TargetTalk

I'd been looking at getting an air pistol for a while, and my wife suprised me with an IZH-46M for Christmas.

I've been practicing with it (I've done a lot of bullseye shooting) , and in my first sanctioned match a couple of weeks ago scored 524. I'd like to get better.

One thing I'd really like to find is a detailed guide to cleaning and maintaining this gun. For my firearms, I can find onlne guides, with detailed images, diagrams, and videos. All I've got for the Izzy if half a page in the manual, with no illustrations.

Is there a decent guide online? What maintenance is required? What are the best cleaners and lubes to use? I understand that some of the lubes I'd use for firearms are unsuitable for airguns, due to dieseling.

This looks like a great forum! I look forward to participating.

Peter T

Use the search function on 'IZH46' and 'IZH-46'. There is a wealth of material.

http://www.airguninfo.com/46index.shtml

Best wishes in Olympic Style Pistol Shooting :)
Russ

Peter, welcome to TargetTalk!

I can't give you too much advice, as I just recently got my Izzy too. That was nice of your wife to get you one! My wife is great, but not very interested in guns. She's just concerned I'll shoot holes in the wall.

That's seems like good shooting on your first match. Enjoy you Izzy!

Philip

Peter,
There is very little that you need to do to maintain your Izzy. In the case of air pistols, less is probably better. About every 500 pellets or so you should put one to two drops of non-petroleum oil on the air compression piston and that's about it. I used Gamo air gun oil on my Izzy (available from MidwayUSA) but there are other brands available. Just fully extend the cocking handle to expose the piston seal and apply the oil to the seal-don't overdue it. While you are at it, put a dab of oil on your finger tip and just moisten the seals in the breach area-again don't overdue it. Periodically you may want to put on drop of oil on some of the pivots in the cocking mechanism, however, that type of maintenance is really best on an as needed basis. Unlike cartridge firearms you do not need to clean the barrel except for occasionally pushing one or two dry patches through the bore. Some here tie a loop in the end of monofilament and use that to pull the patches through. Some occasionally shoot a felt pellet through the bore-opinions vary on that. I sometimes used the rod that comes with the Izzy and sometimes used a straight piece of copper wire-both are softer than the barrel material. Many here are opposed to putting anything down the barrel. Remember there is no bullet lube or powder fouling here-all you are doing is swabbing out some lead oxide. That's really all you need to do and that is why the manual is so brief. So now you can spend more time shooting and less time worrying about maintenance. Welcome to Target Talk.