[FW]

I am interested in getting an air pistol for practice. It must be reasonably accurate. I don't know much about air guns. I came accross the Baikal IZH-53M and was wondering if it would meet my needs. The price is certainly attractive, but I'm wondering if it's a get-what-you-pay-for situtation.

http://www.pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=597

I'm looking for suggestions and some air gun education .

[gvass]

Hi,
the IZH-53M well worth its price, solidly built, the system is a shortened IZH-38C air rifle.

Not a powerhouse (about 250-300 fps in reality), but have acceptable trigger and accuracy (5 shot under 0,8" from 7 yards).

Buy one for playing with the kids.

[rick_reno]

That's an excellent air pistol for the money.

[Ohen Cepel]

They are great guns for the money.

[Standing Wolf]

I bought one a couple months ago. It's horrendously ugly, but very accurate, and the trigger is adjustable about six ways from Sunday. I put forty rounds through it a day. My scores are slowly improving. I'm seeing a slight improvement in my bullseye shooting.

[m39fan]

Baikal is one the the major arms manufacturers in Russia. You have no need to worry about quality. I had one of the CO2 powered Makarov's awhile back and loved it. It used many of the same parts of the regular Mak, just shot BB's instead. Great quality inside and out. I seriously doubt they'd allow their name to be put on something substandard. Just my .02.

Take Care,
Mike

[phantom309]

I have one. It's more accurate than most shooters will ever be, even with crappy pellets. It's rated at 475 fps - I have two other air pistols rated at 400fps and the Baikal does penetrate a bit better than either of them FWIW. I don't think I'd go after a bear with it, though. Considering what it cost the quality is fine.

You didn't mention what you were practicing for, or what your level of skill is. Forgive me if you already know all this, but unless you're serious about one-handed bullseye shooting the Baikal won't do you much good as a practice pistol. There's really only one way to shoot it, there's no recoil at all and the trigger is extremely light. The sight radius is very long. So the experience of shooting it is totally different than, say, shooting a CZ75b - to a point where it may actually hurt your technique with the CZ. If you're practicing to shoot combat-type pistols you may want to get one of the Umarex C02 replicas. They're also well made and plenty accurate enough for 10-meter practice.

[gvass]

"It's rated at 475 fps - "

You should not believe it. The manufacturers and distributors allways overrate the muzzle velocity of airguns.

[phantom309]

Oh yeah, I know. My point was that my Baikal is reasonably powerful relative to other pistols of similar ratings.

[Shmackey]

Guys--click the link--the 53M is not the same as the 46M. I think some of you might be thinking of the latter.

[phantom309]

My apologies - I was commenting about the 46m. No experience with the other, unfortnately.

[WhiteKnight]

http://www.pyramydair.com/images/baikal.jpg

$269

[WhiteKnight]

http://www.pyramydair.com/images/53m.jpg

$43

Two completely different animals.