TargetTalk

I'm helping coach the MIT collegiate team. A lot of the newcomers start out shooting IZH-46's. We are just getting started up this year, and we have two pistols that are misbehaving. I'm hoping someone can give m e a few pointers on what may be going on & how to fix them. I'm mechanically inclined, and have a machine shop in the basement, so I've got no issues working on them, I've just never been inside one before. I've downloaded the manual, and various info off the 'net. I'm mostly looking for trouble shooting shortcuts, i.e. stuff to look for that match the symptoms.

Pistol #1: This is somewhat minor. The breech won't stay fully open unless the pistol is cocked. We are attempting to instill good safety habits, including keeping the breech open when the pistol is unloaded and on the bench. This pistol makes that a bit of a struggle for the newbies.

Pistol #2: When first brought to me, the breech wouldn't close. If you pushed it forward, it would go about 20 degrees off vertical, and that was it. It didn't matter if it was cocked or not. I gave up, but another coach "fiddled" with it. They managed to get the breech to close (didn't say how & I'm not sure they know). It will now open OK, but the pistol will not fire.

Any ideas or suggestions? Also, where does one get parts for these things?

Thanks!

Can't help with the problems, but the parts issue is easy enough:

http://www.eaacorp.com/diagrams-izh46lg.html

buy from the importer. I've ordered from them once and the parts were received in a reasonable enough time frame (I think 10 days ~ it's been a few years).

Brian M wrote:Can't help with the problems, but the parts issue is easy enough:

http://www.eaacorp.com/diagrams-izh46lg.html

buy from the importer. I've ordered from them once and the parts were received in a reasonable enough time frame (I think 10 days ~ it's been a few years).

Thanks! That will be a big help, I'm sure.

Are there any parts in particular that we might want to keep on hand? It looks like a few #69 pins might be in order, just because it uses so many of them...

Gwhite wrote:

Pistol #1: This is somewhat minor. The breech won't stay fully open unless the pistol is cocked. We are attempting to instill good safety habits, including keeping the breech open when the pistol is unloaded and on the bench. This pistol makes that a bit of a struggle for the newbies.

For the breech to be fully open without cocking the pistol, just pull the breech block foward a bit and manually lift the loading bolt all the way back.

If the newcomers are accustomed to this procedure for dry firing, then it will be second nature to them. I can do it with my eyes closed...

Pistol #2: When first brought to me, the breech wouldn't close. If you pushed it forward, it would go about 20 degrees off vertical, and that was it. It didn't matter if it was cocked or not. I gave up, but another coach "fiddled" with it. They managed to get the breech to close (didn't say how & I'm not sure they know). It will now open OK, but the pistol will not fire.

If the breech won't latch up, I think it may be some spring that may be defective, when you pushed the bolt did it feel too soft? Get the grips off and cock the pistol to see if the trigger sear is engaging.

My 46m breech block wouldn't stay up sometimes. It was inconsistent, and seemed related somehow to trigger adjustments, but I couldn't find a way to both adjust my trigger the way I liked it and have that stay up. So I gave up and removed the stamped steel plate which links cocking with lifting the breech (or transfer port arm, or whatever it is). Of course it still wouldn't stay up on its own, sometimes, so I had to make a way for it to stay up reliably.

I chose a tiny rare earth magnet, a neodymium thing from Lee Valley Tools. I use them around the shop for a lot of things and it just seemed a natural fit. Carved the edges of this thin round magnet a bit flat so it'd fit into the U-shaped cut-out behind the breech block arm, cleaned the metal surface there, and used a steel-filled epoxy putty (GOOP brand) to seat the magnet there. When it was almost set I shaped it a bit more, burnishing the putty and using the lever arm to make sure the magnet was level with it. I left the lever in place there overnight to make sure it was set, then put on a bit of black enamel paint to blend it with the pistol.

It's worked perfectly for the past few months. In shooting I first pull up the lever so it locks against the magnet. Then I can press it back into place to dry fire or cock the pistol and load a pellet and manually close the breech. The procedure isn't much different from any other competition pistol in this way - I see Pardini and Morini and other pistols being loaded at the club and those shooters lift a breech cover to load, not the same mechanism, but a similar action.

An advantage in doing the raising manually is that new shooters will become more familiar with the unlocking mechanism of the 46m. That sprung block is rather sharp-edged, so I carefully filed and polished all the contact edges as well, making this action quite comfortable. There is some tendency with new 46m users to blow out the breech seals at times - some users have even returned/sold theirs thinking this was a fault in the gun. But the problem is in not sufficiently pressing the breech back into place so as to lock its forward tongue into the matching slot. A bit of polishing of this tongue can help, but so can hands-on time help in making a shooter understand how it works.

I think a few of the rubber seals(1/2 o-rings) would be a good thing to have as spares. I blew mine out a few times during matches, as have a few friends. I was able to collect them and finish the match, but I have seen some blow out beyond the foul line ending their match. They did get re-shoots.