by zoeper » Sun Sep 15, 2013 11:44 am
Hi Guys, This is my experience with the Anschutz 520 semi Auto .22LR
I do own several other Anschutz bolt action rifles and target rifles and as far as i am concerned the only thing the 520 have in common with them is the name.
The 520 is a take-down design in that the barrel and fore stock can be taken apart by removing a single screw under the action and sliding the barrel/ forend out(no floating barrel possible here). This in itself is not conducive to good accuracy, as the telescopic sight is mounted on the receiver and any movement between the action and barrel will show up on(or off) the target.
The bolt (breach block) is a metal cylinder that is cycled forward by a spring and rearward by the pressure on the case head. There is no locking mechanism to lock it while a round is being fired. My rifle is fitted with a fairly long barrel (standard) and the gas escapes from the chamber before the bullet leaves the barrel. This causes the sound to escape from the chamber, rendering any form of suppressor near useless. A further effect of the bolt opening too soon is that the velocity of the projectile is reduced significantly when compared to a sister round fired from a bolt action anschutz with similar barrel length (200-300Fps less on the 520).
Ignition on my rifle was really poor in the beginning and it would fail to ignite +- 1/3rd of the rounds fired. this was later fixed by altering the hammer spring.
Trigger is OK for a hunting rifle, but has no adjustment whatsoever and does nor resemble anything you would expect from Anschutz.
I used to fire mostly HV's and SV's from my rifle (never knew you were not supposed to do that) and i think this must have caused a crack around the back of the receiver. I ordered a replacement from the factory, great service at the time, and had it going again in no time. The new receiver had two changes from the original, -the receiver was strengthened where mine cracked, and shape of the case reflector was changed slightly. This was about 15 years ago and subsequent attempts to deal with the factory directly failed.
My last concern with this design is that when the bolt cycles, metal hits metal at the back of the stroke. This is what cracked my first receiver and destroyed two scopes. NEVER PUT AN EXPENSIVE SCOPE ON ONE OF THESE RIFLES. Use a scope that is rated for use on a springer air rifle and you should be OK
That said, i am not ready to get rid of my Anschutz 520 yet. Am am about to set out on a mission to accurize mine and i will attempt to address some of the issues described above.
Maybe i will have something good to say about it in the near future.
PS. Forgot to say... Cleaning is a bitch on this rifle. since the bolt opens while the barrel is under pressure, it deposits a lot of junk in the action. to clean this out the barrel needs to be removed (you need to sight it in again after re-fitting) and the bolt needs to be removed. Getting the bolt back in is near impossible without the proper tools. A shaped wire hook is what i use to keep the spring depressed while inserting back into the action.
I think my next .22 semi will be a ruger 10/22????