Rules for choosing a hunting weapon for beginners

Choosing a gun is a responsible matter

Almost every boy in childhood dreamed of having his own weapon. And everyone comes into indescribable excitement, and some into real delight, touching cold steel or the warm butt of a hunting rifle. And the opportunity to shoot is almost the limit of a boy’s dreams. Dreams often come true - and many boys get the opportunity to “play around” with weapons in the army, and some do not betray their dream and decide to become hunters. And so - the documents are collected, permits are received, money is collected and you can go to the store to buy the coveted gun.

But how to choose the right weapon among today’s variety that we see today on the shelves of specialized stores?

We bring to your attention several recommendations.

Gun store - amazing selection

But how to choose the right weapon among today’s variety that we see today on the shelves of specialized stores?

We bring to your attention several recommendations.

How the MP-27 gun was created and renamed

This gun is one of many versions of smoothbore guns for hunting created by Izhevsk gunsmiths. From the very beginning of their release until the beginning of the 90s, they were all called the abbreviation IZH and the corresponding numbers. In the nineties, some modifications of these weapons began to be sent to foreign consumers. In this regard, it was decided to designate Izhevsk weapons products with the Latin abbreviation MP (Mechanical Plant). This is how MR guns appeared.

Since then, Izhevsk gunsmiths have not labeled their hunting products as MR. That is, in order to avoid misunderstandings, you should know that IZH and MR are the same brand of hunting rifles made in Izhevsk. In this ranks, one of the most famous versions, the MP-27 gun or also known as IZH-27 MR, occupies a long-standing and honorable place.

This gun has its “parent” – the very first Soviet over/under – IZH-12, which enjoyed well-deserved respect among domestic hunters because of its reliability. In fact, the MP-27 is an improved modification of the IZH-12 gun. The MP-27 shotgun was equipped with a new, more convenient and elegant forend, as well as a stock. The new version was equipped with a ventilated aiming bar, an automatic safety, as well as trigger interceptors (interceptors), and an ejector. In addition, the butt of the new modification of the gun was equipped with a rubber butt plate. The result was a kind of weapons paradox: the new version of the gun turned out to be simpler and, as a result, cheaper, but at the same time more reliable than its “parent”.

If you're lucky…

Incredibly: the test began on a Monday morning at the end of June, but when we got to the field in Carisio, the Paduan autumn had arrived, not a summer breeze at all, and the rain was falling with increasing force. I, Massimo, Enrico and Giancarlo, the first four selected for the “baptism” of Baikal, did not hide our disappointment, but the desire to “get the operation moving” took over. We have five long days ahead of us and every uncertainty could derail the program. We started shooting: on the right hand of the central route there was a pallet filled to the brim with a daily dose of ten thousand rounds of ammunition, on the other side there was a bath full of water for forced cooling of the barrel. These features are a major change from the ten thousand round test a year ago (see the July 2004 issue of Army e Tiro), where on the first day we resorted to natural cooling, which occurred extremely slowly before moving to forced cooling using a compressor, which is effective but not fast enough. After the first 200-300 shots (bad weather had the advantage that the ambient temperature was lower), in order not to bring the temperature of the barrel to a red heat, we carried out the first immersion of the barrel for fifteen seconds, after which the barrel could be removed without fear of burning hands. And this regime was repeated again and again.

“Baikal” behaved perfectly, in addition, the experience of one year taught the following: when using such “calm” cartridges as “Top Trap black”, 28 grams of lead, it is better to first run in fifty reinforced cartridges, for example, a semi-magnum with 42 grams of lead. After this, there were no more problems, given that the MP-153 “shoots” cartridges from 28 to 56 grams of lead and that with the help of a simple operation of adjusting the valve located inside the gas exhaust cylinder, the gun was also able to “digest” 24 grams .

As time passed, we began to feel tired, but our understanding with the gun improved, and cleaning operations went faster. At the end of the day, after 20:00, we sat down and, counting the packaging boxes, did a little calculation: we had shot no less than 9,000 rounds and had not yet reached the average. They roughly estimated: at this rate, there would still be 5,000 rounds of ammunition left on Friday, or 10% of the path that still had to be covered. There was no particular interference, the Baikal gun worked non-stop, and so did we, even during lunch, for which we established a sequence. And yet the score did not add up. We wasted a little time in the morning, we were hampered by the rain, but the solution was different: the next day we need to start earlier and shoot until it gets dark. In addition, time could be gained during the cleaning operation.

