Almost done…![]()
The piston seal screw has seen better days and is a replacement. The seal looks good.![]()
Piston face.![]()
That screw is wrong, I’m surprised it even held on at all.![]()
Seal parts.![]()
The breech seal is ok.![]()
Notice the barrel is a rifled brass liner.
![]()
I found a good candidate for a replacement screw, but it needs a shorter head.![]()
Chucked in an arbor.![]()
Faced flat.![]()
A replacement spring, two less coils, same diameter wire, a lot less curvature… Then reassembly just as disassembly, in reverse. I lubed everything, lightly.![]()
Again, note the need to rotate the trigger block when assembling.![]()
Closed.![]()
Just for posterity.![]()
The butt plate. Note it says IZh (in Cyrillic) rather than Baikal. I wonder why we call it an IJ-22? Just a Blue Book oddity, or some romanization of Cyrillic?
The rifle shoots! Quite powerful for its size although it may be dieseling a little due to the fresh lubes. I still need to sort out an issue with the rear sight, chrony it and check accuracy. I may lightly refinish the stock, or just re-oil it, not sure yet. I really love this rifle. More to come, later on.