CAS SXS shotgun, Baikal?

[Dirty Dick]

Are Baikal SxS shotguns OK for cowboys matches? Do they break often and how difficult to repair if they do?  This newbie to CAS needs some advice.

DD

[Abilene]

Baikals, yeah, I love 'em!  I bought an IZH43 (20", cylinder bore, double trigger) in 1999 and am still shooting it.   I have some other shotguns and don't practice, so it has a mere 3000 rounds through it with no problem.  I recently bought a lightly used one at a great price (because the owner had antiqued it, horribly  ) because they are a little hard to find now and I figured a spare might be nice.  The newer one is also an IZH43 but it has screw-in chokes.

These Russian made guns are hell for stout.  I'm not worried too much about wearing it out.  When they are new, after you open the shotgun all the way to dump the empties, the barrels close part way and make it hard to reload.  By pushing the release lever to the left after it is all the way open, it will stay open.  This is easy to do if you are right handed and load with your left hand.  I just got used to doing it that way for the first year.  Then Coyote Cap came down to Texas for a shoot and I handed it off to him for an action job.  Back then, the cocking levers (visible on the front of the frame when the barrels are off) needed to be re-shaped to allow the barrels to stay open.  A few years later, a guy named Papa Dave started selling custom made cocking levers that can be installed.  I'm not positive if he is still making them, but I think so.

A few years after I had mine, Remington started importing some of the Baikals, but no longer do.  So you might find one so marked. 

[Bunk]

I have a Baikal shotgun 20 ga. OU and it is rugged as all get out. I have hunted white wing doves, ducks, and quail in Mexico many times, and in Argentina for doves and ducks. It has has, I would guess, at least a thousand rounds or more of hunting loads through it.
The stock had to be reshaped because it was butt ugly and the single selective trigger needed adjustment from the ten pound (lawyer) pull. It has been exposed and used under harsh conditions so much more than a shotgun on a CAS range and never faltered using some pretty off the wall Mexican and Argentina ammo.
I have a couple of shotguns I hunted with but the Baikal was my go-to gun.
At least that is my experience YMMV
Yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk

[Abilene]

Bunk reminded me of something, single triggers.  They do make single-trigger SxS as well, but I have no experience with those and not sure how well that works for CAS.  I know various brands of SxS can be problematic with light loads resetting single triggers on inertia models (and I don't know if Baikal single trigger is inertia or mechanical).

[Bunk]

good question because i seldom get away with one shot, but i will check it tomorrow and see.
Bunk

[Abilene]

Bunk, I didn't even know Baikal had made O/U.

[Bunk]

Yes they did make an O/U in 20 and 12 gauge. I checked my 20 gauge and it is a mechanical trigger and does not need recoil to reset. It also has an option to either eject or extract the empty shells. I am not sure of the why for this but it does.
Still locks up tight as a bank vault after so many rounds through it.
Bunk