More detailed characteristics of the MP-27 shotgun

As for the barrel length, depending on the specific modification, this rifle can have different lengths: 660 mm, 725 mm, 750 mm. The gun weighs, depending on the modification, 3.1-3.6 kg. The chamber is 7 centimeters long.

The gun barrels are locked using a locking bar. When fired, the cartridges are removed using an extractor. The barrel channels are chrome plated. The hammers can be cocked when the barrels are open. Thanks to the special features of the trigger, it is possible to smoothly release the triggers from cocking in the event of closing the barrels.

From the very beginning, the gun had two triggers. Since the mid-70s, they began to produce a single-hook gun. It was a universal hook: thanks to this, it was possible to fire in any order. In some modifications of the weapon, first it was possible to shoot from the lower barrel, and then from the upper. However, if the shooter wanted to change the order, then by simple manipulations with the gun: the trigger was pulled back to the front stop - after which it was possible to shoot first from the upper barrel, and then from the lower one.

Gun for upland game

Since upland game is rarely hunted, you discard the requirements of this hunt. Since it is difficult to get a gun with cylindrical drill barrels - they are not mass-produced, you settle on the standard combination of pay - choke, which suits you not only when hunting ducks, but also hares.

However, it is difficult for you to run after hares with a 3.4 kg gun. And you won’t go wrong if you choose a 12-gauge double-barreled hammerless shotgun weighing 3.2 kg with poluchok-chok barrels. This gun will work well against ducks, hare, and elk. What barrel arrangement should I use for my gun? This is, in general, a matter of taste, but a gun with vertically positioned barrels has its advantages, which have already been discussed.

Review of gun modifications

The IZH-27 MR shotgun has a respectable age, and therefore it is quite logical that during its existence it, as they say, “multiplied”, that is, a whole list of various modifications of this weapon arose. Let's talk about them in more detail:

MP-27. This is the initial modification, about which plenty has been said, and therefore it does not need additional characteristics here;
MR-27M. The gun does not have an ejector, but has two triggers. The gun comes with interchangeable barrels. Thanks to this, this modification can be called universal. A rifle is good for hunting big game. The gun barrels are equipped with an oval-screw type drill, due to which the bullet is ejected from the barrel with rotation. Such a bullet can easily hit a target at a distance of up to 100 meters. The gun can also fire shot. The sight on this version of the gun is open and can be adjusted up and down, as well as horizontally. If desired, you can install an optical sight on the gun;
MP-27 Sporting. The main purpose of this version can be judged based on its name. You can also go hunting with this gun, but its main purpose is sport bullet shooting. In terms of its operational properties, the model is at the proper level. To ensure that the gun shoots with good accuracy, it comes with various interchangeable choke tubes;
MP-27M Junior. This is the so-called “female” and “children’s” modification. In other words, the model is primarily intended for women and children to shoot from. This type of gun has a simplified receiver design, the barrel length is shorter, the butt and fore-end are also adapted so that women and children can primarily shoot from this gun;
MR-27EM. In this version of the gun, the ejector can only eject the spent cartridge case. If desired, the ejector can be turned off. It is convenient to hunt with a gun in cases where quick reloading is needed;
MR-27M-1S. This type of gun has one trigger. The gun is designed in such a way that, if desired, the sequence of firing from a particular barrel can be determined by the shooter himself;
MP-27 Silver. This is the same as the MP-27EM version, with the only difference being that the fore-end, butt, and sides of the gun are decorated with silver embossing and artistic carvings.

These are just the most common modifications of rare guns. Since the gun is still in mass production, it is possible that new modifications may appear in the near future.

Choosing a gun based on the archer’s physical characteristics and qualifications

Many old-school hunters give the same advice - buy a gun with a larger caliber and longer barrels. Why? Well, because there is a lot of shot in the cartridges and it hits far.

But practice shows that the amount of shot has little effect on shooting accuracy, and long barrels become a hindrance in many hunts, especially when the game is at short distances.

And we must keep in mind that the longer the barrel, the greater the weight of the gun. And when hunting, when you are on the move all day, it becomes heavier with every kilometer. The same is true with caliber - each 12-gauge cartridge is on average 3-5 grams heavier than a 16-gauge cartridge. Just imagine how much more you have to wear.

