“Russian Hunting Shotguns” and Sportingbookworm – what next?

Dear readers of the Sportingbookworm blog, thank you for staying with this blog, despite two years of inaction on my side, and sorry about not answering your comments. I am not exactly back again, but there are a few important announcements.

These Are Also Shotguns! (Please give your opinion in the survey)

At least, according to the Russian gun laws.

As I already wrote, in Russia you can get a rifle license only after you’ve owned a shotgun for at least five years. A few years ago TechKrim, a gun and ammo developer from Izhevsk, figured out a way around this legislation. The law makes an exception for “Paradox” bores, that have rifling only in the last 150 mm. of the barrel or less; in addition, Lancaster’s patent “oval bore” does not have any rifling, and so is legally a smoothbore. IzhMech (Baikal) was the first to take advantage of it and offered 20-gauge shotguns with Lancaster’s oval rifling, but TechKrim went further.

A $10,000 Baikal? You Bet!

Behold a Baikal Izh-54, made in USSR, that in 2018 sold at the Rock Island Auction for $9,775, with the estimate of $4,000-7,000 (link). Read on to learn more not only about this particular shotgun, but also about various Izhevsk engravers, their artistic style, and a small linguistic investigation.

The gun, allegedly a gift from Brezhnev to Pompidou, is decorated with relief gold scroll and game scene on black background. Image by Rock Island Auction Co

Auction Prices for TsKIB Guns in Europe

“How much does my gun cost?” is one of the most common question about Russian guns – especially MTs (a.k.a MC, a.k.a. MU, a.k.a. Vostok) by TsKIB, Tula. Usually, with high-end guns, the best hints on the gun’s price come from what the hammer falls on at gun auctions. But the produce of the “Soviet Purdey’s” seldom grace the halls of Holt’s, Julia’s, and other auction halls. However, as many as five MTs guns could be found in the catalogue of Joh. Springer’s Erben XXIII Classic Auction (Nov. 9, 2017, Vienna, Austria).

“They Don’t Make’m Like That No More!” – endurance tests of Baikal MP-153 and MP-155

“How long will my gun last?” – an important question not just for a shooter on a budget.  Some brands measure estimated service life of their shotguns in thousands of shells the gun will fire. For example, Baikal MP-153 semiauto was guaranteed to last 3,000 Magnum rounds (1050 Bar service pressure), and so is its successor, MP-155. How well do the Russian autoloaders live up to these promises? In the natural course of events, the search for the answer would be long and difficult, as few hunters keep accurate records of shots fired and all hunt under different conditions. To make things faster and somewhat more scientific, some journalists and marketers run endurance tests, with thousands of rounds fired in the course of a few days.

But before I tell you how well (or badly) MP-153 and MP-155 performed at such tests (and show a couple of videos with MP-155), let me offer you something absolutely vital for correct interpetation of the results.

Breda Antares vs. MTs-21.

One of the most common questions about MTs-21, which was Russia’s most popular autoloading shotgun until MP153, is whether it was an original development or a copy of an imported design. I could write at least 3,000 words about it, but let’s see if these two videos will not do the job better:

MTs-21 takedown.

Breda Antares takedown.

Four questions about Baikal MP 234.

Custom MP-234. Photo by Baikal

1. Is it just a refurbished MP-27?

No.

Russian Gun Model Identification II: MTs Over/Unders.

Of all shotguns made in Russia, for hunting or clay sports, the easiest ones to answer the “What model is that?” question are the Tula TsKIB over/unders. On most markets they were sold as Vostok, but on some as Baikal (and, of course, there will always be gun dealers for whom every Russian gun is a Baikal). The model name is right on the barrel flats; you don’t even have to remove the barrels to see it – just break the gun open, look at the left side next to the upper edge of the fore-end, and there you have it! There will be the Cyrillic letters МЦ (which some transcribe as MTs, and others as MC, and some even as MU) and the number that follows them is the model number. Here, for instance, you have a MTs 6.

MTs-6 from Raznoexport catalogue, showing where to look for model number.

The number that follows the model number after a dash is the submodel code. Knowing it, you may be able to tell

The Hammer Guns of Tula

The topic of this post was to be determined by a poll, but it ended in a tie, so I’ll try to match the expectations of both parties in one go.

Interview with Rich Show, double rifle maker.

July issue of Russian Hunting Magazine printed my interview with Richard Show, a gunsmith and gunmaker from Pensylvania, U.S.A. Rich is known for his double rifles on shotgun actions, and he built 24 DRs on Russian Izh-43 action. I couldn’t fail to ask him his opinion about these guns, double rifle making in general, and what it takes to be a small-scale gunmaker in the US. This is the English text of the interview that I sent Rich for verification, along with some photographs he sent me. Thank you once again, Rich, for all the pains you took to make this interview happen.