Remington/Baikal, IZH18MN, single shot, 7.62x39mm. I got one..

[makarov]

Hey Guys,
I was able to get a Used Baikal, IZH18MN, single shot rifle yesterday for $200.00. I bought it off of a guy who works at my favorite gunstore. It was his own personal rifle. He wanted to upgrade to a Ruger M77, bolt action, 7.62x39mm and he knew I was looking for a single shot. He told me the few things he done to his and I thought $200.00 was a good price.. The rifle is almost in excellent shape..

He said he redid the wood stock by sanding off the rough finish and re finished it. Re-did the checkering, put a weaver scope base on it, had some trigger work done, and only shot like a few hundred rounds through it... Mostly brass cased ammo & reloads.
He also told me that he never used the iron sights because, the way his old eyes are, (he's almost 62 yrs old) he couldn't see them too well and went with a scope.. That leads me to my question here..

How is the rear sight supposed to be adjusted? Are the two lines supposed to be lined up across from one another? I'll explain on what is going on..

When I got the rifle yesterday, I looked at the rear sight, and on it there are two lines. The first line is on the upper left hand corner of the sight itself. The second line is on the lower right hand corner on the sight base. i shot it yesterday getting the sights adj on paper at 50 yds. had to use a special two prong screw driver for adjusting the elevation on the front sight which worked pretty well..

I didn't have enough time to really work with the sights but, I'm gonna go back to the range and finish fine tuning them in tom.. It was shooting about 4 inches to the left but, now is shooting about 3 inches to the right..  I just wanted to see how well it shot and what it was like.. It's a sweet shooter... 

Anyways, What I did today was, I took the rear sight out which is held in place by a set screw and turned it around so, that the lines were lining up across from one another on the right hand side.. It looks better but, the rear sight is now facing forward. It's made on an angle. It's not straight up & down.. Before, it was slanted backwards..

I didn't get an owners manual with this rifle because, one didn't come with the rifle when the guy bought it new. I checked online and couldn't find anyone who has any copies for me to look at so, maybe Remington might have one..

I'm just curious to see if I got it right by lining up the two lines or if they were that far apart for a reason.

So, what are your opinions? Did I do ok on my purchase?

[Frisco Pete]

I have no idea about the lines the Russkies put on that rear sight.  Does it adjust for windage by drifting right or left in the dovetail? (after loosening the set screw)
I would think that the rear sight is supposed to slant backwards in order to eliminate glare from the sun from messing up the sight picture.  You want the rear blade as black as possible.

If it were me, I wouldn't worry about lines on the sight, but simply turn it back to the original back-slant and drift it left or right as needed in order to zero the windage, then make sure the set screw is set.  Because people have different eyes and see the sights differently, the important thing is, not to have it the way it came from the factory, but rather to adjust the sight picture the way the YOU need to see it in order to center POI to POA.  No matter where the lines are after that.  That may take some trial and error at the range.

I think that rifle would be a great candidate for a peep sight, but that may be impossible to do unless you find one that would attach to the Weaver scope base.

[makarov]

Frisco,
Yes.. it does adjust back in forth for windage after you loosen the set screw. it'll almost fall out of the groove but, once you tightened it down, it doesn't move at all..

This morning I was looking the rear sight over again, and I noticed that the one side is parkerized and the other side has a shiney black color to it. I decide to switch it back to the way it was and just tightened the screw down. Figured I would adjust it when I got to the range.. I put the black shiney side toward me.. It's now slanted backwards too.

I got very lucky because, when i got to the range and shot the first shot out of it (I sandbagged it), I hit my target dead center and 2 inches high at 50 yds.. That was with my handloads. I never had to touch the sights... I'm really happy and impressed with it..

I did find out that PMC 122 FMJ factory loads seem to shoot about 3 inches high and 3 inches to the left at 50yds. I didn't try any steel case ammo out of it to see how well it shot.

I'm not really a big fan with peep sights.. Can't seem to use them very well.. I always have one shot here, one shot there, one shot everywhere.. I'am thinking about getting a scope for it next yr after christmas and seeing how accurate it'll be but, for the time being.. I'm quite happy with the way things turned out....

Anyways, thanks for the reply!! I appericate it..

[Frisco Pete]

I have had a lot of POI change with different ammo brands in the SKS, so I suppose the Baikal would be no different.  It's great your handloads were right on.  That would be a great rifle for handloads - you can keep your brass easily enough.

A scope would be great on that rifle too.  I certainly do my best with scopes.

[makarov]

I've had that too.. Like last month, I loaded up some ammo using winchester 123grn power point bullets and even though my elevation was fine, the rounds hit about 6 inches to the left. That was out of my chinese sks. So, I tried the load I'm currently using now which is 123 Hornady SP bullets and they shot right in the center of the paper. I had to remember to hold more toward the right when I was shooting the winchester bullets but, I'm all out of those now so, no worries anymore.

When, I was shooting reloads out of the sks, I would pull the gas piston out, put the hand guard back on and use it as a manually operated bolt action rifle. It worked great.. Brass just fell at your feet. Didn't have to walk around in a big circle for a day trying to find all of my brass but, i just love that little cartridge and really like reloading for it that I had to have something to hunt with.. In PA you can't use a semi automatic to hunt with!!!!!! But, I'm glad I got the single shot!!!

Oh.. I found a website that has a downloable owners manual.. http://www.ussginc.com/index.html
I'm currently looking at the manual.. And I found a pic of the rifle and how the rear sight looks on it.. I was wrong.. The front sight is slanted forward. Not backwards.. But, since I got mine shooting so great, I'm not gonna mess with it..

I seem to be doing alot better with scopes nowdays then like 5 yrs ago.. I couldn't stand to have a scope on any of my rifles but, nowdays, I'm pratically getting scopes for on all of them.. Just got my Weaver K4 sighted in on my Ishapore Model 2A and I could probably drive tacks with it but, I know I'm not that good of a shot..

[Frisco Pete]

Well, I was wrong on that too.  I guess that is why the one side is matte finished - to cut the glare.  You would sort of suppose that vertical would be the way to go - it is here in America!  Weird foreigners!