Bought Baikal 30-06 SXS **UPDATE**

Doubt if there is all that much difference in back thrust. This is an excellent in depth report on one rifle. It would be good if there were other owners reporting their experiences.
 
When I think of a double, I think large cal, rimmed. Personally, I don't think a SxS is suited to the -06.

Hence the 45-70, or 38-55 would be good too.
 
I have worked for 4 years in Kazakstan and Russia.

I have to say that with the exception of their aircraft, military weapons, vodka and bread, everything that the Russians make is ridiculously shoddy and if it works well, it is probably an accident and not by design.
 
geologist said:
I have worked for 4 years in Kazakstan and Russia.

I have to say that with the exception of their aircraft, military weapons, vodka and bread, everything that the Russians make is ridiculously shoddy and if it works well, it is probably an accident and not by design.
Click to expand...

I guess you don't like caviar :D :D :D
 
OK. The caviar was good and so was the smoked fat and the smoked sturgeon.

But buy something mechanical and sit back and have a good laugh or cry depending on how badly you needed the item.
 
The 9.3x74R would also be a good one. Actualy I would prefer it to the 45-70.

Baikal has a reputation of well built shotguns, altough some times quite ugly. They have had that over-under rifle for years in high pressure cartriges. I have never heard of anyone owning one. There was one for sale in 30-06 where I bought the SxS.
 
My goodness, but ol' Republic of Alberta knows how to do a gun report !! I salute you !!! It just so happens that I also own a Baikal 30-06 SxS .. I bought it in Lethbridge, Alberta at Marksmen Guns and Sports. When I first heard about these guns in 45/70 I quickly gave the gun shop owner's daughter $5 to reserve the first one. (I always put my money where my mouth is !) And then I waited and waited. Eventually I heard that a few 30-06's were around so when the Gunshop dude (Ted) was going to Edmonton to some kind of Shot Show ... and the Baikal guy was going to be there .. I told him to please bring me a 30-06 .. operating on the premise that a bird in the hand ..... Well, he brought two of them back and I quickly paid the asking price of $1,200. (Quite a difference from the advertised price for the non existent Remington/Baikal/Spartan rifles of only $599 U.S.) But I bought it as it is the only game in town. Now one of my many failings (my wife who knows most of them weeps at night) is that I am a big game hunter who does not spend much time at the range - ever. I sight in my hunting rifles .. and then go hunting .. As hunting is my passion .. I do lots of it and in a lifetime have gotten varmints from aardvark to agouti pacas to Uruguayan water buffalo to most of the Big 4 -twice .. As long as my gun shoots decent enough .. I waste little time on getting extreme accuracy out of it. I mention this in advance to apologize for not being as thorough as ROA.. (that was impressive !!! I do declare !) My thoughts on the Baikal ... I love it !!! I bought a box of Winchester Supreme .. 168 grains .. fired about ten shots .. I think that it will work just fine for me for what I want it for .. a 50 yard mule deer doe rifle .. Plus I am going to take it to Namibia to my little hunting camp in August and shoot a wart hog with it .. Having read the report though .. I just might have to reload some milder loads ... I can live with that .. I just hope that it will still be on .. at 50 yards .. Mine was mostly shot at a 100 yards and it grouped with the left barrel - about three inches to the left of the bull .. the right barrel about that to the right .. This is by a grizzled old varmint who never ever uses iron sights on a rifle .. Ever. I'm not crazy about the present sights .. hopefully I can get something better on it ... but I do know that I can easily get a deer with a clean shot up to a 100 yards .. but will only really want to shoot at half that range .. I believe that is what a double is for .. (I still am waiting for the 45/70 which I heard will come in June .. but who really knows ???) I can send someone the photos of this gun if they want to post it .. I think it looks quite attractive, actually...
 
Scruffy, nice to see you on Gunnutz. Is your gun hard to open after firing? If not mabey yours is ok for the factory stuff. The way your gun shoots right now I will bet that 150g would regulate better. Or you could turn the jack screw towards the butt of the rifle, A few clicks ought to do it.

