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- Baikal IZH-53M
- Overview
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Picture courtesy of Asokai.
| Value for Money | 8.1/10  |
|---|---|
| Reviewer Rating | 7.1/10 |
| Overall Rating | 7.2/10  |
Full review by
cole5169
expert review 
on 27th Aug 2008
User Rating : 9
Respect :
0
Good Points: Good price, rugged, dependable, easy to work on. Real diamond in the rough.
Bad Points: Trigger pull.
General comments: The IZH 53M is an entry-level spring-piston pistol. It has a hammer-forged, rifled barrel and (mine) shoots GAMO match wadcutters at 390 FPS. Very (surprisingly) easy to cock, even with such a short barrel. Fires pretty rough at first, but mine smoothed out after only a hundred pellets (100, not 1,000).
Accuracy is very hold sensitive, and the pistol has a pronouced "recoil" when the piston is released. Naturally, accuracy in a $50 springer is so-so, but this pistol will shoot very accurately, if you do your part (the barrel is amazing). Unfortunately, the trigger and sear combination do a lot to keep you from doing your best...
To "tune" the trigger, remove the grips (phillips screwdriver required) and set aside.
The trigger blade is actually a primary lever that acts on the true trigger, housed inside and behind the blade. The two components of the trigger are held in place by the same drift pin. The drift pin located immediately behind the trigger pin is a a stop for the sear lever. The third pin is the axis that the sear lever pivots upon.
Remove the two springs from behind the trigger parts and from under the rear of the sear lever, and set them aside. Take care removing the spring from the trigger; there is a small spring between the trigger blade and the trigger (which simulates a first stage, but serves no real function), and this spring can fall out when tension from the main trigger spring (the big one) is removed. You don't actually NEED the small spring, but just be aware that you could lose it at this point.
With the two large and one small spring removed, you can now drift out the three pins. Remove the two-piece trigger first, it comes straight out the bottom of the action. Then push the sear lever forward and draw it out the front and bottom of the assembly.
I used a Dremel tool with a rubber polishing disk on the mandrel to polish the sear contact areas. Don't use a file, or you might remove too much metal and make the sear unsafe!
After polishing all contact points and buffing with a cotton disk on the mandrel, I put a thin film of 60% Moly on them using a Q-tip, and reassembled the action.
After this tune, my trigger pull was reduced to 19 ounces, and is very smooth.
The long "adjustment" screw on the front of the trigger housing only adjusts for pre-travel. I ended up turning mine in a lot to reduce the travel (there was A LOT). This screw can be turned TOO FAR, causing the gun to fire accidentally or make it unable to cock. So be careful and make small adjustments to this screw, in a safe place.
The sights:
In my opinion, the rear sight alone is worth $30 of the $50 price tag. It is a nice, compact unit with good, positive clicks on the adjusting knobs. Unfortunately, it will barely adjust DOWN to put pellets on target at 10-15 meters. Most 7-ish grain pellets hit an inch or two high. Luckily, the front sight, which is also pretty nice (it's spring-loaded), can be easily raised:
Hold your palm over the front sight, and push it into it's housing a little to keep tension on it. Drift out the retaining pin, and dump the sight and its spring into your hand. The front sight is a long lever that pivots on the drift pin, and if you carefully file off the bottom of the back of the sight, you will raise the sight post, and so lower your point of impact. I find the easiest way to do this is to clamp a file to your work surface and draw the "butt" of the sight along the file to get it smooth and even.
Remove a little material, reassemble, and check your zero. repeat until you can get the sights on at your chosen range, with the REAR sight adjusted to about the middle of it's usable range (dial it all the way DOWN, now one click at a time, dial it UP, and count the clicks until you get to the extreme. Half as many clicks back DOWN is the "middle"...roughly).
This is a nice gun, a great plinker, and very "backyard friendly", with a proper trap or backstop, it makes a good "indoor" gun for bad weather practice. It's too big for kids or small teens, which is a shame, because it would be a great instructional pistol. It would also make a terrific little carbine.
Enjoy!
cole5169's review and ratings | 778 words
Review by
Guest.
on 15th Feb 2008
User Rating : 9
Respect :
0
The Baikal IZH-53M is a great first gun, nicely made and pretty accurate.
Guest.'s full review | 37 words
Review by
xlk
on 1st Jan 2008
User Rating : 7
Respect :
0
A good all round target shooting pistol!
xlk's full review | 25 words
Review by
vinceb
expert review
on 29th Aug 2007
User Rating : 8
Respect :
0
There's not a lot of spring-air pistols available in the $50 range, and by and large it's a pretty sad lot. The only ones that come to mind are the Shanghai-built S2 breakbarrel pistol (and variants), and the QS35 underlever. The S2 series generally suffer from unusable sights and poor barrel lock-up as well as triggers that are, shall we say, less than optimum. The QS35 does have a much better trigger and the fixed barrel should help accuracy, but the gun is horribly unbalanced and the grip fee ...
vinceb's full review | 722 words
Review by
p harris
on 18th May 2007
User Rating : 7
Respect :
0
I bought my 53m a couple of months back and first chance to review it, came in plain brown box and at first sight looked to be of sturdy made as most Russian guns are, mine had a fairly good finish to it and cocking is quiet easy with the front sight sight springing down to make it easier to cock. good cheap plinking gun for short range target work as this gun gives you a challenge. Right handed grip was a bit awkward until i reshaped it for my left handed use, and at 30 quid you can't go wrong.
p harris's full review | 109 words
Review by
rugerman
on 1st Jan 2007
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+1
I don't really know why I bought the Baikal Izh 53M. I didn't really need it but I did want to try a Russian air gun and thought if a cheap one was ok, then an expensive one should be better. I did own one other Russian pistol, an old Tokarov 7.65x25 MM. that just never fails to shoot and shoot fairly well.
