A Nurse with a Gun

Saturday, December 31, 2005

IZH 46M....This'un aint no toy!

When I bought a Winchester 1000XS, I knew it was likely to happen. Being able to walk out your back door and shoot targets with an accurate gun at any time you like has amazing appeal. The Winchester air rifle is nice. It is accurate. But I'm much more a pistol shooter than a rifle shooter. Thus, the search for an accurate, well made and cost efficient air pistol was under way.
Through several weeks of internet research, one pistol kept popping up. The IZH-Baikal 46M Match pistol was repeatedly heralded as one of the world's best single stroke pneumatic pistols made. The 46M has won many international competitions competing against some of the best German made air pistols, and it's available at less than half the cost! That sounded like the pistol for me. I placed an order to Pyramyd Air.

Today, I recieved a world class target pistol in the mail for a paltry sum of $269. The 0.177 caliber instrument (I hesitate to even call it a pistol) has a micrometer adjustable rear sight with replaceable steel blades. The front sight blade is also easily swapped out. It has a fully adjustable two-stage trigger that can be adjusted down to telepathy release. The IZH 46M will propel a pellet at 500 ft/sec.

As I stated, this precision instrument is no toy. There is not a shred of plastic on it. Even the knobs on the rear sight are aluminum instead of polymer. I wanted to monkey with the trigger, but I held off and read the manual first. That did not help much. The adjustment instructions presumed knowledge I do not yet possess. I decided to shoot the gun first.

I immediately noticed the Ruskies must have terribly small hands compared to us Americans. I had to sand the grip, especially the bottom piece to accomodate my ham fisted mitts. A little Dremel work, a little 320 grit, and some tung oil, and they were made just for me. Custom grips are available.

The real question though, is how does it shoot? I went out in the back yard and set up some informal targets about 20 feet out. I loaded up the pistol with Daisy flat nosed ammo and nailed every McDonald's toy I shot at. I hung up a few dot targets, and the IZH 46M showed every inadequacy I had shooting off hand. My groups were good, but I knew the gun could do better. So, I benched the pistol and rested it's cylinder on a couple of sandbags. With my inadequacies out of the equation, the gun was a consistent one hole shooter at 30 feet.
The under barrel cocking lever charges the pneumatic cylinder with almost no effort. There is no discernable recoil when firing. The sound it makes is an audible pffffffft. The sound of the pellet hitting the target is potentially more audible. If a shooter uses a padded backstop, a neighbor will never know marksmanship training is occuring next door. The IZH 46M is, of course, a single shot pistol.

Red dot scopes and Weaver scope mounts are available for this pistol. Baikal has a winner here. For under $300 you will likely not find a better made, more accurate true target gun anywhere.

Pyramyd Air Report on the IZH-46M

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16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

uggh.. now i'm going to have to finally buy one of those. i've been toying with the idea for a while. My city defines a "firearm" as anything that pushes over 600fps, which makes my beeman rifle a no go. The izh on the other hand only generates 500 or so.

I've always been curious about how loud they were, how loud would you say it is in comparison to a spring-piston rifle like your winchester?

5:46 PM  
Blogger Xavier said...

Compared to the Winchester 1000XS, it's about half as loud. A neighbor would have to know what he was hearing if he heard anything.

6:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've had a BSA Scorpion for over 20 years. Big, loud, fairly fast and lots of fun but not exceptionally accurate due to the klunky plastic sights. The recoil implse is so rough that I've shaken apart a couple of airgun pistol scoped.

Since I've moved I don't know *exactly* where I packed it away, but I imagine I'm going to sell it off and buy a an Izzy now. Besides, I can only shoot my RWS 45 so much before I figure I need to get in some cheap pistol practice in the back yard.

Good shootin, Xavier. Thanks for an interesting review.

Regards,
Rabbit.

1:11 PM  
Blogger David said...

I just got a new Izzy, and I don't really know what pressure to charge it to. My manual is all in Cryllic, and the numbers in the book go from 20 to 1000. When you shoot, to what pressure do you charge it to?

Much thanks

1:59 AM  
Blogger Xavier said...

David,
One pump.

2:02 AM  
Blogger David said...

Hah... thanks

2:20 AM  
Blogger ylojelo said...

I found your site while researching this pellet gun. Interesting site and timely since I'm looking to get my carry permit here in VA. Thanks for all the interesting topics. I am also concidering buying this pellet gun. Do you still shoot it, and still like it?

Thanks.

J.

10:03 PM  
Blogger Gregg said...

Any comments or recommendations on performance pellets?

7:08 PM  
Blogger ylojelo said...

Gregg, I have a feeling Xavier doesn't go back this far to comment. I've ordered this gun, but its back ordered. If you have a source, I'd like to know.

1:47 PM  
Blogger David said...

hmm... I love my IZH, but I think it's not 500 FPS anymore. I shoot paperboard targets, but the wadcutter only rips, not makes a clean hole through the target. Comparatively, it has about the same power as my 290 FPS Airsoft.

What is wrong with the power? Is it always like this or has something gone awry?

Also, when I first got it, it had about this much power.

Thanks,
David

11:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

David--Based on what I've read on the Pyramyd Air Blog site, you may either need to lube the pump piston or, more likely, one of the O rings is missing from the breech or "bolt" (the little "gate" that you close after loading it). I've heard that if you don't fully latch the breech closed, the O rings will be blown out when you fire it. Check that both are installed.

8:57 PM  
Blogger David said...

Hey Anonymous,

Thanks for the reply. I found out that it was missing an o-ring. Now it's fixed and shoots much better!

11:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anybody here who could post its maintenance and how to clean it - preferably with pictures?

bing

3:52 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, I was wondering if this gun was too front heavy.

10:19 PM  
Blogger ylojelo said...

Mine has a red dot site on it, and it is a bit front heave but the shelf grip helps with that

11:10 PM  
Blogger ylojelo said...

Mine has a red dot site on it, and it is a bit front heave but the shelf grip helps with that

11:10 PM  

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