I picked up a Baikal O/U from LGS on consignment. It was priced right( to low to pass on) and it looked unfired. Single trigger 28 inch barrels 2 3/4 or 3 inch with 5 chokes. I took it out and shot a round of sporting clays and was very impressed. The thing seems to work well. What are some opinions or experiences with these from the masses?

They were selling pretty well a few years back before the Russians were cut off from selling in the US. They sold dirt cheap, had occasional problems, mostly fixable, and price considered, in my opinion were okay. I had one for a few years, never had any trouble with it, shot it quite a bit, and sold it for more than I paid. In today's world, you might be okay, having it picked it up cheap, can probably shoot it for a quite awhile before not being able to fix it for supply of parts, but who knows, they could come back, Russia might start exporting to the US again. It is a very uncertain world. If you want s real steady supply of parts, stick with the Mossberg 500. Everything else is just temporary.

The trigger was selected by pressing forward on it, that switched it to shooting the upper barrel first. Also the ejectors could be turned off, so it was just extractors, forgot how you did that, but it was a nice feature. all in all it was a good experience in owning a gun.

I had one, the Remington branded one, it shot and worked reliably, sold it a couple years later to my shooting buddy, he always borrowed it from me. He is still shooting it, 8 years and still going.
Here is the Baikal forum https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewforum.php?f=83



cdb

My shooting buddy has one that he uses for both clay shooting and pheasant shooting. It's the only shotgun he owns and he shoots it very well. He bought it about 7 or 8 years ago, and there are literally thousands of rounds through it, and he has never had a problem with it. I always tell him it's built like a tank.

Probably the IZH28 if I recall correctly. I bought one back when I started shooting clays probably 20 years ago. Put a slip-on recoil pad on it and shot a fair number of rounds through it. Took it down to Texas about 15 years ago as I was traveling down there on business a couple of times a month and had lots of hunting oportunities. It's killed a bunch of dove and ducks down there since then, never missed a beat. One of my friends calls his the "Borscht Blaster"

around here , the collective opinion would be "yuck."

Obviously, not necessarily.

I have a Spartanworks by Remington SPR310 made in Baikal. I think it is based off the IZH27? It isn't going to win anything in the looks department, but it goes bang and I actually shoot it pretty well. One of the screws that controls whether it ejects or extracts (it's adjustable) fell out but other than that haven't had any issues. However, I also haven't put it through heavy use.

I don't think they have been imported for years now. When they were they were cheaply made and priced accordingly. They look ok hanging over a fake fireplace. I think they should be avoided for actual field work.

And this is based on ..... ??

Mine is a Remington badged one, the SPR-310, and I've put a whole lot of lead downrange with it and it's never missed a beat. I've moved on but I still use it as a loaner.

My son's and grandson's are their latest versions, the MP-310 in both 12ga and 20ga, and were purchased 6 or 7 years ago and like mine, have been absolutely reliable. And with a little research I believe you'll find that they are still extremely popular in Europe being that like much of what comes out of Russia, they may be the least attractive but they're built to last...and last and last.

So I'm not sure what you mean by "cheaply made" or your reasoning that "...they should be avoided.." but IMHO, based on actual experience, you could do a whole lot worse for the money.

Sent you a PM


cdb

My opinion. This is the shotgun opinion forum. Glad to hear you are happy with your Baikal. Most probably do go bang if you are strong enough to pull the trigger. Most may not go bang bang when you pull the trigger once, but some do. I don't like them and I'd never recommend anyone buy one. Others are free to state their opinion and recommend what they feel good about, that's how it is in America.

Russians make shotgun like Russian women. Sturdy and strong.

They are okay for a few occasional rounds of clays or some hunting a few times per year.

They won't hold up to high volume shooting.

Not to mention pretty as a tractor.

Just like their WW 2 tanks.
One of my skeet shooting friends had a sxs. brought it once and never brought it again. i'm not sure why.

In addition to the o/u Baikal that I thought was okay, I had one of the sxs and I couldn't stand it. It did not fail to work, but the trigger was about 10 pounds. It was a really simple design trigger, very few parts, so probably would last quite a while, since there was very little to go wrong, but that trigger pull was way too heavy, and I think it had to be heavy to keep from doubling, because I read lots of complaints of them doubling which surprised me because the gun had practically no popularity. My impression was that everyone that had the sxs must have them doubling for me to be reading this many complaints. The o/u trigger was decent, they seemed to hold up and I could shoot that one. At some point though, I thought it best to give it a new home, especially when I got more money than I paid for it.

It is probably a good idea to stay away from them, because parts could be a real problem. In fact you can say that about many brands. If you want to be safe, when it comes to parts, you can have trouble with lots of guns, many of them really good guns once upon a time, but now sitting with a broken hammer or whatever.

I have a sxs 43e that I put a pad on, now it is 14.5 and basically no recoil. We have Brownies and Benelli's but shoot this thing every trip. It is a tank, if it takes a dump I will put it in the boat to replace my anchor.

Baikals haven’t always been primitive and crude. I have a IZH-54 double gun that I really like. It’s basically a Sauer clone and shoots great.