I like to think of my CZ 452 America chambered in .22 LR as a working man’s Anschutz. Mine came with the skinny barrel but, even so, this gun is crazy accurate out to about 100 yards or so. Having said that, the CZ 452 has a couple of features that make you understand why it’s a $350 gun instead of a $1000 gun and the biggest one is its factory trigger. No, it isn’t horrible by any means, but it could be so much better. Most CZ 452 owners eventually opt for an aftermarket drop-in trigger or they get a gunsmith to tune their factory trigger. After owning the gun for 4 or 5 years, I finally broke down and bought a kit from Rifle Basix . . .
If you want to improve the CZ’s trigger, you have plenty of ways to go. It’s been my experience that most gunsmiths generally take too long to get anything done, so I wanted to go the DIY route. Fortunately, there are quite a few options out there. I chose the Rifle Basix kit through a process of elimination.
First, I rejected the $95 Timney Trigger because it requires the end user to inlet the factory stock. That, and its minimum trigger pull is 2 pounds. I eliminated the $49 Automation Solutions replacement sear because folks had reported that it’s difficult to install. I thought hard about the $18 YoDave spring/shim set largely because of its low price. But I eventually concluded that the Rifle Basix unit was going to be easier to fine tune and offered a greater range of trigger pull weights.
The Rifle Basix kit is a single stage trigger that can be safely adjusted from a feathery 12 oz. up to 3 lb. It includes a new trigger spring, pivot pins, a trigger lever and optional sear adjustment screws for creep adjustment. So, $85 bucks (+ $10 for S&H) and four days later, I received the Rifle Basix unit direct from the manufacturer. You might even find it at a cheaper price if you shop around.
The Rifle Basix trigger assembly is fairly easy to install and requires no alterations to the rifle – other than removing two pins. While I’m not going to bore you with detailed instructions on how to install it, suffice it to say that the instruction sheet provided is easy to follow. The whole task took me around 30 minutes. All you’ll need are a punch set, a rubber mallet, and a little epoxy. Here it is all installed and ready to go:
And oh what a difference it makes. My new trigger breaks at a little over one pound and is as smooth as Catrinel Menghia’s abs. I was also able to adjust the trigger so that it breaks without any creep at all. I also did a few bump tests to make sure the gun would not go off if it’s jostled, dropped or otherwise jarred in any way.
Having an adjustable trigger like the Rifle Basix kit makes it easy to customize the trigger pull to suit the situation. For example, when I take this gun hunting, I will adjust the trigger closer to three pounds for safety reasons. Hey, speaking of hunting, it’s almost squeakie season!
You can see how accurate the rifle was before installing the new bangswitch. I haven’t had a chance to range test it yet with the new trigger, but I’ll post my results as soon as I do. As the photo demonstrates, the CZ 452 is capable of some pretty nice groups, and I am hopeful that this new trigger will make it even easier to repeat those nice cloverleafs.