Not to put too finer point on things the old enemy age is really rushing to catch me up now and over the last eighteen months my right elbow and shoulder decided enough was enough, the elbow decided to suffer Cubital tunnel problem and my pinched shoulder joint joined the elbow in sympathy. Being right handed this has put a total stop to all my shooting activities, it is now some months after the operations to correct things so my thoughts turned to picking up a gun again. So off to my local gun club with a selection of guns to see if the elbow and shoulder are getting back to their usual selves. They do say in every life a little rain must fall, well it was my turn for the thunder storm and what a storm it was! Even with much reduced loads I was suddenly woken up to the fact that my guns of preference side by sides where all far to light and not fitted with recoil pads and until this visit to the club the absence of a recoil pad on a gun was never a problem. Unpalatable though it may be a heavier gun with a recoil pad was needed to reduce felt recoil, I do have a heavy under and over weighing some seven and half pounds, which I bought in a moment of weakness from a shooting partner of mine the late Blaster Bates I am sure some of the Brit readers of this forum will have listened to him at one time or another though I have no idea of this guns age. The gun has been used by my sons over the years well the old man’s side by side’s no matter who the makers are have very little street credibility next to an under and over in their eyes, so it was their choice for rough shooting and the occasional clay breaking sessions. Heavily used before I purchased it and regularly used in the intervening years and now found to be lacking in the external look after me department so now in need of some t.l.c.


The gun in question is a vintage 12 bore Baikal Model IJ I2 proudly proclaiming made in the now defunct USSR with 2 ¾ inch chambers with Birmingham proof marks 28¾ inch un ventilated top rib barrels also in its favour it closes up like a well fitting bank vault door, perfect bores ¾ choking in each barrel with double triggers like all of my other guns though it is non-ejector. Well a lot of clubs these days don’t want you ejecting cases to the four winds they want them in the receptacle next to the stand.
My I intentions are to smarten it up a little though bearing in mind it is as nearly valueless as a gun can get in view of its age lacking ejectors and of course its maker.
The must do things on the gun are.
Repair the crack in the stock adjacent to the to the slide safety which does go through the stocks head from top to bottom although it has been there since I acquired the gun. The crack’s orientation is very often found in a stock’s head after the guns cast has been altered with rather a lot of applied force.



Replace the hard but plate with a 20mm rubber recoil pad which will extend the length of pull from 14 ¼ inches.to a little over 15 inches.
Reshape the wood each side of the stocks head to improve the guns line though this is purely a matter of my personal taste.
Improve the metal to wood fit where possible.
It goes without saying refinish the wood because the old finish is oxidised to the point the woods figuring is almost invisible also remove those yellowed white plastic spacers between the wood and butt plate and the wood and pistol grip cap they are just not me! Along the same lines I intend to fit the ubiquitous silver oval in the stock even though the makers thought such a low value gun did not warrant one. Contrary to all the rumours about old railway sleepers the wood used on this Baikal is Manchurian Walnut (Juglans Mandshurica) it’s not rich dark and beautiful though sound enough for a gun stock also I do want to see what traditional Red Oil will do for this rather hard nondescript walnuts looks.
Retouch the bluing I really do not want to do a complete gun re-blue so I will see how much they have improved cold bluing formulas though my thoughts may change when it comes to actually doing it.
So I will be starting the work tomorrow and will let you all know how it progresses.

Damascus, over three years ago I started reloading 12 gauge shells with 3/4 oz. loads. I did this because of shooting vintage sxs and the other is in reducing recoil.
A recoil pad reduces some but I hate recoil pads on vintage guns, not that I don't have any with them but I don't like them.

The lighter loads really are nice to shoot and I load them with our size number 8's. I use them for skeet, sporting clays and the few times I shoot trap. No problem breaking them at the 16 yard line. Like the saying goes, if I do my job, they do theirs.

Try some, I know you will like them.
I use TiteWad powder, but Red Dot is also good. The psi is under 7500 and around 1050 fps. I'm sure these powders are available over there.

I have taken to wearing a PAST harness and pad beneath my shooting jacket or gilet.
The Browning Reactar pads work well too. Both are about 1/2 inch thick, and essentially unnoticeable. The Reactar pads are commonly in discount bins.

I am sorry for your unfortunate shoulder problems.

Since turn about is fair play, Please tell me which shooting jacket in the 70 lb class is preferred, WWK, Hoggs of Fife, or Lavenir? I cannnot try on before ordering, so it's one of those three. My SIL, being a Hogg, has her own unwanted opinion. TIA, and good comfortable shooting.

