IZH Baikal 60

Before I formed an opinion about the IZH 53M, I was intrigued by the IZH 60 rifle and I decided to try one.  This rifle also had good reviews, so it seemed like a safe investment.

There is a repeater version of the IZH 60 - the IZH 61 - which uses a 5 shot clip, but I decided to go with the one shot IZH 60 because the clip operation of the 61 model was reported to be a bit finicky.

Operation

The IZH 60 is a spring piston rifle, but while most spring piston rifles use a break barrel mechanism, this Baikal model uses a side lever. This side lever is normally locked against the rifle body and needs to first be released by pressing a rod under its handle - this releases the lever, which can now be pulled to compress the spring - this movement will also release the bolt, exposing the breech for loading a pellet. Once the spring is cocked, the lever can be brought back along the side of the rifle to be locked. Not getting the side lever locked will prevent the bolt action from staying closed, so you need to push the lever against the rifle body to engage its lock. Next step is to load a pellet into the breech and close the bolt - the gun is now ready to fire; like the 53M, it has no safety.

I was confused at first by which steps are required to operate this rifle, so I will repeat them again:

1. Unlock the side lever by pressing the rod under its handle
2. Pull back the side lever to compress the spring (the bolt will open automatically)
3. Bring back the side lever, making sure to get it locked
4. Place a pellet into the breech
5. Close the bolt action - the rifle is ready to fire

The lever action is very easy and comfortable - it is only the pushing of the bolt to release the lever that can get a bit hard on the tip of the fingers, but I got used to it after a while.

Package and Build

Like the IZH 53M, the IZH 60 came in a cardboard box sealed in thick plastic. The rifle is wrapped in a piece of special paper that appears to be lightly oiled. The other contents are the manual, a cleaning rod, and a few spare pieces (a seal, a washer, and a small spring) that are wrapped in a tiny piece of paper and are attached by a small staple to the packaging of the cleaning rod - this small package is very easy to miss, so look out for it. I have not yet figured out where the spare pieces can be used, but it is nice to see them included.

BTW, additional spare parts can be found separately. Spare main springs can be purchased - these seem to have the same coiling as the spares for the IZH 53M pistol, but they are slightly shorter. However, one of the spares I acquired for the IZH 53M is exactly the same length as the spares for the IZH 60! I believe a spring from the IZH 53M could very well work in the IZH 60, but it would produce slightly less power, if it is of the shorter variety.

The Baikal model 60 is built from a combination of metal and plastic. Like in the case of model 53M, all pieces under stress are built out of metal. The trigger piece is plastic, but the trigger mechanism is metal. I have no concern about the durability of this rifle. Furthermore, the plastic used here is of higher quality than the one used for the stock of the IZH 53M - it has no blemishes and is very nicely textured. The rifle barrel is metal forged, as all Baikal barrels appear to be. The lever seemed a bit frail - it is basically a thin metallic U frame - but I do not see any signs that it cannot fulfill its job.

At 33" long, the IZH 60 is also one of the shortest adult rifles available on the market. I liked its style in pictures and in real life it looks even better. Both the pistol grip and the forward grip are nicely shaped and very comfortable to hold.

There is one big problem and it took me a while to notice it and to get certain that I am not imagining things: the barrel is not mounted parallel to the stock - it is slanted towards the right. This is an assembly issue and based on other reviews complaining about the rifle shooting to the right, I suspect that this is a general manufacturing issue.

A couple more issues are related to the shape of the rod that needs to be pushed to release the side lever and to the shape of the bolt handle. The side lever release rod is a bit harsh on the fingers - a flatter surface would help there. The bolt handle is too thin and is lacking the classical round end. I got used with both these aspects after a while, but they are worth mentioning.

Adjustable settings

The two main adjustable settings are the rear sight and the shoulder stock length.

The rear sight can be adjusted for both elevation and windage. Elevation can be adjusted very conveniently and precisely by rotating a wheel, but windage adjustment is less elegant and requires loosening two screws to move the sight laterally.

