TargetTalk

Imagine a 300lb ex linebacker complaining about pistol weight. But my elbow hurts (because of former injury) with my nose-heavy IZH-46M. I got out the dremel tool and carved the grip to match my .22's rink. Pretty nice job with stipling. It helped in the next day's match. I happened to shoot next to a fellow with the earlier 46; shorter chamber and lighter nose. I was surprised at how much better the 46 felt, even with its stock grip. I think for my needs less nose weight would be better.

Has anyone come up with nose-lightening schemes for the 46M? I've thought to remove all the pump linkage and replace it with aluminum members. I'd probably model it in autocad first to compute overall weight reduction potential and moment reduction about the balance point.

If you check out the load on the linkage , especially just before closing,I think you will find that aluminium may perhaps not take the extreme point loads that develop. I am currently looking at a removable cocking lever design,which will also reduce nose weight. Any thoughts on this approach ?

My father milled an aluminum replacement lever for this Daisy 777. It works great and significantly reduced the weight of this pistol.

I would think that a properly engineered aluminum lever would work fine on an Izzy.

I thought I had read about a FWB 103 that had a removable lever. That sounds like an excellent weight saving option, but it would add another step to the shot process.

Oz

But realize that there is much more linkage which could potentially be replaced by aluminum that a removable lever wouldn't address. Probably leave the steel pins, add bushings where appropriate. Try and stay straight and smooth on the cocking. Either approach it empirically or get a friend to do a finite element analysis.

hOW ABOUT REPLACING THE FRONT SIGHT BLOCK AND BARREL BRACKET (?) WITH ALUMINUM IF YOU CAN FIND SOMEONE TOMAKE THEM.

Fact: FWB103 does have a removable aluminum cocking lever AND removing it does significantly alter the weight/balance. For me, that is extremely positive. There is a spring-loaded catch in the lever that releases the engagement to the linkage. Elegant design. Very reliable...and doesn't take 100 shots to develop the natural rhythm so that in reality, a shooter doesn't notice an extra step. YMMV, but is fine for me.

Fact: Pardini K58 has a permanently attached aluminum cocking lever and the result is somewhat better balance and less nose weight than the IZH 46(M). That being said, a K58 is still both heavier overall and a bit more nose heavy than the 103.

I own/shoot/have shot all three of these pistols. For me, the light weight, balance, excellent grip (old FWB v. newer Morini) and near-perfect trigger make the 103 primary shooting choice. Some of my best targets have come using the Izzy. For consistency, the 103 performs flawlessly and comfortably with similar targets. No order of magnitude jump there...just better feel. The K58 yields equivalent results (I have a med. Rink grip on it) but I notice more muscle fatigue sooner.

So much for the "facts". IMHO, retrofitting the IZH to resemble either the K58 or 103 chases a reinvention of the wheel.....perhaps a noble exercise, but for all the effort, may yield very slight benefit. While still available new, used K58's are quite reasonable (guessing $500-600) and all the aluminum work is done at the factory. True, a 103 is considerably more costly and only available now on the used market. However, as our host is happy to point out: Quality has no regrets.

Perhaps you can get some exploded view drawings of the various pistols and determine if adaptations make sense expediently. Good luck and good shooting.

CraigE

LOUSYSHOT wrote:hOW ABOUT REPLACING THE FRONT SIGHT BLOCK AND BARREL BRACKET (?) WITH ALUMINUM IF YOU CAN FIND SOMEONE TOMAKE THEM.

the barrel bracket is already aluminium

I appreciate you all chipping in. I think what you said is very significant about minimal gains. I'd like to try the guns you mentioned some day. I like to tinker but so often I find that it's hard to improve on factory designs.

My Izzy keeps getting more accurate. I wonder how that could be? I changed front sights to the 4mm blade and made the back sight have 1/2 the front sight width of light on either side, as mentioned in Nygord notes. I also carved the grip to match my large Rink (a good grip seems to preclude the need to squeeze so hard, helping elbow pain and accuracy).

Arnie Vitarbo, legendary shooter and grip maker, shoots with us out west. He held my Izzy and said it fit his hand perfectly. Anyway, the Izzy is an amazing gun for the money. It's too bad that people are having trouble getting them, being out of stock.

I just picked up an Anschutz LP@ and Steyr LP5 compressed air from someone retiring. I've been firing those guns this weekend and I'm in heaven. I don't really score better. But I love precision-made things and the sound the CA guns make.

And now I'm in a dilema. I can only afford to keep one gun so I have to choose; the beauty of that Anschutz, the repeater of the LP5 which allows rapid fire practice for bullseye, or the more affordable Izzy. I may very well sell the Izzy and one of the other guns. Have a variety of grip sizes for those.

spacestout wrote:I appreciate you all chipping in. I think what you said is very significant about minimal gains. I'd like to try the guns you mentioned some day. I like to tinker but so often I find that it's hard to improve on factory designs.

My Izzy keeps getting more accurate. I wonder how that could be? I changed front sights to the 4mm blade and made the back sight have 1/2 the front sight width of light on either side, as mentioned in Nygord notes. I also carved the grip to match my large Rink (a good grip seems to preclude the need to squeeze so hard, helping elbow pain and accuracy).

Arnie Vitarbo, legendary shooter and grip maker, shoots with us out west. He held my Izzy and said it fit his hand perfectly. Anyway, the Izzy is an amazing gun for the money. It's too bad that people are having trouble getting them, being out of stock.

I just picked up an Anschutz LP@ and Steyr LP5 compressed air from someone retiring. I've been firing those guns this weekend and I'm in heaven. I don't really score better. But I love precision-made things and the sound the CA guns make.

And now I'm in a dilema. I can only afford to keep one gun so I have to choose; the beauty of that Anschutz, the repeater of the LP5 which allows rapid fire practice for bullseye, or the more affordable Izzy. I may very well sell the Izzy and one of the other guns. Have a variety of grip sizes for those.

Let me know if you plan to get rid of the LP@.

I would like one.