I have been shooting trap with a Parker three frame VH12 with 34" barrels. It weighs nine pounds and six ounces. I am shooting factory 1-1/8 oz loads at about 1150 fps through it. Feels about like shooting a 22.

I do pre-mount it. I am sure that this is not the gun for FITASC.

go buy a gas auto and your good to go....

If you want to keep shooting 12 bore side by sides, two things may help. They really helped me.
One, reduce the shot weight, get some Gamebore 2 1/2" 21 gram cartridges, great patterns and low recoil.
Second, try an Evo-shield recoil shirt. About $60 USD, no stock modifications, it uses a thin, air hardening armor pad to custom fit your gun's butt to your shoulder area. Same recoil force, but spread out evenly over a MUCH larger surface area. There's a good write up here,
http://www.chuckhawks.com/evo-shield_shirt.htm
I hope these two simple suggestions can help you get back to using your guns of choice!

Damascus, sorry to read of your trouble with your shoulder and elbow. Bleedin' annoying!

I have a recoil pad on my English 12 and use 28g No 7 or 6 shot for most of my driven game shooting here in the UK. Recoil is not an issue for me - but then my body is holding out well, so far!

Tim

So let me clear things up, you can't put a recoil pad on an English Best?

I got the impression he plans to migrate to a Baikal w/a cracked stock, and wanted suggestions befitting it's state and economy.

A quality pad beneath his vest should provide excellent impact relief while he recovers. Using his "Soviet Best" may hasten his recovery as well.

I'm a big fan of the Evoshield Shooting Shirt. It has a UK presence in Ireland. http://evoshield-ireland.com/shooting---hunting.php

If that "Russian Wurst" thingee works out and you decide to re-introduce some style to your shooting, consider a heavy pigeon gun or a fowler. UK auctions usually have a fair-to-middlin' assortment at very reasonable prices. Now, don't faint (fainting is definitely "unmaahnly") at the following suggestion. There be a plethora, plethora, I say, of suitable American made doubles of suitable weight and breeding for your needs. Any number of Americans on this board will be happy to offer advice. ;-)

DDA

damascus, your gun is of the lot made exclusively for export into the UK, as it doesn't have sling swivels. The stock is is the best the factory could do, and in fact is times better than what's seen on gun sold in the USSR.

The crack through the wrist on these guns usually means someone didn't watch out for the crossbolt; one has to see if it's tight now and then. Izh12 is essentially the same action as the currently produced MP27, and many parts will fit, but not the stock; if you decide you're going to need a new stock check these out
http://www.oborontech.ru/index.php?categoryID=49
http://prikladov.ru/price/priklad-cevie/priklad-i-cevie-izh-12/
I don't know for sure if sending one of those to the UK is possible, but I can't see why not. They'll probably require precision fitting to place.

Don't hesitate to ask if you've got any questions.

It is a sad thing, but, this would be my suggestion also.
Up until a few years ago, I used to see an older gent (mid 90s in age) who would take a short walk down a snowmobile trail with his .410 single shot. He made no bones about the fact he shot his grouse on the ground, and didn't even try to shoot them flying anymore. He lived in an old folks home, and had to fight like hell to keep his single shot, and, his old pickup. He sold all the other guns after his wife and most of his kids had died.
He could walk in perhaps 1/2 mile and out the same distance. It impressed me, and made me sad at the same time.

Best,
Ted

The first thing is to repair the crack in the head of the stock though after removing the action a lot of the wood was found to be saturated with oil. In this saturated state it would be just a total waste of time and effort trying to glue the crack because Epoxy will not work at its best on oil contaminated surfaces. So the head will soak in 50/50 mix Xylene and cellulose thinners (I choose to use Xylene and cellulose thinners because this mix works exceedingly well also I prefer the smell as opposed to other solvents such as Acetone) for some days to remove the oil before I glue the crack in the stocks head.

In this photograph you will see that I used a small toolmakers clamp (sometimes known as steel fingers) in reverse function to open up the crack, by opening the crack in this controlled way over a couple of hours enables the wood to flex without the crack traveling much further.


I always use something to pull the Epoxy adhesive through a crack to make sure all areas are covered from top to bottom with adhesive, there is another alternative to dental floss (in the picture) which is mono filament fishing line either one works well. Now after the adhesive has set I decided to make and fit a Brass support in the shape of a square staple whose legs are fitted in holes drilled deeply in the wood each side of the crack and fitted with Epoxy Adhesive, this will greatly reduce the chances of the crack reopening in the future and will be conveniently out of site being covered by the trigger guard.