One other interesting thing I noted was that when turning the jack screw the right bbl would usualy move the most. So to get the two bbls to shoot together with heavier weight bulltes the right bbl must move over to where the left bbl is shooting (it will shoot wide to the left) . This causes your entire group to be quite far to the left. This in turn makes one have to move the rear sight over to the right. In the end my rear sight was all the way to the right. If I went to 200g bullets or a heaver 180g load and found I had to bring the bbls closer together I would be running out of adjustment room for the rear sight.
 
Is my rifle hard to open after firing ? :confused: Now that should be an awful easy question to answer ... but ... I have to learn how to break it at the proper place for it to open easy .. So a few times that it didn't open easily .. I could have been 'breaking' it a bit too far off .. (Darn, but I sound pathetic .. ):( I'm going to take that sucker out again on Saturday and go at it again .. And keep my beady blazing blue eyes on some of the things that you mentioned, ROA... :)
 
I talked to the Baikal rep for a long time yesterday about all the problems reported by ROA on this thread. He was surprised to say the least and was adamant that the 30-06 double could handle any factory ammo made.
He went on to say that there have been no problems of this nature reported that he was aware of. And any problems like this should be reported to the dealer and would be addressed by the Manufacturer.
He did say that there have been issues with the rear sight being weak and that the 45-70's have been on hold until they solve the problem.

I would suggest that you take your rifle back to the dealer for warranty repair ROA and make them aware of these problems. I sure would. JBRO.
 
I shall try again ..

Yo !

I'm going to reload up some 165 or 168 grain bullets with 54 grains of 4350 and have at it tomorrow ... I'll compare it with the factory shells ... and surely I must have some other '06 shells around this house somewhere that I can also try ... I honestly feel that the gun should handle (should ??) regular factory shells ... But then women should find me more attractive than most men ,,,:confused: If the creek don't rise I'll get back on this cool forum Saturday night and report ... (I might even try to whack a sage crawler with the Baikal .. Is it good enough for minute of gopher ???):)
 
Sunday .. what a beautiful day to be out in the country ..

Yo !

I drove about 20 miles out in the country this morning to try out the 13 reloads with the 54 grains of 4350 ... It was a spectacular morning .. all sun .. no wind ( a plus in Southern Alberta ) .. maybe + 12 C already .. Courting Canada geese were constantly flying by .. and they always had something to say !!:D (Some day I'm going to follow them from the Arctic all the way down south on their migration in the fall .. now that will be a hunting trip !!!)

I fired a bunch of shots at a target (and target shooting bores the heck out of me .. ) and the rest - off hand at rocks in mud along a canal .. Same results as the first time. One barrel shoots a few inches to the left of the bullseye .. the other .. a few inches to the right.

Absolutely no problem with safety .. or opening the rifle at all ... This gun is nice and trim and unlike some of the big buffalo stomping ones that I have handled in the past.. it isn't so heavy that you might not want to carry it all darn day .. )I met an elephant (PH) hunter named Hilton Nichol in the Matetsi once. He had a double rifle that his bosses Roger Whittal and Barry Duckworth had given him. It was so heavy that he was going to sell it and just carry his light bolt action rifle. I forget now what calibres they were .. but something like 458 for the bolt .. maybe 465 for the double ...

With my self imposed limit of 100 yards on this gun .. it don't much matter .. but I realized that the left barrel shoots to the right of the bullseye .. the right barrel to the left .. Not sure where they must cross ... but somewhere between the muzzle and 50 yards .. At a hundred yards they are still close enough to hammer a bull dassie ..:)
 
Mbguy, you sent me a PM requesting a measurement. For some reason I cannot reply to you by PM so I will post it here.

You asked the outside bbl diameter at 20"

The bbl diameter is 0.515" at 20". Actualy the bbls are pretty mutch straight from 8" all the way out to the end. They are 23.5" long.

If you have any more questions post them here.

I will be taking my gun into the city today. I will talk to the guys at the store where I got it. I would like to get that safety fixed and the gun looked over by Baikal so I may have to leave it with them for a while.
 
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