cslinger
Member
So I am a gunny. We all are that is why we are here. Now some of us are here simply for the professional knowledge and education to be gained as far as using firearms in serious social encounters. They may be police officers, soldiers or simply citizens excercising their God given right to keep themselves and their loved ones safe in the event they ever have to use a firearm in anger, may God forbid.
That being said I would guess a fair number, dare I say a majority of us shoot for the sheer pleasure of shooting. Yes we may "practice" for CCW or self defense and yes we may be ready for the next big SHTF but I would bet that most of us just like going out to the range to make some noise and poke some holes, maybe do a little hunting now and then.
That being said I have been looking for ways to shoot more and challange myself in different ways. For this reason I gravitated towards adult airguns a few years ago. The rifles were great practice for my "real" guns and had some real pride of ownership, these were not the BB guns of my youth.
Now to get the same feeling from an air pistol. I purchased an RWS CP225 C02 pistol some years ago that is almost an exact replica of the SIG Sauer P225 9x19mm. The weight was the same it fit the same leather and had the same amount of capacity, eight shots. The problem was it was a bit loud for night time garage shooting and it was better at teaching things like drawing from concealment, shooting with a flashlight, shooting from cover etc. then it was for super accurate shooting. It is a fun little plinker but I wanted something I could shoot for some accuracy with a good trigger.
Enter the Baikal IZH 46M match pistol. I recently acquired one on an impulse while ordering a Stutzen style air rifle. What I found was that my impluse buy will likely give me many many hours of shooting fun while teaching me quite a bit about pistol shooting.
So what is an IZH 46M. It is a Russian .177 caliber single pump pneumatic air pistol. It has fully adjustable sights and a completely adjustable trigger, although I found it beautiful out of the box. The gun and "ammo" used for this range report can be seen below.
The range setup was simply my garage, a pellet trap, a Shoot and See dot on some masking tape. My garage is just about 21'x21' and the tip of the barrel to the pellet trap was right at 19-19.5 feet. Not a huge distance but more then enough for my meager skills with such a small target. I began with larger targets getting a feel for the gun and eventually worked my way up to the tiny shoot and see target.
I fired in the neighborhood of 5 strings of ten shots over 5 targets as I worked my way to the smallest or my best group which is shown below with a penny and dime for comparison. All shooting was done with a two handed hold, standing, no rest of any kind. Part of the Shoot and See is still visible.
My observations are as follows.
The trigger is wonderful. I have not touched the adjustments but if it is this good out of the box my guess is I could set it to fire a pellet telepathically.
The gun is very easy to cock and charge.
The noise signature is so low I could shoot this thing at 2AM with little worry of anybody hearing unless they were right outside of my garage.
Accuracy as far as I am concerned is excellent.
The grips work very well but are a little large and probably need to be sanded to fit an individual shooter.
Bottom line the gun is fun, accurate, cool looking and is likely to teach me much about trigger control, breathing and off hand shooting. My impulse purchase is turning out to be the highpoint of my two shipped items.
So on to my rating. All ratings are out of 10 pellets, can't use rounds in an airgun review can I.
VALUE - 9 Pellets. At $269.00 delivered one basically gets a match grade air pistol that is able to compete in much higher priced playgrounds. This may sound like a lot of money for a "BB" gun but believe me there are adult air guns that easily cost more then some of our most expensive toys.
LOOKS - 6 Pellets. I like the looks very much, but it is one of them thar quirky competition guns. Personally for me I give it a 9 for looks, it has lots of personality.
TRIGGER - 10 Pellets. It is one of the best triggers I have ever felt out of the box with no adjustments. It has trigger adjustments out the ying yang so I figure with a little work I should be able to shoot a pellet with nothing but a thought.
ACCURACY- 8 Pellets. Well I realize this is just a garage range and I haven't had a chance to try her out at 50' or so but I am happy with the results I achieved with un rested shooting.
ERGONOMICS - 4 Pellets. It takes some getting used to. The grip could be a tad smaller, and like most air rifles/pistols loading takes a bit of practice due to the small projectile and differing loading procedures.
FIT AND FINISH - 5 Pellets. For a Russian built gun fit and finish are very good. The bluing is pretty nice and the gun is well put together. The grips could be prettier but what are you going to do. The money was put into the performance and it shines there.
EXTRAS - 7 Pellets. The gun came with a cleaning rod, extra seals etc. Basically except for the "ammo" she was good to go out of the box.
OVERALL - 8 Pellets. What can I say this is a keeper. It is accurate, quiet, has a great cool factor and is likely to teach me something about shooting. What is not to like. It's strengths seem to far outweigh it's weaknesses. Combine all of that with a price that is pretty much a smoking deal when looking at the other guns it competes with on performance.
So if anybody is looking for a way to inexpensively plink or practice their shooting technique in their backyard, garage or even indoors take a moment to look at the IZH46M. Yes it is pricy if you are new to the world of adult airgunning but after a little research you will find that these are not toys but real guns in their own right with their own unique set of merits that make them not only good substitutes for when you cannot get to the range but good guns in their own right.
