Baikal single shot .308

Has anyone used or seen the new Baikal single shot rifle,the cost £285 brand spanking new.
I know Baikals are rough and ready,but in general ,a sound reliable gun.
Just wondering has anyone used one and if so your thoughts on them.
 
If that is the break action like the .410 and 12 bore shotguns I have tried one in .223
Rough and ready, you certainly wouldn't be worried about knocking it about, and it managed to
put 3 shots into an inch and a bit with an old Tasco 4x32 on it.
Trigger is horrible, but no doubt can be smoothed out a bit, I'd buy one if I needed a truck gun.

Neil. :)
 
Has anyone used or seen the new Baikal single shot rifle,the cost £285 brand spanking new.
I know Baikals are rough and ready,but in general ,a sound reliable gun.
Just wondering has anyone used one and if so your thoughts on them.

Only being a light-weight gun, I bet that's "rather lively" in the shoulder when the trigger's pulled in 308 :eek:
 
Beware! Like ALL break action guns sooner or later it will need a re-joint. That it is used with high pressure rifle cartridges will mean sooner that if it were in, say, 410 shot gun calibre.
 
I use a mate's when i pop over to France and hunt his boar. Same gun but different calibre. It's always been accurate enough.
 
.308 IZH 18mh

Hi - I have one in .308, I paid £120 quid new from a guy in Surrey. It shot under an inch from the box with 150gr Hornady's and 43grn of N135. I love it - I am currently having it restocked. I am using a Nickel scope with a rail and Recknagel roll off mounts to get correct eye relief + I like the method. It does have a terrible trigger ( alot of creep) but I have half way sorted it and am looking for some one to finish it to crisp let off - any offers and also to fit a quarter rib.
I have just bought another Nikel scope and I am planing to put a quater rib on it and mount via the objective lens bell housing.
Yes they are rough and ready but they are cheap and worth the money spent on them - If you like that sort of thing. Paul Roberts used to turn out stunning big game rifles from old Brno's. You just need the vision!!!!!!!!!
Regards -K
 
i have never shot one of these rifles but i have seen them and i think there great for what they are ok i wouldnt want to go to scotland with it and push it out to long ranges but for the type of lowland farm stalking i do shooting roe up to about 100yrds i think its a fantastic bit of kit and after a few years it needed some major work doing you could just bin it and get another
 
I've shot the 308 Remington SPR18/Spartan (posh version of the IZH-18MH but still made by Baikal) at 150 yards and it was fine - about an inch with the owner's custom loads. After some derogatory comments from someone else about the delay in getting a second shot in, the owner gave a demonstration by putting five shots into a 4" square target at 150 yards very quickly - certainly quick enough to give confidence in hunting with it.

I've also seen (but not handled or shot) the Baikal version and it seems just as functional, albeit much less attractive. I think they also make a version for an Italian company.

It was definitely an experience shooting a single shot break action rifle, but I would want to practice getting that second shot away before I tried to use it in the field.
 
The scope mounts direct to the barrel, which means you can remove it and replace it and it will return to the same zero. The action is very tight and strong. Apparently you can order them with multiple barrel sets, say a .223, 30/06 and 9.3 x74 barrel plus shotgun barrels! Is that the perfect safari rifle? Single shot limitations accepted!!! but you can reload quickly still.

Regards - karamoja
 
Well I had one of these so called Baikal's MH18 in 222 Rem, I say so called because according to the proof mark the rifle was made at the Izhevsk plant which is denoted by the Arrow inside a shield in the proof marks I believe Baikal is a marketing name and not really a make.

The MH18 has the normal strange styling of the late single barrel shotguns:-

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Which I found very NOT to my taste so I reshaped the stock:-

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The wood was almost pure white and commercial walnut stain did not give a good result so it was re-stripped and another method tried.

StainedwoodLHS.jpg


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The barrel is screwed into a block in a normal breeching fashion:-

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Now as for the trigger mech well I wonder why is it that the same plant can give good triggers on their shotguns but the rifles are long and dragging pulls? :-

ActionMechanismLHS.jpg


The mech is the same and I wonder if it's deliberate for the US market to appease the lawyers? On mine I managed to reduce the weight by about half but could not remove the creep. Was going to have another go at it but then I ran out of space/open slots and the BSA Regent came a long so something had to go. Accuracy or precison on target was more than acceptable:-

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It was fussy compared with my other rifles about bullet seating depth or jump. Those groups were shot using same POA.

As for weight the rifle was surprisingly heavy.
 
Yes I would say so Brithunter, very Similar to the Remington SPR-18 as are some of there shotguns.

I would think the synthetic stock from the Hushpower SB would be the same ?

Rgds, Buck.

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The Spartan range of rifles and shotguns marketed by Remington is actually made in the Izhevsk plant that usually sells under the Baikal name. It's just more marketable in the U.S. to sell under the Remington banner. Nothing new in this as many companies have been making for others for hundreds of years now who then put their own name to it.
 
That's interesting Brithunter - it looked a lot better afterwards. From the photos, it looks like you slimmed down the wedge section forend? I'd looked at one on a rack and wondered what that wood was. The blacking looked a little unusual too - very matt - what was it like on the one you had?

Having tried the Remington badged one (but not the 'original' Baikal), the trigger weight was way too heavy for my taste. It also dragged a bit but what stuck most in my mind (from the few shots I took) was that I had no confidence that I knew exactly when it would break. I haven't tried one but if the shotgun triggers are better, could they be (safely) a source for improved parts? I don't know what a secondhand Baikal shotgun would go for but it is probably quite reasonable.
 
That's interesting Brithunter - it looked a lot better afterwards. From the photos, it looks like you slimmed down the wedge section forend? I'd looked at one on a rack and wondered what that wood was. The blacking looked a little unusual too - very matt - what was it like on the one you had?

Having tried the Remington badged one (but not the 'original' Baikal), the trigger weight was way too heavy for my taste. It also dragged a bit but what stuck most in my mind (from the few shots I took) was that I had no confidence that I knew exactly when it would break. I haven't tried one but if the shotgun triggers are better, could they be (safely) a source for improved parts? I don't know what a secondhand Baikal shotgun would go for but it is probably quite reasonable.

Why thank you for the kind remarks. I was sorry to see it go as I considered it an excellent travel rifle. Now the various models of the single barrel shotguns can be had from around £15 upwards. This is an oldr 12b I picker up intendind to nick the wood off it to pu onto the rifle but they changed a few things and it would not fit as I had hoped:-

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Please excuse the nosy parrot.

377177221.jpg

Disc set striker too.

The splotchy finish is due to this particular 12b coming from a fire damaged shop.

The blacking on mine was fine as this shows:-

377177287.jpg


BaikalRecieverLHS.jpg


I do think they are made on the jobbing system as they do seem to vary a bit. The 12b pictured well the trigger has no creep I also picked up a 20b for £25 ad the trigger is quite goo on that too but not quite as good as that older one.
 
I had a IZH-18 In 222, almost new when I got it, with factory rounds It was shooting 1 1/2" groups, I had the barrel shortened / screwcut and fitted a DM80 mod...My gunsmith had a horrible time threading the barrel with the spiral, he described the engineering as a bit wild...I stripped the trigger to polish a few bits to try and Improve the pull weight and creep but found It hard to Improve It much, a nice little rifle but very, very basic...That said, they are what they are and dont pretend to be anything else...I sold mine as the trigger was way too rough for me, so I bought a Tikka which In comparison is a gem but the baikal will serve someone very well for many years to come for very little money
 
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