Unlimited Standing Air Pistol

By: Dave Strobach

 

This past July at the Region 5 Big Bore Championship match, my wife Karen and I were introduced to IHMSA’s newest discipline, Air Pistol Silhouette. Thanks to John Richards, Minnesota State Director, I got a chance to fondle and shoot a Baikal IZH-46M air pistol. I immediately knew I had to have one. I thought “what a great way to sharpen our skills during the cold and snowy winter months in Wisconsin.  We just need to find a building long enough to shoot all the distances in the winter.  For now the basement will do for chicken practice and I’ll have to work on a couple of fellow shooters who have a large heated workshop to get them interested in air silhouette.” How about it Randy & Travis?

I had a Benjamin EB17 CO2 pistol, but the only thing that this was used for was as a varmint eradicator. As we hadn’t experienced air silhouette in the past, I never gave it any thought to use it for anything else. I knew that the trigger pull on the Benjamin was too heavy and the barrel is too short for us to use for silhouette. Got to watch out for those fingers using the Taco hold! I knew that it would not be our first choice for air silhouette. So the search for an IZH-46M began.

A week later, the IZH-46M air pistol arrived. As my wife and I shoot .22 US and Field Pistol PAS with T/Cs and Ken Light 3” Mid-Rise mounts, I knew that I’d have to find a way to adapt a mid rise to the IZH. I took the #BEN B272 Intermount (barrel type) scope bases off the Benjamin and found that these fit on the IZH. I then mounted a Tasco Adapter Base #801C that converts any 3/8” dovetail receiver into a Weaver base onto the Benjamin bases. I adjusted the distance between the intermount scope bases to fit the Ken Light 3” Mid-Rise clamp-on mount to the Tasco bases and installed a Leupold VariX-II 6-18 X 40 scope.

 

 

 

IZH 46M with B-Square mount, Ken Light Mid-Rise and Leupold Scope

 

 

 

I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home from picking up the IZH and purchased a Marksman Pellet Trap. This trap has the hanging silhouette targets and paper targets, and works great in my basement. I set up my portable shooting bench and proceeded to sight in the IZH. I soon discovered that the Benjamin mounts didn’t work  as well as I had hoped. With the mid rise and scope in place, the mounts on the barrel could be moved from side to side with a little effort. I also found that the Leupold AO adjusted down as far as it would go under the 50 yard mark, was not clear at 30 feet. The first shot was 7 inches low and I soon discovered that the scope didn’t have enough internal clicks of height adjustment to get me on target. I then tried a Tasco PDP3 ProPoint with the 2X booster. No problems with clarity, but it also ran out of clicks. For now, I’d have to settle on using the iron sights and do some research for a better scope mount system.

During the next week, I talked with Chris Thode, who has shot NRA Air Pistol for a number of years to find out more about the reset targets he had built for the Daniel Boone Conservation League and to get his thoughts on which pellets he has used and which ones work best. As we were talking, I brought up the IZH and the problem with the scope internal height adjustments, he suggested using shims on the rear ring. I had tried this in the past on a big bore setup and wasn’t keen on the idea as the scope moved on that setup. As I wanted to make the air pistol / mid rise setup work, I figured it was worth a try. But first I needed to find a scope base to fit the IZH.

I contacted a friend and long time shooter, Jack Peterson. We talked about the IZH and how I had tried the Benjamin mounts, but they were too short on each side to prevent it from side to side movement. He told me that B-Square has a mount that is built to fit the IZH and will also work on the Daisy 717 and 747. He said there was an article in the IHMSA News about the mount. As the article was in the IHMSA News before the air bug bit me, I must have missed it. As we were talking, I went to B-Square’s home page on the Internet to find the mount. Their part number is 17900 and they sell it over the Internet for $22.95 plus shipping. I got out the credit card and ordered one. The next day I was notified by email from B-Square that the mount was on sale for $19.51 plus shipping for a total of $24.51 and it was on its way.

 Jack and I also discussed air gun scopes. We talked about the different brands, and what might work best for my setup. He mentioned that there also was an article written in the IHMSA News about air gun scopes, another article I failed to read. As this is a pneumatic type pistol, a standard rifle scope would work, if I could find one with an AO that would adjust down to 30 feet. I did some research on the Internet and decided to try a Simmons 4-12 X 40 Pro-Air scope. I ordered one the next day through a local gun dealer. Now all I needed to do was wait for all the pieces of the puzzle to arrive.