In addition, the larger the caliber, the stronger the recoil. That is, for a hunter with a frail build, a large and heavy gun can become a big and difficult problem.

The qualifications of the shooter are even more important in choosing a weapon. For some reason everyone is chasing great accuracy. But greater accuracy is only needed for long-range shooting. And if the game is nearby - at 5-30 m, high accuracy brings little benefit, because it is difficult to hit a moving target. The second annoyance is that when hit, the game becomes so broken that sometimes it cannot be used. Such hunting makes no sense and turns into a senseless destruction of animals.

MP-27 shotguns as piece goods

In addition to mass production, Izhevsk craftsmen have long established the production of MP-27 shotguns for individual orders. It is clear that the price of piece guns is much higher than that of serial analogues, but it is worth it. These are extremely high quality guns. They do not have a single drawback that is inherent in their serial counterparts.

There is only one specific craftsman working on the gun - and a very highly qualified one at that. He is engaged in bluing the barrels, improving the mechanisms of the gun, ensuring that the safety has an exceptionally smooth action, etc. He also adjusts the stock and fore-end, and he polishes the butt. If the customer wishes, the butt and fore-end can be decorated with embossing, engraving, gilding, silver plates or precious stones.

In addition, the master adjusts all parts of the weapon to the individual characteristics of its future owner. Again, at the request of the customer, it is possible to equip the gun with two different barrels: one standard and the other at the request of the customer (which, of course, can be fired based on the design features of the gun). The master bears personal responsibility for all these technical and artistic intricacies.

Small game gun

Small game - hazel grouse, squirrel - is more profitable to shoot with a 28 or 32 caliber gun. It’s easier to walk with it, its charge is cheaper, and you can carry more cartridges with you than, for example, 12-gauge cartridges. But it is of little use for hunting hare, fox, wolf, elk, and dangerous when encountering a bear. All that remains is to buy a regular 12-gauge shotgun...

It is good for shooting a hare, a lynx, an elk, and a bear. However, even with good health, carrying a 12-gauge gun (76:22≈3.5 kg, in other words, from 3.3 to 3.7 kg) with a supply of cartridges around the taiga is difficult. A lightweight 12-gauge shotgun (2.8-3.0 kg) is usually either too expensive or not durable enough for taiga hunting, and the weight of the cartridges also matters. Therefore, you should think about a 20-gauge double-barreled shotgun of normal weight or slightly heavier, i.e. we are talking about a shotgun that combines light weight (2.7-2.9 kg) with sufficient strength and fighting power.

Since most often you will have to shoot at a short distance, the ideal combination would be: the right barrel - a cylindrical drill, the left - a choke. Such a gun with reduced charges will allow you to successfully shoot both hazel grouse and small fur-bearing animals; normal charges - hare, wood grouse, fox, wolf. Finally, with properly equipped cartridges and accurate shooting, it allows you to kill both elk and bear, although such a weapon is somewhat weak for shooting these animals

Taking into account all these considerations, you will settle on a double-barreled shotgun of a simple design, 20 caliber, hammer or hammerless, inexpensive, with horizontal barrels. Shotguns with cylindrical barrels are difficult to obtain, and you will have to take a shotgun with a standard combination of barrels (poluchok - choke). This gun must be shot not only with normal charges at a normal distance, but also with reduced charges (they are called “half-charges”) at shorter distances, so as not to break the carcass of a hazel grouse and not spoil the skin of a squirrel.

The main shortcomings of serial gun models

As for the serial samples of the gun, then, according to numerous comments from the owners, the quality of workmanship here is not very good. What are the most common defects that serial guns may have?

Poor quality soldering of barrels. If you can see a whitish coating on the barrels, it is better not to buy such a weapon;
As for the muzzle of the barrels, they must have perfect roundness, as well as the same thickness;
The chrome plating inside the barrels must be even, smooth, without any stains;
There should not be any, even the slightest, curvature of the trunks;
Before purchasing the gun, you need to shake it thoroughly - preferably several times. If something rattles or flops around in the gun when you shake it, then it’s better not to buy such a gun;
The gun should be easy to disassemble and reassemble;
The fore-end and butt must fit perfectly and there should be no burrs, cracks, scratches, dents, etc.

If you do not pay attention to its shortcomings when purchasing a gun, then in the future the gun will have to be repaired at your own expense (and regularly), and, perhaps, it will soon fail altogether.

