When it comes to teaching and building upon the fundamentals of shooting, nothing quite beats a youth rifle. The concepts of sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, and follow-through are exercised, but in a platform that is shortened and lightened for young and smaller-statured shooters. It also helps that rifles like these are normally chambered in lighter recoiling cartridges like .22 Long Rifle.
There are plenty of .22 caliber youth rifles and compact rifles more generally on the market. But many of them are surprisingly cheap and offer less capacity for the shooter to grow a bit with their rifle. The CZ 457 Scout is a higher market approach that is almost heirloom quality, but gives the end user the ability to add magazine capacity and even barrel changes to different calibers.
The CZ 457 Scout
Features
CZ produces several models of .17 and .22 caliber rimfire rifles as part of the 452 and 455 lineup. The latest versions are the 457 series, of which the 457 Scout is the most compact and the least expensive. It features a smooth beechwood stock, an aluminum receiver, and nitrated milled steel furniture in lieu of stamped steel parts as used on the 455. It has a short 12-inch length of pull and a squatty 16-inch barrel that is threaded for 1/2×28 inch accessories.
Unlike others in the 457 lineup, the Scout features a set-screw adjustable rear sight and a hooded post front. It also lacks an adjustable set trigger, instead relying on a simple single-stage version. But it shares the same three-position safety, cock-on-open bolt action, and grooved receiver to accept 11mm (3/8 inch) scope mounts.
While the other models available come with detachable five-round magazines and are marketed as repeating rifles, the Scout comes from the factory as a single-shot rifle. It features a polymer ramp that plugs the magazine well, which allows the user to drop a single round into the action. But the block can be removed, and detachable magazines can be used.
Shooting Impressions
The CZ 457 Scout is compact enough for an easy reach for the bolt and trigger for short-statured shooters. But it works equally well for taller shooters who want something compact. For the new shooter, the compact dimensions, five-pound weight, and the inclusion of a single-shot feed ramp make for a platform that is easy to wield and simple to operate while concentrating on the needed fundamentals with one well-placed shot.
The single-shot adapter is also useful for feeding many different types of ammunition with ease. While you can stoke a bolt-action rifle with .22 Long, .22 Short, or CB Cap ammunition, you normally would have to feed it directly into the chamber. The adapter acts as a feed ramp. Simply drop the round onto the ramp and bolt forward and down to chamber the round. However, most of our shooting with the 457 Scout was done with CZ five-round magazines.
A Great Suppressor Host
An added bonus with newer-generation .22 rifles like the Scout is that it comes from the factory threaded for a suppressor. .22 suppressors are less expensive than centerfire counterparts and come close to movie quiet. That is handy, whether you are hunting and don’t want to give away your position or at the range and don’t want to deal with the frustration of working around earmuffs.
As a training aid, it removes the bark of .22 LR ammo from the shooting equation. As the 457 is bolt action, all gas is directed and silenced at the muzzle, and there is no blowback and particulate coming out of the action like in an autoloader.
The CZ 457 Scout is not blessed with a set trigger like others in CZ’s lineup of rimfire rifles, but it breaks cleanly with no mush. On my Lyman Trigger scale, it pulls at just 3 3/4 lbs. The Scout’s iron sights are well-regulated and easy to see and understand instructionally.
However, most of our shooting was done with a Leopold VX-Freedom 1-4x riflescope. It is mounted on 3/8 inch aluminum mounts, which fit well on the 11mm dovetail. The dovetail itself is the same size as a 3/8 dovetail on other rifles, but the inner ground is slightly different.
Reliability and Accuracy
Accuracy and reliability with .22 rifles are dependent on the gun, ammo, and magazines. Thankfully, CZ guns and mags tend to be straight performers. That just leaves the ammo, and the 457 Scout eats it all. From CCI Quiet .22 LR 40 grain lead rounds to CCI Copper 21 grain solids to Winchester Super X dud-ammo specials, the Scout cycles and shoots them well. It is also one of the few rimfires we own that has yet to have an ammunition-related failure to fire.
Accuracy is excellent for a non-target rifle. At 100 yards, I can put five rounds of CCI Blazer 40-grain high velocity into the size of a quarter. That can be replicated with just about any other standard velocity or high velocity ammunition, although the groups will not always be in the same place.
Accuracy with subsonic ammunition is somewhat less at distances beyond fifty yards because wind affects these slow pills the most. Inside that distance, only the least consistent ammunition will not produce a one-hole group. All in all, more than enough to give assurance to a new shooter anxious to see holes in paper or meat in the pot.
The CZ 457 Scout: A Different Take on the Youth Rifle
Youth rifles tend to be barebones and made to a low price point. That is not the fault of manufacturers so much, but the economics that drives the demand for youth rifles. When someone starts shooting, there isn’t always much money to spend.
Once a new shooter goes through the ringer, learns the fundamentals, and moves on to other platforms, that single-shot youth .22 is left collecting dust as it gets too small and too inflexible as time goes on. CZ took a different approach with the 457 Scout by going upmarket and incorporating just enough features for shooters to grow with their first rifle.