The degree of freedom for the windage adjustment is insufficient to allow compensating for the degree of barrel slant - I have it set all the way to the left and the rifle still shoots a bit to the right. The rear sight also has a weird design: there is a fixed post on the rifle that has two elongated holes through which two screws go into the moving sight piece. The holes in the fixed post determine the degree of adjustment of the sight piece and they cannot be enlarged further. If the elongated holes would have been on the sight piece and the screws would have went into the post piece, I could have built a new sight piece easily, but as it is, I need to not only drill holes into a replacement sight but I also need to get them threaded for the size of the screws.

Adjusting the stock is very easy - loosen a screw at the bottom of the stock and then pull the stock back. If you want more length, you need to completely remove the screw, pull out the stock, and then move the piece into which the screw engages into a second slot away from the gun, then screw the stock back against that - this will give you an extra inch over the factory setting. I pulled the stock all the way back at the first setting and that works great for me - it is nice to know that it can still go either way.

Performance

The IZH 60 is a very accurate rifle and, as a result, I use it as the standard against which I judge other airguns. This rifle is also rather silent, just like its relative, the IZH 53M pistol. Power is excellent for target shooting, maybe even a bit too strong for that. However, among airgun rifles, the IZH 60 probably has the lowest power, so keep my previous comment in the context of target shooting. There are pistols that have more power than this rifle (the Crosman 1377C is one of them), but they also require more force (to pump or to compress the spring piston), so when it comes to target shooting, my Gamo pellet trap feels the difference.

The sights work very well (with some caveats I mentioned earlier) - the distance between the front and rear sights also helps with accuracy. The trigger is crisp - it has little travel, requires an adequate amount of force, and then breaks quickly - I might criticize it a bit on a pistol, but it feels right for a rifle that is easier to hold steady. So far, I did not see the degradation in performance that I noticed in the IZH 53M trigger.

There is nothing not to like about the performance of the IZH 60 - this is a very well designed rifle.

Conclusion

What I like the most about the IZH 60 is how reliable its accuracy is. Together with the Crosman 1377C, this is one of my most reliable airguns. The style of the rifle also makes it very attractive and pleasant to use.

The only significant negative is the assembly quality, which for my sample resulted in a barrel that is slanted against the stock of the rifle. But even this drawback does not remove much from my enjoyment of this nice rifle.

Crosman 1377C American Classic

Sometimes, I just want to practice a few shots and be done with it. With the Beretta 92FS I have to go through many targets to exhaust a CO2 powerlet, so I started looking at pneumatic and spring piston airguns. The Crosman 1377C was both held in high regard and available at an affordable price, so I had to give it a try. This airgun is available with brown or black plastic grips and I picked the black version, which is listed as PC77 Pumpmaster Classic on Crosman's site - there is no difference between them other than the color of the grips.

Operation

The "classic" aspect of this airgun's name comes from its design originating with Crosman model 105, which was manufactured between 1947 and 1953. So this design has been around for some time and the fact that it is still sold today is a testament to its quality.

The 1377C consists of a long barrel sitting over the compression cylinder with the pump masking as the forward grip. The manual states that the pistol should be pumped at least 3 times and no more than 10 times. Pumping it less than 3 times could lead to a pellet getting stuck in the barrel (although I did an experiment and even one pump will work, but with little force); pumping it more than 10 times will not increase the shot power and might damage the pistol's seals, so it is best avoided. For target shooting, I started with the minimum 3 pumps, but now I use 4 pumps, to get cleaner holes punched in the paper target. With 3-4 pumps, the Crosman pistol is also very silent.

Pumping the 1377C is very easy if you do not attempt to go for all the 10 pumps. Pumping will get progressively harder, but it is relatively effortless for the 4 pumps I go with now. The last couple of pumps in a 10 pump set are getting very hard; also, the pistol will make more noise at these settings.

