First off, shout out to @adamsredlines for dealing with my excitement on this one. I needed someone to get excited to and he's a classy dude for letting me blow up his PMs.
Why am I excited? Because I like big dumb toys, and I got a new one. Obviously in the most readily available one possible --- the 416 Taylor. Now, while I'd like to say I'm an expert in this niche genre of rifles, I'm really not. I'm going down this road because the rifle shoots a big ole bullet and I got it for a solid price. This one happens to be built on a CZ VZ24 action and is going make me wait to get it to the range. Why? Well --- So far, here's what I know ---
1. You cannot take 416 Rem Mag brass and resize it. I originally thought this and I was wrong. Learning more about it, 416RM is based off the 8mmRM case and not the 458 Win Mag case. Soooo I've gotta search for 458 Win brass, or the even more elusive "actually head stamped 416 Taylor" brass. I suppose the latter is out there, but I really do not want to pay nearly $4 each for just the case. Sheesh!
2. While not based the same, 416 Taylor has comparable ballistics to the 416RM, 416 Rigby and other big boomer rifles. You give up a few FPS but it fits in a standard action.
3. After getting it in today, the rifle was much nicer in person than the pictures I saw before I got it. There are a few flaws on the metal, but it looks like the were way in the past and the metal was treated since. Considering the VZ24's haven't been made since 1942, I think it's doing good.
4. Nice touches I didn't know about till I got it? Well, it's bedded, and it has a "Bold" trigger. IIRC that was made as a working class version of a Timney trigger by Robert Boyd? Either way, testing it is light, but not "hair". And notably, the safety works just fine. Reading up, it seems like not all triggers you could add to the VZ24 would keep the safety working.
5. Dies are also super hard to come by. From what it looks like, Lee makes some that share the same part number as a 6.5-300Weatherby set. So that doesn't make it confusing at all. My next options though start around 160-250 bucks for the dies.
Start of a project for sure, it'll be fun when I finally get the equipment in to make some rounds for this beast. That said, if anyone has brass or dies they want to let go of let me know and you get invited to the try it out session
Bonus fun fact --- I might have been the only person in the world buying a 416 Taylor while the Superbowl was going on and people were all mad about Taylor swift being shown. Random coincidence, but funny.
Why am I excited? Because I like big dumb toys, and I got a new one. Obviously in the most readily available one possible --- the 416 Taylor. Now, while I'd like to say I'm an expert in this niche genre of rifles, I'm really not. I'm going down this road because the rifle shoots a big ole bullet and I got it for a solid price. This one happens to be built on a CZ VZ24 action and is going make me wait to get it to the range. Why? Well --- So far, here's what I know ---
1. You cannot take 416 Rem Mag brass and resize it. I originally thought this and I was wrong. Learning more about it, 416RM is based off the 8mmRM case and not the 458 Win Mag case. Soooo I've gotta search for 458 Win brass, or the even more elusive "actually head stamped 416 Taylor" brass. I suppose the latter is out there, but I really do not want to pay nearly $4 each for just the case. Sheesh!
2. While not based the same, 416 Taylor has comparable ballistics to the 416RM, 416 Rigby and other big boomer rifles. You give up a few FPS but it fits in a standard action.
3. After getting it in today, the rifle was much nicer in person than the pictures I saw before I got it. There are a few flaws on the metal, but it looks like the were way in the past and the metal was treated since. Considering the VZ24's haven't been made since 1942, I think it's doing good.
4. Nice touches I didn't know about till I got it? Well, it's bedded, and it has a "Bold" trigger. IIRC that was made as a working class version of a Timney trigger by Robert Boyd? Either way, testing it is light, but not "hair". And notably, the safety works just fine. Reading up, it seems like not all triggers you could add to the VZ24 would keep the safety working.
5. Dies are also super hard to come by. From what it looks like, Lee makes some that share the same part number as a 6.5-300Weatherby set. So that doesn't make it confusing at all. My next options though start around 160-250 bucks for the dies.
Start of a project for sure, it'll be fun when I finally get the equipment in to make some rounds for this beast. That said, if anyone has brass or dies they want to let go of let me know and you get invited to the try it out session
Bonus fun fact --- I might have been the only person in the world buying a 416 Taylor while the Superbowl was going on and people were all mad about Taylor swift being shown. Random coincidence, but funny.
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