In the upcoming July 2014 issue of RIFLE FIREPOWER, author John Higgs takes CZ-USA’s new 557 Sporter bolt action to the FTW Ranch for some serious safari training. Higgs writes, “In the closing days of 2013, a small group of gun writers and shooting media presenters took part in a shortened version of the standard four-day Sportsman’s All-Weather All-Terrain Marksmanship (SAAM) class offered for hunter training by FTW Ranch, a prime hunting ranch located 2.5 hours from San Antonio in the beautiful rolling hills of southern Texas. The two-day ‘Advanced Sales Enhancement Training’ class was designed specifically for us to get an overview of the complete course while we evaluated the latest bolt-action rifle from Czech gun-maker CZ, the 557 Sporter.

“Each writer was issued a CZ 557 rifle chambered for the .30-06 cartridge. We began the first day in the well-equipped classroom at the FTW lodge, where we covered the basics of bullet drop and drift, zeroing and adjusting the hunting scope, range estimation and sighting in, among other topics. One sign of a good class is the amount of preparation that takes place before the class begins. Generally speaking, people learn better and shoot better when they are comfortable. Since a lot of our time on the range would be shooting from the prone position, we were issued shoulder pads. Our rifles were fitted with bipods and cheekpads, which were items that I for one was grateful for by the end of the second day. In the two days that we writers were on the range, we benefitted from some excellent training by our FTW instructors, who have shooting backgrounds ranging from being U.S. military veterans to African professional hunters (PHs).”

Read more about the CZ 557 Sporter on Tactical-Life.com.

To learn more about the class and this new rifle, check out the July 2014 issue of RIFLE FIREPOWER, available on newsstands and digitally April 15, 2014. To subscribe, go to /rifle-firepower