The pistol has a safety bolt behind the trigger, which can be pushed on the left side to engage and on the right side to disengage.

After pumping the gun, you need to expose the breech and cock the trigger by pulling the bolt action back. Note that the bolt can slide back forward after this operation, if you tilt the gun, so you will want to keep it back while you load the pellet. Loading a pellet is a bit finicky - the problem is that the breech has a small step, so you cannot simply drop the pellet on it, you need to lift its tip a bit, so it gets into the barrel. Some pellets are easier to load than others. Once the pellet is properly seated, you can push the bolt and lock it. You should do this with little force, to make sure that you do not bend the pellet, if it is improperly seated. Once this is done, the gun is ready to shoot - aim, push the safety bolt out of the way, and then just pull the trigger.

Package and Build

Given its low cost, the American Classic comes with no case - just a plastic packaging that needs to be cut to remove the gun and manual out of it. I do not understand why they had to roll the manual in this package - I had to roll it the opposite way, in an attempt to straighten it out. Anyway, the only things you will need out of the packaging are the pistol and its manual.

The 1377C is made of metal and plastic. The frame of the pistol is metal, but the grips and the handle of the pump are plastic, as well as the receiver portion and the front sight. The rear sight is made of metal and is held in place by a screw - reversing it offers the option of switching between straight iron sights and a peep sight. Of special note is the bolt, which is made of brass and looks and handles very nicely. I do not mind plastic, as long as it is used in the right places and Crosman uses it in the right places here - I do not see anything likely to break soon in this assembly.

I should mention here that soon after I acquired the 1377C, I also purchased the 1399 shoulder stock that can be used with it, as well as with other Crosman airguns that share the same grips. This shoulder stock is made entirely of plastic and can be installed easily, by unscrewing the original grips, sliding it over the grip frame, and screwing it using the original grip screws. I have no criticisms for the build of this shoulder stock - it works exactly as intended; I was initially worried about whether its length would be suitable for an adult, but it turned out to be just the right length.

Adjustable settings

The only setting that can be adjusted is the rear sight. The rear sight consists of a metallic piece that is held into place by a screw. By loosening the screw, the sight piece can be raised or lowered to adjust elevation and can also be tilted left or right to adjust windage. By removing the screw, turning the sight upside down, and reattaching it with the screw, we get to use the peep sight. All this seems rather hard to adjust precisely, but in practice, on my gun, I only had to adjust it a bit for windage and it worked great from the first adjustment.

I recommend trying the peep sight first - I just find it more enjoyable to use than the standard iron sights post system.

Performance

The American Classic really delivers in the accuracy department. Put simply, it is one of the most accurate guns I have. It shoots well in factory setup (after sighting in), and mounting the 1399 shoulder stock will boost accuracy further by improving how well you can hold steady this long pistol. You can get very tight groups reliably with the 1377C/1399 combo - better than with any CO2 gun that I own.

Pumping the Crosman 4 times for target shooting is easy and the pistol works silently at this power setting - the sound of the pellet hitting the target will eclipse the sound of the pistol itself - the long barrel is probably also helping here, as the air gets to expand before the pellet gets out.

The only place where I would like to see improvement is the trigger. The 1377C trigger has little travel, is rather hard, and breaks rather unexpectedly. It is not as bad as it sounds, but I wish this gun had adjustable trigger settings. Crosman may want to consider producing a slightly higher end version with such a feature.

Maintenance is rather simple - use Pellgunoil on the pump joints and on the piston head. Work the oil in by using the pump without actually pumping any air - just start closing it until you feel resistance, open it, and then repeat this a few times while the oil works its way around.

Conclusion

The 1377C fully deserves its nickname of "American Classic". It is a very nice, simple and effective design that provides great accuracy for a very reasonable price. With varying power from the multi pump mechanism, this gun is also very versatile. The only thing I would change about it is the trigger - I would really like a lighter trigger, or even better - an adjustable one. There are very few airguns that offer such accuracy within this price range, so this is an easy choice.