Anyway, considering the price of $40+, you get quite a bit of gun. Trigger adjusts some, sights adjust and it comes with a spare seal, extra sight notch and cleaning rod.
I'm no paper punch ...
rugerman's full review | 204 words
Review by
mick473
on 5th Nov 2006
User Rating : 8
Respect :
+1
For under 30 quid I cannot moan. My Baikal IZH-53M has a nice trigger and is dead easy to cock with a ratchet type cocking which makes it easy for the young shooter to cock and you cannot fire until the barrel is locked back into place.
I have only fired about 100 rounds or pellets so far but seems to be able to group OK. I tested with Geco at 350 fps.
The black plastic grips are quite nice for my small hands but for the larger handed shooter may be a bit awkward.
Comes with a cleaning ...
mick473's full review | 207 words
Review by
AirgunStan
on 10th May 2006
User Rating : 2
Respect :
-1
First impression when opening up the package of the Baikal IZH-53M: cheap and nasty. The finish is not a pleasure to the eye - the metal has a look about it as if it is about to start corroding. The plastic body looks tatty. To me it looked like something you'd find at a boot sale.
Cocking the gun the spring sounded just awful as it compressed. After only a dozen or so shots the jaws worked loose. Once tightened they worked loose again and again. There is no safety catch. The sights are fiddl ...
AirgunStan's full review | 152 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
kbeach
expert review
on 27th Jan 2006
User Rating : 9
Respect :
+1
Sooner or later, most air gun enthusiasts are going to own a quivver. Some of the weapons in their quivvers will be serious, others playful. I submit that the Baikal IZH53M is one of the world's true bargains when it comes to an objective fun/price analysis.
I purchased my Baikal IZH53M with some trepidation...and only after I deliberately set aside some prejudice. You either understand this sentence or you do not. Suffice it to say I am glad I took delivery of my IZH53M from Pyramydair ...
kbeach's full review | 473 words | 2 comments added.
Review by
sniper666
on 8th Dec 2005
User Rating : 9
Respect :
+1
I bought a Baikal IZH-53M as my first airgun when I was twelve. I love this gun.
Accuracy=80% not quite perfect..177 calibre
Power=3-4joules. Which isn't bad for a beginners gun.
Finish=nice looking,Well made.
Price=I got mine from J S Ramsbottom.£33 uk
Pellets to use=Crosman Accupell-good
Nickerson waisted pellets=The best for the gun
Dont use Elley Wasps they are slightly too big and have a lower muzzle velocity!!
Purpose/summary/conclusion
It is a great gun for beginners. It is ...
sniper666's full review | 146 words | 3 comments added.
Review by
kd5byb
on 3rd Dec 2005
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+2
Bought the Baikal IZH-53M as my entry into the world of air pistol shooting. I shoot lots of centerfire pistols, centerfire rifles, rimfire rifles, and air rifles, and wanted a low-price air pistol to see if I would enjoy air pistols as much as I enjoy all of the above!
I picked the IZH-53M becuase of its low cost and the fact that I'm familiar with other firearms made at the Izhevsk factory. For a retail price around $50, I figured I really couldn't go all that wrong!
Fit and finish i ...
kd5byb's full review | 323 words | 2 comments added.
Review by
Gun Instructor
on 23rd Oct 2003
User Rating : 8
Respect :
+6
This Baikal IZH-53M bargain priced pistol is a good value. It is superior to a couple of much more expensive pistols. I tried it with several different types of pellets , and all shot well. This gun was designed to be shot with one hand. If you try shooting it with two, the accuracy is not very good. This is not a firearm, it has spring whip. A two handed grip only makes it worse. The pistol was designed as a trainer for ten meter shooting. The gun has to be shot like a ten meter match pistol. ...
Gun Instructor's full review | 133 words
Review by
Greg.
on 17th Jul 2003
User Rating : 3
Respect :
-3
The Baikal IZH-53M is a major letdown. I can shoot a tighter group with my double action Gamo p-23, or my A-3000. I had to radically elevate the front sight, and grind the base of the rear sight to get it to shoot to point of aim. I have about a dozen airguns I love, but I would not recommend this gun.
Greg.'s full review | 84 words
Review by
Tom.
on 22nd Mar 2003
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+4
This economical Springer pistol is billed by some retailers as a great "plinker" - Others claim it's an entry level target pistol. - I've never owned a "target pistol" before, but thought myself a decent shot. I couldn't hit my target with this !! Could this require a different technique to shoot, by it's design? I like the pistol, but think it's a better plinker, than target gun. Feedback appreciated.
Tom.'s full review | 87 words | 1 comment added.
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