Baikal SXS, not too bad at all.....

[Adirondack Jack]

I finally had to retire my Norinco coachgun, and a pard had a NIB (still got cosmoline in the bores) Baikal hammerless 12ga for sale so I bought it.

In the meantime, I read and got a little nervous about the cocking levers, "auto close" feature  and so forth.  But I gotta tell ya, it wasn't that bad to make "serviceable", and probably will be easy to make really sweet.

Removed the stock to gain access to the innards, and snipped the little pin on the safety mechanism that "auto engages" the safety, leaving the manual safety fully intact and operational  A five minute job.  Cleaned and re-oiled what I could see briefly, then put the stock and buttplate back on, five more minutes.

Used a 1" grinding ball (the campbell hausfeld display at Wally world has em, next to the air tools) chucked in a cordless drill, literally no more than ten seconds per chamber mouth had them flared nicely.  One minute total.

Studied the Hobby Gunsmith article by Mohave Gambler and eyeballed the cocking levers and figured out exactly what part of the lever was the "business end", maybe 1/2 hour.

Using a dremel with a small drum sander followed by a fine (pink) stone to re-shape the critical area of the levers, going easy, re-assembling and carefully cocking the gun to see the changes, maybe a total of 12 cycles of test and grind, got the timing adjusted so the gun cocks AFTER it is open far enough to load shells, just before absolute full travel (it only has the slightest desire to "auto close" now, easily overcome by simply holding the gun close to the hinge, so gravity works with ya), might have taken an hour and a half (no spare parts on hand, big match coming up).  I'm probably gonna leave it as is for now, and eventually make a tool to remove the mainsprings, grind maybe a turn off each, and see if I can 100% remove the "auto close" feature.  as it is now te primers get CAVED IN upon firing, so the springs are overkill to be sure, but ya don't feel it much because the gun cocks much later, much more progressive cam travel and barrel motion to cock it, so the cocking effort required is very much lighter.

ANYWAY, at this point I have a shotgun that locks up like a Philidelphia bank vault, looks OK in a russian tank kinda way, and cocks almost like a fine shotgun   AND it wasn't all that bad to do.

[Digger]

Studied the Hobby Gunsmith article by Mohave Gambler

Hi Adirondack,

I recently got a Baikal myself, and remembering this thread I scratched it back up.  Can you point me to the article you're talking about here?  Greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Digger

[Will Blastem]

I feel the same way about mine. I've got a 97 and an 87 lever but I always seem ta give the nod to my Rem. Spartan(Baikle)

[Missouri Marshal]

I love my pre-remington Bakials, I have 5 of them and after I slick them up I don't think there is a better SXS for CAS shootin.  I don't really like the new hour glass shaped extractor that they are using in the Remington(Spartans) and the Savage but it's still a great gun.

[Adirondack Jack]

The links are on this page:
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/TuneBaik.html

Note that Mohave Gambler is doing a column, and ya have to find the various episodes in his monthly archives and piece it together.

What I ended up doing is using a drip of candle wax on each cocking lever, snap the forearm back in place, then open the gun until resistance it felt. Close the gun, pop the forearm off, and see where the cross pins on the forearm contact the cocking levers.  that;s the area ya gotta CAREFULLY reduce, making sure ya still have a curved radius.  As ya take a little off, put er back together and SLOWLY cock the gun while watching the triggers.  As the first barrel cocks ya will hear a click and see the trigger jump.

yer goal is to get em to cock late in the cycle, limiting the overtravel past cocking.  Note:, remember that overtravel is to prevent a neanderthal from bashing the heck outta the action (cushions violent opening, but uses the mansprings to do so).  ya need to develop a technique where yer opening the gun but not overdoing it, potentially breaking stuff.  I open the gun with the right hand on the wrist, the left on the forearm, and only enough to get er open.  I then have the barrels almost horizontal, and shuck the shells backward by flicking the gun as it comes open.  Shucks AAs or STS shells 100% of the time, and stays open enough to load with the left, while the right is in firing position.

I also swapped the triggers, and snipped off the pin that pushes the pushrod, activating the auto-safety.  the manual safety is untouched, but no more automatic.  works aces.

[Digger]

Hi AJ,

Thanks for the info.  I'm working with two handicaps.  First, I have a bad habit of considering new guns starter kits.  Two, I can't afford to keep sending them to 'smiths for work.

Looking forward to slicking this one up.


Thanks,
Digger

[Adirondack Jack]

LOL!

I bought mine right before our state shoot, and my other SXS was kaput, so there was no time to do anything other than either make it into a "CAS shooter" or run with it as a "hunter, wannabe CAS gun" 

[Digger]

Thanks for the heads up that there was a series of articles!  For anybody coming behind, there are 5 installments, and like Adirondack sez, you gotta step your way through the pages to find them all.

I'll have to say that the stock that came on mine is considerably prettier than his.  Mebbe cuz Remington has attached its name now. 


Digger