The most versatile gun

The most versatile shotgun is a double-barreled shotgun, and if we talk about the bulk of amateur hunters, then a hammerless double-barreled shotgun with a vertical barrel arrangement. If a hunter requires fast reloading, a gun with an ejector is preferable. If it is more important to preserve spent cartridges, it is better to choose a gun without an ejector.

Compared to a single-shot single-barreled shotgun, a double-barreled shotgun makes it possible to quickly fire a second shot, allows you to have cartridges with different projectiles ready and shoot at different distances from barrels with different drillings. When hunting large, and especially large and dangerous animals (boar, bear), two guns are always better than one. If one lock fails, the second one continues to work.

Conclusions to note

Despite numerous shortcomings, the MP-27 gun is considered a good weapon. If it is properly operated and stored, it can serve for a long time and without failure. You can, of course, improve the gun yourself, that is, start tuning it.

And yet, experienced gun owners give some important advice that it doesn’t hurt to listen to. First: guns of this brand, produced before 1990, are basically guns without technical defects, and you can safely buy them. Second: if the gun was released later, then you should be careful seven times and check it in every possible way before you buy it.

Shock therapy

We can call them hostages of the environment, because the third day of the test was a turning point: Massimo and Enrico, Claudio, Giovanni, Luca, Nicola, Vito were present and even the director Massimo Vallini arrived to support us. So far we have seen one challenge after another - on the one hand, the MP-153 must reach, unscathed, the value of 50,000 rounds, on the other, we, from the Army e Tiro magazine, passionately wanted to comply with the ambitious test table that we set for ourselves and imposed. Therefore, we decide on shock therapy: clean less frequently, make the barrel cooling time shorter, and lengthen the intervals between cleanings. The first victim of this choice is inevitable: near the gas sampling point, where the temperature is still high, the soldering fails and the sighting bar jumper separates. It is too dangerous to leave it in this state - jumper after jumper could unexpectedly fail and hit the next tester in the face. It's better to remove the bar (we used this precaution during the ten thousand round test) in the same "break it" style: a few blows of the hammer and goodbye to the bar. No matter how much you look, you still have to shoot...

The polymer handguard also suffers from the heat generated by the barrel, and when you start cleaning, you immediately see a “piece” of material welded to the magazine tube. The rhythm is high, and all those who change on the site have a great desire to “push up” “Baikal” in order to make up for the time lost during the previous days. If you continue to shoot after sunset, then with the last shots you catch a glimpse of bright flashes of burnt gunpowder, which contrast with the darkness that “fell” on the field at Carisio. Fourteen hours have already passed since we started shooting - the balance is impressive: on the table there are only a few boxes of 25 rounds left from the daily portion of 10,000 rounds, plus leftovers from the first two days, a total of 13,000 rounds minus some small items. In other words, we have completely made up for lost time and are back on track.

Pour us some champagne

At the beginning of the last day of testing, still early in the morning, not only in the air, but also under the canopy, the satisfaction was obvious - the goal was within easy reach, whatever the final result. There was a feeling that from now on “Baikal” had crossed a critical limit. Meanwhile, some of us still wanted to shoot, the other, participating for the first time, wanted to leave his mark on a small or large enterprise. A little under the influx of euphoria, we almost forget that, against the backdrop of everything else, we still have eight thousand Fiocca rounds left to shoot. But now it didn't seem like such a big deal. “Having the bit between our teeth,” we got to work, took the “remains out of the box” for cleaning, and tried to “roughly” lubricate it, injecting Birchwood Casey lubricant directly into the area where the parts move. MP-153, reacting, snorted and sent excess oil into the shooter's face. It is better not to exaggerate, but to clean as expected. Shortly before noon, there were no more boxes on the stand, leaving only loose cartridges in a large plastic container. By three o'clock in the afternoon we reached the epilogue, exhausted but happy as a bambino, and found the time and desire to arrange a special ceremony in honor of cartridge number 50,000. The honor of this shot fell to Giovanni. Immediately after this, they uncorked a bottle of champagne for everyone who shot, and who looked with interest at those who were on the field and fired with the frequency of a machine gun. And, of course, there was a toast to “Baikal”, which was also worried and which was actually the main character of these five days.

Article from the magazine “ARMI e TIRO”, August 2005 Materials provided by the JV “Schmeiser-Ukraine”, the official distributor of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Izhevsk Mechanical Plant”