooters fairly easily. Shooters can adjust the 600 Trail series stock to four different positions.
The length of pull goes all the way out to 13.7 inches. With the stock collapsed, the weapon is only 27.2 inches long, and with the stock fully extended, we get to 35 inches. At 6.1 pounds, the weapon is fairly light and handy.
CZ topped the rifle off with an ambidextrous magazine release, an ambidextrous AR-style safety, and an oversized bolt. The pistol grip is interchangeable with AR pistol grips, and the pistol grip can be adjusted for size with CZ P09 grip inserts.
Sights, Optics, and More
The CZ 600 Trail comes with a blank canvas for optics and sights. I tossed on a 1-8X LPVO, and that’s likely a heavy way to rock and roll. This gun would be outfitted well with a 4X prism or even a red dot paired with a magnifier. Jeff Cooper might not have approved of a .223 Remington Scout rifle, but this seems like a great platform for a scout rifle.
As I’ve discussed before, I don’t think a long eye relief optic is necessary with modern scout rifles. I’m really thinking about purchasing a red dot and magnifier setup for this rig. I think it would be a great 0 to 300 yards gun with that kind of rig.
The M-LOK handguard is just begging for a laser aiming system and a night vision device. It’d be a simple addition that would make the gun a lethal night stalker for hogs and coyotes. If NVGs are your bag, toss an OWL on the 12 o’clock position and light the world up as you see fit.
Finally, I’d prefer to keep it light, but a bipod might also be handy on a gun like this.
At the Range
I dropped on the Athlon 1-8X and hit the range with the 600 Trail and a few boxes of Wolf Gold. It’s the cheapest brass-cased ammo I had, and I wanted to see just how well the rifle could walk. I made sure I was on paper at 25 yards and moved to finalize my zero at 50 yards.
After the 50-yard zero, I moved to 100 yards and started letting the paper targets have it. The CZ 600 Trail promises a sub-MOA group, and it lived up to that expectation. I dropped three rounds easily into a square the size of an inch. That’s a good feeling, and I moved on to various steel targets.
The action is incredibly smooth, and the gun cycles consistently. The brass ejects into a nice, neat pile over and over again. I did realize that if the magazine rests on a support, it can be pushed in tight enough to bind the action and take some smoothness out of the action. If your action feels stiff, check and see if the mag is resting on something and being pressed upwards.
Shooting With the 600 Trail
The PDW stock is a bit shaky and wobbly, so you have to pull it in tight to maximize stability. Once it’s pulled in tight, the little bit of wiggle disappears, and the weapon is pretty easy to aim and get on target.
I’m spoiled by flash suppressors on modern carbines. The 600 Trail generates a fair bit of flash from the 16.2-inch barrel. Not enough to be distracting, but enough to catch your eye.
I’m also spoiled by the direct impingement action of a semi-auto AR-15. This little 600 Trail surprised me with its recoil. It’s not exactly painful by any means, but moving from an AR to a bolt gun shows you a big difference. The recoil isn’t shoulder-pounding but noticeable.
For fun, I started shooting some drills that relied more on speed than bolt gun precision. Let’s say I walked up on a hog, and it looked mad. I set up a 10-inch gong and, at 50 yards, ran some timed snap drills.
Once the shot timer beeped, I shouldered and fired a single round. The light rifle and solid cheek rest made accurate shots fast and easy. With the CZ 600 Trail, I put a round in the center of that gong over and over in less than two seconds. It splits hairs and does so with ease.
Yay or Nay
The CZ 600 Trail is an awesome rifle. It’s uber light, easy to control, and accurate to a fault. For light to medium game, it’d be an excellent hunting rifle. It’s light and handy and gives you that bolt gun love.
The 600 Trial series is a serious winner. Now I want the Lux version.
