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Old 05-16-2015, 02:33 PM
Brooks Brooks is offline
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Default Question guys

I have owned not less than 20 Coopers in my time and I gotta say that they wood today compares very favorable with plain Jane Ruger and CZ. I primarily bought Coopers for the great wood. All of them shot well but no better than a tuned CZ.

My question, would not a guy be better off getting a CZ and having a great stock fitted by much better off than 2-4 grand for a Cooper?

Just an idle thought from an addled brain.
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Old 05-16-2015, 02:48 PM
drover drover is offline
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In my opinion no. If you watch the price of used Coopers they continually increase. However if you spend a $1000 - $1500 a stock for a CZ you are unlikely to ever recover the investment unless you find someone who is especially taken by it. Most folks will look at it simply as what it is - a CZ with a fancy stock.

drover

Last edited by drover; 06-21-2015 at 02:36 PM. Reason: clarity
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  #3  
Old 05-16-2015, 03:59 PM
Brooks Brooks is offline
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Point well taken. The last blank I bought was in 2001 and paid $350 for it. Just looking that stock is not most likely $1100 or more. Plus the custom work of shaping and inleting. Guess I was just so disappointed with the quality of Cooper stocks. Some said, you just can't go home again. Well, here's to the good ole days. Still would opt for a CZ with the plain stock over a Cooper plain stock any day.
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Old 05-16-2015, 04:39 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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The last Cooper rifle I bought was a Model 52 Classic in 280 Remington. I bought it about 6-8 months ago, and one reason I bought it, besides the fact that I wanted a new 280 Rem repeating hunting rifle, was the incredible piece of wood that came with it. So good wood is still available if you look for it.

That said, in today's market place synthetic stocks are the rage. I'm not talking about the cheapy stuff that comes on factory rifles today that become "custom" stocks after applying a can of Krylon, but good quality synthetic stocks like McMillian and few others.

As for rifle choices, there are a multitude of rifles I'd buy before I'd invest much money in a CZ for its looks, but I recognize that I'm not in the majority here when I say that. And I stil sleep good at night......

-BCB
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Last edited by Bayou City Boy; 05-17-2015 at 04:53 AM. Reason: spelling....... & corrected Model number....
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Old 05-16-2015, 04:40 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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Whoops...!! Double post from a tablet on the road....

-BCB
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I miss mean Tweets, competence, and $1.79 per gallon gasoline.

Yo no creo en santos que orinan.

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and just get used to the idea.

Going keyboard postal over something that you read on the internet is like seeing a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and choosing to step in it rather than stepping around it.

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Old 05-16-2015, 04:47 PM
Chuck Miller Chuck Miller is offline
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Default hmmm...

Of the CZ's I own (4) only the 17H Varmint has the original stock. Having picked up my wood for nothing, having it turned and not having to dump a ton into it in labor it made sense. But I'm not under any illusion that I will get any of that back in selling them. In fact I'll probably get more by putting them back in the original stocks. As for appearance, well that's a no brainer, the CZ will never have the looks of a Cooper, back to my lipstick on a pig comment. On the flip side I don't have more than 1100.00 in any of my Coopers and could probably make some on them if selling. You won't do any of that with anything stamped CZ on the side, in custom form it will never be worth any more than the sum value of it's used parts. Even with the increased retail prices of Coopers you will be hard pressed to build a CZ with custom barrel and wood for what you can buy the Cooper for and as soon as you drive it off the lot, your upside down in value. Now if you have 2K burning a hole in your wallet and want to roll your own I would pick something that's not as esthetically challenged as the CZ donor. Used Sako L461/L46/AI actions are available for what the CZ donor would run you.
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Old 05-16-2015, 05:26 PM
Brooks Brooks is offline
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Seems I stepped in a little poop here. All the CZ's I owned were accurate, in fact as accurate as any Cooper I owned. My first criteria has always been accuracy. Then purdy. Coopers of the past used to have good looking pieces of wood. All the ones I see on GunsAmerica are for the most part poor when compared to the Coopers of old. Yep, old Sako any time over a CZ. I just picked out the CZ as it too has very straight grain wood with little of no figure. Don't' get me wrong, I loved my Coopers but would not spend the money they are asking for them today unless I could hand pick my wood. I had rather buy a CZ for accuracy and spend the extra bucks on mods for my Viper powered Dodge Ram. Gotta say I really get a bigger charge from whopping up on a Mustang or foreign windup car than shooting small groups.
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  #8  
Old 05-16-2015, 07:41 PM
Gabe221 Gabe221 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brooks View Post
I have owned not less than 20 Coopers in my time and I gotta say that they wood today compares very favorable with plain Jane Ruger and CZ. I primarily bought Coopers for the great wood. All of them shot well but no better than a tuned CZ.

