Baikal IZH-53M Pellet Pistol - .177 Caliber

This gun is a nice value, although it shoots high at ten meters even when all the elevation is taken out of the rear sight. It's a spring gun so it has to be held lightly in order to allow the spring to vibrate freely. Other than that; it's rugged and will last two lifetimes, it shoots a tight group, albeit high. Good trigger. A good entry level/budget air pistol.

Pros
Solid build, good trigger. easy cocking

Cons
Sights don't have enough depression

Out of the box, the newer rear sight was frozen. Sprayed it with lithium grease (WD) and let it set awhile. Got it working. The barrel was fouled with debris so I ran a dry patch thru it which cleaned it up good. On my 5 meter range, put a Crosman comp pellet thru it and it was high. I couldn't help thinking of Fred Flintstones. If he had a pellet pistol, this would be it. This is old school tech and when I fire it, it clinks. Love the Russian instruction book which mentions "bloom". A polite way of saying rust. After 500 shots, its much better and not a match gun. I may be able to use it for field target work. I use lithium grease on the moving parts and keep it oiled. It is fun. I can recommend this one.

Pros
good grip and very simple tech. The weight feels good in hand. No safety but that can be a plus because it makes me think about it during a shoot. It is quiet and seems to like a heavier pellet. I shoot 8-9 gm. Good indoors up to ten meters.

Cons
I tried it single handed and it has a lot of barrel flip which is common to a springer. Two handed much better but beware of a sensitive trigger.

I would have given it a 5 stars if not for the stuck windage adjusting knob. I had to loosen the screw to adjust the windage. I tried WD40 to loosen the knob, not working. After adjusting the sight, I actually am able to hit the bull eye. That is great for gun of this price. This is the first time I using it. Hopefully it will be more consistent after running 500 pellets through it. I have the 46M but this one poses more challenge therefore more fun. Weird noise when cocking, betraying its low price tag. For 50.00 more, A IZH61 rifle gives you more accuracy, persistent shot placement, 5 round clip, great design and look. More fun for your money. If you practice more this pistol has 9" barrel, same length as the 600.00 AA TX200 Mark III rifle, and with sight radius of 16" , longer than some top rated rifles. Don't forget it has the military grade hammer forged barrel. It has potential.

They have fixed the sight problem. My very first round right out of the box was in the X ring. Its more accurate than I am and will be for awhile. As far as recommending the pistol to others - I bought two more for two friends. I can now practice in my basement anytime rain or shine, snow or no. Buy it, you'll like it...

really really nice gun

This is a nice pistol for 10M backyard shooting; it is not match level by any means. The pistol has some inherent design flaws, one of which is mentioned often - it shoots too high. I had to take out my grinding tool to shave off part of the rear sight frame so it would go further down AND some of the bottom of the front sight so it would go up. That was the ONLY way I could get the elevation to work at 10M with target pellets. Now that it is sighted in, and I've shot over 500 pellets through it, everything seems to work correctly. The firing mechanism and trigger needed some breaking in and the shots are far more consistent than when new. For the money, (and now that I've gotten the sights working) it's a lot of fun to shoot. As an aside, it's not particularly loud or powerful so it's neighbor friendly.

got mine about 3 weeka ago.every round recoiled to the right before exiting the barel. the only way I could hit a target was to grab a rest of some sort to steady it. then I wanted to put a red dot site on it and used my dremel to cut through the plsatic but plate instead of taking the gun apart and the site was great but still kicked to the right. sold the peice to a bud who wanted it and bought a Browing 800 mag.

Construction: this reminded of a Gamo brand. Rugged, solid and strudy; this pistol had a great feel. Sights: They were fully adjustable with windage and elevation. Easy to manipulate and adjust. Accuracy: I had poor accuracy at 10 yards as it shot high after adjustments to the lowest setting, and maintaining such groups after approx 250 shots. At 15 yards I was on target maintaining 4-5 inch groups. Synopsis: For me I needed pin point accuracy and was not comfortable with the sights at 10 yards. Perhaps they could make them adjust further. Cood components, solid construction and fun to shoot!

preforms well

Me and my husband used to have two of those pistols back in Russia. You can shoot it long with no cleaning, they are accurate (for shorter distances) and can hit very small target effortlessly. Definitely the best you can get without big expense and fun to shoot. Try one, you may just like it! :-)