I did encounter one problem with the IZH. After shooting about 50 pellets, I started experiencing some misfires. It was an intermittent problem. Sometimes I could shoot 25 pellets without a problem and then for 3 or 4 in a row, the pellets would either stay in the chamber or get stuck in the end of the barrel. I contacted Baikal by email to explain the problem and they told me to send it in for repair. I returned the IZH to them by US Priority mail. In the meantime the base and scope arrived. Now all I needed was the pistol back. The turnaround time from Baikal was great! I shipped the pistol out on Monday and got it back Wednesday of the following week. Great service! The packing slip that came back with the pistol stated that they had to replace and fit the inner seal. The only charge I incurred was my shipping cost.

Now the pistol fired without a problem and the other parts were received, it was time to assemble the pieces. The B-Square mount went on first. The first thing I discovered is that I had to leave enough room for the Bolt Lever to travel forward along both sides of the barrel. With this problem solved, I then tightened up the mount. Next step was to install the mid rise on the base and then the scope to the mid rise. I found two more problems.

Problem one was with the mid rise mounted in the normal position, the angle of the mount forward, the scope would be too far forward and I couldn’t hold the pistol in a comfortable position or without having the grip touch my body. I turned the mid rise around to have it angle toward the rear of the pistol. Remounted the scope and the first problem was resolved.

Problem two was with the slots cut into the B-Square base. The base didn’t have enough slots cut into it so that the mid rise would fit onto the base into two slots. I knew it was time to contact two of my fellow shooters, Randy Sondelski and his son Travis. They have the machinery and knowledge needed to have the extra slots cut into the mount. As usual, Randy and Travis were more than willing to help. After Randy did a closer examination of the fit problem, he also discovered that the two screws that hold each clamp to the mid rise were hitting the base causing the mid rise to sit above the base. If you look at a Weaver base or a Ken Light Full Rib mount, they both have a channel cut the length of them so this problem doesn’t occur when using those. Randy and Travis took the B-Square base and mid rise mount to their shop to machine the slots into the base and made a short slot lengthwise to accommodate the clamp screws. I’ve included two photos showing the new cuts made to the B-Square mount. Travis also sandblasted the area on the inside of the B-Square mount that attaches the mount to the barrel to remove the paint from it. This gives the mount a rough finish so it doesn’t slip on the barrel during firing. *Note – In the November 2001edition of Shooting Times magazine, a reader wrote a letter to the editor about returning a B-Square base back to them to have an extra slot cut into a base he had just purchased. They did it for him at no cost. For those of you who want to do an air pistol setup with the clamp-on mid rise, but don’t have access to a machine shop. Ask B-Square to cut the slots when you order the base from them.  **Editors note - B-Square made a production change and is now cutting slots every inch as they do in standard Weaver bases, no need to call.

 

 

 

I put the setup back together, mounted the scope, and it was time to sight it in. I stated earlier the problem I had with the Leupold shooting 7 inches low and running out of internal height adjustments to hit the bullseye. I found the same problem with the Simmons Pro-Air scope. I started the process of shimming up the rear ring. I have some samples of plastic shim stock that I had received from a vendor whom I have contact with through my job. I figured the shims would work great for this application as they are bendable but will not distort under pressure. The samples I had were .021”so I cut a couple of pieces to fit in the ring under the scope. I inserted one piece of shim, tightened the ring, adjusted the scope height adjustment turret to the half way point and went to the bench to test. It was still too low and ran out of clicks about 4-1/2 inches under the bullseye. I inserted two more pieces of .021” shim under the scope inside the ring, for a total of .063” of shim material. I then tightened the ring and back to the bench. This time it took only four clicks down and a few clicks left to get it in the bullseye. Problem solved! *Note - For those of you that don’t have access to shim material or would rather not shim the rings, Burris offers Signature rings with Pos-Align Offset Insert Kits that will do the same thing as the shim material does.

We took the pistol to the range to get the sight settings we’ll need for the pig, turkey and ram targets. It was one of those Wisconsin fall days I’d hoped for, sunny, warm and no wind. The no wind part is very important when it comes to shooting the pellet pistol outdoors. The sight in process went smoothly. The scope adjustments using the air pistol with the mid rise are totally different than the settings on our other mid rise setups. On the .22 rimfire and .22 Hornet using a mid rise, the scope settings are adjusted down from the chicken setting to the pig setting and then adjusted up for turkeys and rams. On the air pistol, the chicken setting is the highest and the scope has to be adjusted down to hit the pig, down to the turkey and down to the ram targets.

Now that the US air pistol setup is complete and ready to shoot, we have taken it to our clubhouse for our Thursday night silhouette league and have encouraged fellow members to try it. I know that Randy and Travis are hooked, as I couldn’t pry the pistol away from them. All the other members that shot it, enjoyed it very much.

I have placed an order for an auto reset air silhouette system from a fellow IHMSA member in Minnesota and are proceeding with our plans to offer IHMSA Air at all of our IHMSA matches next year. WE CAN’T WAIT!!!