My two cents.
Chris
That being said I would guess a fair number, dare I say a majority of us shoot for the sheer pleasure of shooting. Yes we may "practice" for CCW or self defense and yes we may be ready for the next big SHTF but I would bet that most of us just like going out to the range to make some noise and poke some holes, maybe do a little hunting now and then.
That being said I have been looking for ways to shoot more and challange myself in different ways. For this reason I gravitated towards adult airguns a few years ago. The rifles were great practice for my "real" guns and had some real pride of ownership, these were not the BB guns of my youth.
Now to get the same feeling from an air pistol. I purchased an RWS CP225 C02 pistol some years ago that is almost an exact replica of the SIG Sauer P225 9x19mm. The weight was the same it fit the same leather and had the same amount of capacity, eight shots. The problem was it was a bit loud for night time garage shooting and it was better at teaching things like drawing from concealment, shooting with a flashlight, shooting from cover etc. then it was for super accurate shooting. It is a fun little plinker but I wanted something I could shoot for some accuracy with a good trigger.
Enter the Baikal IZH 46M match pistol. I recently acquired one on an impulse while ordering a Stutzen style air rifle. What I found was that my impluse buy will likely give me many many hours of shooting fun while teaching me quite a bit about pistol shooting.
So what is an IZH 46M. It is a Russian .177 caliber single pump pneumatic air pistol. It has fully adjustable sights and a completely adjustable trigger, although I found it beautiful out of the box. The gun and "ammo" used for this range report can be seen below.
The range setup was simply my garage, a pellet trap, a Shoot and See dot on some masking tape. My garage is just about 21'x21' and the tip of the barrel to the pellet trap was right at 19-19.5 feet. Not a huge distance but more then enough for my meager skills with such a small target. I began with larger targets getting a feel for the gun and eventually worked my way up to the tiny shoot and see target.
I fired in the neighborhood of 5 strings of ten shots over 5 targets as I worked my way to the smallest or my best group which is shown below with a penny and dime for comparison. All shooting was done with a two handed hold, standing, no rest of any kind. Part of the Shoot and See is still visible.
My observations are as follows.
The trigger is wonderful. I have not touched the adjustments but if it is this good out of the box my guess is I could set it to fire a pellet telepathically.
The gun is very easy to cock and charge.
The noise signature is so low I could shoot this thing at 2AM with little worry of anybody hearing unless they were right outside of my garage.
Accuracy as far as I am concerned is excellent.
The grips work very well but are a little large and probably need to be sanded to fit an individual shooter.
Bottom line the gun is fun, accurate, cool looking and is likely to teach me much about trigger control, breathing and off hand shooting. My impulse purchase is turning out to be the highpoint of my two shipped items.
So on to my rating. All ratings are out of 10 pellets, can't use rounds in an airgun review can I.
VALUE - 9 Pellets. At $269.00 delivered one basically gets a match grade air pistol that is able to compete in much higher priced playgrounds. This may sound like a lot of money for a "BB" gun but believe me there are adult air guns that easily cost more then some of our most expensive toys.
LOOKS - 6 Pellets. I like the looks very much, but it is one of them thar quirky competition guns. Personally for me I give it a 9 for looks, it has lots of personality.
TRIGGER - 10 Pellets. It is one of the best triggers I have ever felt out of the box with no adjustments. It has trigger adjustments out the ying yang so I figure with a little work I should be able to shoot a pellet with nothing but a thought.
ACCURACY- 8 Pellets. Well I realize this is just a garage range and I haven't had a chance to try her out at 50' or so but I am happy with the results I achieved with un rested shooting.
ERGONOMICS - 4 Pellets. It takes some getting used to. The grip could be a tad smaller, and like most air rifles/pistols loading takes a bit of practice due to the small projectile and differing loading procedures.
FIT AND FINISH - 5 Pellets. For a Russian built gun fit and finish are very good. The bluing is pretty nice and the gun is well put together. The grips could be prettier but what are you going to do. The money was put into the performance and it shines there.
EXTRAS - 7 Pellets. The gun came with a cleaning rod, extra seals etc. Basically except for the "ammo" she was good to go out of the box.
OVERALL - 8 Pellets. What can I say this is a keeper. It is accurate, quiet, has a great cool factor and is likely to teach me something about shooting. What is not to like. It's strengths seem to far outweigh it's weaknesses. Combine all of that with a price that is pretty much a smoking deal when looking at the other guns it competes with on performance.
So if anybody is looking for a way to inexpensively plink or practice their shooting technique in their backyard, garage or even indoors take a moment to look at the IZH46M. Yes it is pricy if you are new to the world of adult airgunning but after a little research you will find that these are not toys but real guns in their own right with their own unique set of merits that make them not only good substitutes for when you cannot get to the range but good guns in their own right.
My two cents.
Chris
