Usage life of IZH35M?

[jer]

In topic http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=12593 was talked about short usage age of IZH35M. Guest mentioned that IZH35M would last only couple of seasons. Can someone else comment on that? I am thinking about getting IZH35M but comment of short life of the gun concerns me...

[macca]

Dear jer,
The Russian made IZH35M has been used successfully by some Aus shooters for in excess of 15 years for ISSF competitions.
These firearms arrived in the country after the WCH's in Moscow in 1990 and have been used ever since. Some having changed hands on numerous occasions.
I wish you every sucess with your intended purchase.

[Fred Mannis]

I bought my IZH35 used. It was manufactured in 1995 and was apparently one of the ones Don Nygord was tuning up and selling in those years - it is stamped with his name. I don't know its history, but I believe it has was used quite a bit as a club gun. Despite that, in the two years that I have owned it, I have never had a failure to feed, fire, or extract and I have done nothing to it except an occasional cleaning. I think it is an exceptional value.

[Nicole Hamilton]

Guest mentioned that IZH35M would last only couple of seasons.

Don't get me wrong. I've never owned an IZH, so I have no personal experience. But the notion that any company can stay in business selling a gun -- much less, a target pistol, meaning a gun designed for a more discerning part of the gun market -- that only lasts "a couple of seasons" is just not very believable. Treated right, lots of guns last 100 years!

That said, all things Russian seem to come from the same factory, meaning the same place where they also make farm equipment, so perhaps this particular gun simply had a manufacturing defect. It's also possible the owner simply mistreated the gun somehow. There are so many IZH's in use that if they really only had a useful life of a couple years, it seems certain this drawback would be widely known!

[dlinden]

Like Fred, I am one of those satisfied IZH owners with cases of fired ammo and no function failures. Got mine new (2003 stamp) for about $350.00. I like saying that. Wished my expensive guns worked as well. Nicole's right about the manufacturing. All of the parts are interchangeable with parts on my farm equipment. They make 'em that way. If my tractor wears something out, I just get the part off my .22 or wheelbarrow.

[RJP]

I have owned a IZH 35 since 2001. The only changes I made were adjusting the trigger sear overlap and overall trigger weight, installing new orthopedic type grips, installing a wider trigger blade and streaching the magazine springs as some writters on this board have suggested in the past.

During that time period, it has proved to be a very reliable pistol. The appearance is typically Russian, that is functional parts are made very well, but the overall external polish is not first class. While Baikal does make many other products, agricultural equipment is not listed. See their web site at:


http://www.baikalinc.ru/eng

Also note that a new Russian national record in Rapid Fire Pistol was recently achieved with the IZH 35 with a score of 590. This is a fantastic score for shooting Rapid Fire with a .22 LR Standard Pistol.

[diopter]

I have been using my IZH35M for about two years now. I can’t say enough good things about it.
It is in standard Euro trim no slide stop or rail and has the heel magazine release.

I have had the bolt face and chamber block face peening problems, which have lead to some doubling. In my case, it seems that dry firing has caused enough of the upper chamber face to peen to such an extent that the case rim could be pinched when a round was chambered.
I followed some directions from TomF to work on the following:

Slide/bolt
a) Open up the bolt face, where the case rim fits into,
b) The firing pin opening,
c) Removing the peening at the bottom of the extractor slot,

Chamber face
a) Stoning flat the firing pin dents.
b) Rounding the sharp edges.
c) Removing any signs of peening


This seems to have been more likely to happen when there was some crud build up in the chamber. By doing this work, and using a bore snake every 30-60 rounds, have not had any doubling in the last 200 rounds or so.

I will limit any further empty chamber dry firing and have recently purchased chamber flag plugs for this purpose.
I will try follow up on the post by Ruig(IZH-35 Tuning) on altering the IZH recoil system to see if it might be a viable means of soften up the slide closure to prevent further peening.

I will continue to use it for many years to come. I was asking for comparisons between the IZH35M and the AW93 to see it they were close enough in feel.
Future availability of the IZH35M seems to be in doubt. I like the IZH so much that I would like to find the next closest thing available for the future.

[nthe10ring]

I have on 02 that I have owned for a couple of years. When I first got the gun it would double an occasionally go full auto ( that will get your attention). I tried everything but nothing helped, my dealer sent it back to EAA and they repaired it and had it back in a week. I have had not problems since then. It would appear they took a few thousands off the breech face.

nthe10ring