My question, would not a guy be better off getting a CZ and having a great stock fitted by much better off than 2-4 grand for a Cooper?

Just an idle thought from an addled brain.

YES!!! My latest Cooper, isn't up to my spec, compared to the last one @ 5 yr ago. The chamber has a bur in it, barrel channel in stock is off to one side, wood to metal fit isn't flush on one side, oh' and with my Leupold scope, with 77moa of adj up and down, I got 25moa of up adj left with a 200yd zero.

Heck, be honest about, they are over rated. My CZ will do what it will, and more. As far as wood goes, I don't care for it, I use mine EVERY SINGLE DAY, and like synthetics better. What is the purpose of buying a rifle if your not going to use it, but once.....
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  #9  
Old 05-17-2015, 01:49 AM
drover drover is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bayou City Boy View Post
The last Cooper rifle I bought was a Model 54 Classic in 280 Remington. I bought it about 6-8 months ago, and one reason I bought it, besides the fact that I wanted a new 280 Rem repeating hunting rifle, was the incredible piece of wood that came with it. So good wood is stil available if you look for it.

That said, in todays market place synthetic stocks are the rage. I'm not talking about the cheapy stuff that comes on factory rifles today that become "custom" stocks after applyinbg a can of Krylon, but good quality synthetic stocks like McMillian and few others.

As for rifle choices, there are a multitude of rifles I'd buy before I'd invest much money in a CZ for its looks, but I recognize that I'm not in the majority here when I say that. And I stil sleep good at night......

-BCB
This pretty well sums it up. As BCB states there are a lot of Coopers with good wood out there but it does require patience and perseverance to find them at a reasonable price.

I purchased my first Cooper within their first year of being manufactured and have owned a multitude since then, believe me the wood on it was no better than the wood that people complain about today, finding one with good wood has always been a problem. Why? Because everyone's opinion of what constitutes good wood is different, there is no standard for wood grading and certainly no way to account for peoples idea of what "good" wood is. All of my Coopers have been standard grade AA wood yet some of them are commented on as - "WOW", but the next person may say - "Ho-Hum". I often purchased one with not so great wood (in my opinion) shot it for a while then found one with wood I liked better bought it and then usually sold the one I had for more than I paid for it. It is hard to do that with many rifles besides Coopers.

drover

Last edited by drover; 06-21-2015 at 02:38 PM. Reason: spelling
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  #10  
Old 06-19-2015, 02:36 AM
GLWenzl GLWenzl is offline
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I'm not a big CZ fan, not sure why I guess I liked the way they shoot and the trigger back when they was really cheap was nice!

I'm not a big Cooper guy and that is mostly due to seeing and hearing others get their face speckled up from the gas relief through the bolt.

As luck would have it that cooper 22-250 I traded in on the 17 ccm deal... The one you sold back to a good friend of mine?? Well it made almost a complete 360 because at Easter it was purchased by my youngest son. I honestly don't remember it shooting this good, must have been me the shooter??? I sure enjoy the fit and feel of a Cooper varminter in the bags...
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