When your IZH-46M makes a different sound...

[AmBraCol]

A few weeks ago I was at the range with a friend who wanted to do some shooting.  Shooting is not a common sport here and few people have the means (guns/ammo/range access) to indulge in the practice.  So we went up to the range where I'm a member, took along the 2240 and the IZH-46M and did some paper perforation.  As we were shooting he was off to the side with the Izzy and I was playing with a Crooked Barn breech on the 2240 when the Izzy started making an odd sound.  Also, the pellets barely made it to the target and were hanging in the outer layer of the corrugated cardboard backer. For some reason I thought it was no longer developing the full amount of pressure from the single stroke.  It's still got the original piston seal that it was assembled with back in 2003 so thought it had finally given up the ghost.

Yesterday I finally had a chance to tear into it.  Pulled the pins from the linkage, the front site and the piston and everything looked OK.  Then I looked it over again - the breech seal was missing!  The one that goes on the bottom had disappeared, the one between the breech and the back of the barrel was OK.  Fortunately I had a spare that came with the pistol when a friend sent it to me years ago. So now it's up and running again. Now to wait for a chance to sneek back up to the club and toss some more lead down range.

Moral of the story - if there's a change in the sound, don't leap to conclusions.  Some problems are so obvious that they are easy to overlook.

[nglitz]

That sort of fun occurrs when the breech isn't fully seated and you pull the trigger.  Those goofy seals fly off into dark corners.