IZH Baikal 53M

When researching alternatives to CO2 airguns, I found out about the Crosman 1377C, but also about the IZH 53M. "IZH" comes from Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, a Russian factory that also produced firearms like the Makarov pistol; Baikal is the brand under which this factory is manufacturing airguns.

Model 53M is a spring pistol that has suffered some changes over the years. The version that is currently available is very different from the one depicted in the Blue Book of Airguns. I understand that plastic replaced some metal components, but I have never seen the original model other than in pictures.

I decided to try this pistol because it was inexpensive and promised to be of a sturdy build. Users also claimed that it was very accurate and a great 10m target shooting pistol.

Operation

The IZH 53M is a break barrel pistol, which means that its barrel also represents the lever that is used to compress its spring. The pistol consists of a barrel that sits in front of a cylinder that holds the spring. The trigger mechanism sits under the spring cylinder and a large set of plastic grips attaches to it. By pulling down on the barrel, the spring is cocked. A pellet can now be introduced in the rear end of the barrel before straightening it out. Once that is done, pressing the trigger will fire the pistol - there is no safety mechanism, other than the one that prevents firing the gun while the barrel is bent. Very simple operation.

Cocking the Baikal requires very little effort. Firing it, however, is the tricky part, as you will have to deal with the kick of the spring that first jerks the pistol forward, then backward. The artillery hold is recommended for such airguns.

Package and Build

The IZH 53M came into a cardboard box, including instructions and a metal cleaning rod, in addition to the pistol itself. The box was sealed in a very thick plastic bag that felt very Russian in style.

This is a Russian pistol indeed. Everything feels very solid, although a bit unrefined. The barrel is metal forged, which is supposed to be a costly process that results in more accurate barrels - this operation is usually too expensive, but Russian manufacturing costs appear to still be low enough to make it economically feasible. The grip, front sight, and a few other parts are made of plastic, but none of them is under any kind of stress, so they will probably last as much, if not more, than the metal parts.

The large plastic body of this Baikal pistol looks a bit industrial and could use a bit more refinement. However, this is just the looks - its shape is very comfortable to hold.

One thing that needs to be pointed out is that this pistol is very long. I could not even find an inexpensive case to hold it. I picked a 2 pistol pillared Plano case, only to find out that the Baikal could only fit inside by breaking its barrel without actually compressing its spring. Despite its large size, the 53M is quite light - this is because other than the barrel, all metal parts sit right above the grip.

The long size is a direct result of the break barrel mechanism. Using the barrel to compress the spring requires the barrel and the spring cylinder to be in line, which means that despite the overall length, the gun still gets to have a shorter barrel than a pneumatic gun like the Crosman 1377C, where the barrel and the air piston cylinder are overlapping. All break barrel pistols will be long like this.

One last point - despite its large size, the 53M is not heavy and it is easy to hold steady - until you press the trigger.

Adjustable settings

The only adjustable setting for the IZH 53M is the rear sight, which can be adjusted for both elevation and windage. The adjustments are made via knobs that can be rotated. In theory, this should allow for fine adjustments, but in practice, the operation of these knobs was rather bumpy - I had to work them back and forth a bit to smooth out their operation.

Performance

The operation of the IZH 53M is very quiet and the power is very good - this gun can cut very distinct holes in paper targets. Speaking of which, 400fps seems to me to be the speed at which neat round holes are being cut reliably in target paper.

Aside from the finicky aspect of adjusting them, I really liked the size of the iron sights

Initially, I shot the Baikal all over the place, until I managed to sight it in so I can at least hit the target reliably. At one point, I got a very promising group where 8 out of 10 shots were very close to each other. But I never managed to get such a result again! I am not sure what the problem was - either the performance degraded or, as I was getting better with other pistols, I got worse with this one. I simply could not get reliable results - the spring movement was jerking the pistol too much in my hand and none of the grips I tried actually worked. Of course, I also tried the artillery hold, but it did not produce much improvement.

To top it off, after a while, performance clearly degraded in one area - the trigger. Initially, the trigger was rather stiff, with little travel and a sudden break - not unlike that of the Crosman 1377C. But after a couple hundred shots, the trigger started getting mushy - it could be depressed a bit with no effort and then it would just break - sometimes with a bit of resistance, sometimes without. Without any safety, this was a bit scary.

In the end, I just threw away this gun - using it was aggravating, a waste of pellets, and even felt a bit dangerous once the trigger started acting up.

Conclusion

I did not like the IZH 53M. Perhaps I did not figure out how to use it well, but I tried and I just did not like the experience. The gun seemed very accurate if you can handle the spring movement, but that is trickier than you might think because, unlike a firearm's kickback, the jerking of the gun happens while the pellet is still travelling inside the barrel. As I discovered nicer airguns, I just could not see much use for the Baikal 53M, so I ended up getting rid of it. This is the worst airgun that I used so far and it has cured me from using any other spring piston pistol, though I realize that some are much better.