While the Epoxy cured I took this time to adjust the stocks profile at the head.





When I removed the stock I also found one of the action pins had not been completely driven home its top is marked in white in the photograph, the reason for this was too much wood had been removed from the inside and outside of this area when the action was fitted to the stock.



The altering the pins position was a very crude attempt to correct things by forcing the wood outwards even so the wood was still well below the actions surface in the area indicated by the yellow tape.

Sorry to hear you've been having problems, looks like you can't keep a good man down for long though. Good luck with the gun. That stock looks better already.

So I will reset the pin to its correct position then glue a piece of wood internally to this area then hopefully this will in turn raise this area of wood to near the correct height

Also have covered the action with electrical insulation tape at the metal to wood boundaries, this has two effects firstly it stops the abrasive paper from removing or marking what is left of the action’s blued finish. Also by only finishing the woods surface to the level of the tape which is 2 thousands of an inch thick the wood will be proud of the metal by this amount to further improve the look of the guns wood to metal fit.
019

After improving the stock and forend wood to metal fit in places and adjusting the stocks line at the head area also making some small adjustments to the forend I will now fit the silver oval There are a few things I would like to say about this because over the years I seem to have fitted quite a number of replacement silver ovals on old guns that had been removed which has made me think the only valuable item left on an old gun in the not so dim and distant past was that silver oval so people removed them. Now it is possible to purchase silver ovals from parts suppliers at an exorbitant cost, so many years ago I came up with the idea to use Victorian ‘Silver Shillings’ because they are approximately the correct size with a high Silver content and even today their cost is just a couple of pounds for a heavily used example that coin collectors would not want.


Now as they are not classed as legal tender here in Brit land you can use them as you see fit so I make the coin oval then shape to the stocks profile but always having the tails side showing. My reasoning is that I just do not want to deface the head of Queen Victoria silly though it may sound she was still alive when most of the guns I have used her shilling coin as a replacement oval where made when she was still living. Also may be one day in the future some gunsmith may have to replace a stock and wont it be a talking point to find a Brit Victorian shilling rather than the standard tailor made Silver oval let in the guns stock.



The final thing to be fitted before I re-finish the stock is the recoil pad though one of the original screw holes needs plugging as the new pad fixing centres are quite different.
Also I will put two layers of electrical insulation tape to that part of the stock that butts up to the new recoil pad to act as a stop indicator when removing the pads excess overhang using a coarse abrasive belt on the linisher.


In removing the greater part of the pads excess now is not a good time to catch the wood with a coarse belt making deep abrasive score lines in the wood. I now recon between the values of the silver coin and a new recoil pad I have at least doubled the value of the gun and my reckoning puts it all of £10 give or take and as we say over here “many a true word is said in jest”

I think that Gunut (I believe it was him) and Ted S. have made what I would consider excellent suggestions so as to continue the "pleasure" of shooting: get a light, gas-operated auto - 1.75 inch 20 perhaps - and continue to enjoy the shooting sport. I also agree with ClapperZapper (?) and the suggestion of the under the coat pad or the Browning gel pads inserted into special pockets in some of their brand name shooting vests, jackets, and now even shirts. I used one at my doctor's insistence just a very few days after having some nice titanium plates and screws fitted to my newly re-built collar bone. The problem he was concerned with was that due to required "pruning" of the jagged ends, the collar bone did NOT meet in the middle, hence the need for the plate and the insertion of ground up bone shavings of mine and some donated by a cadaver until the bone could re-grow. Bottom line, the pad worked well through one week of wild pheasant hunting in SD and no problems were encountered since. Oh, I was also using a Beretta gas-operated 20 gauge semi-auto for that hunt too!!! Good luck with your shoulder problems and your quest for a suitable shotgun to use.

Ah, make that a 2.75 inch 20 gauge!!!!

My Baikal project is now finished and may be it will not be used by me for quite some time the shoulder is not improving as fast as I would have hoped. Firstly I would like to thank you folks on the other side of the pond for their kind wishes and advice on what may help my shoulder problems. But as a realist things are going to take some twelve months or more to sort themselves out well, I am not getting any younger quite the opposite in fact and I have given my shoulder a lot of use over the years.
Back to the gun I completed it about a month ago now and I have been waiting for the oil finish on the wood to harden before I re assembled the gun. I think now looking back I had a little too much time on my hands because being honest with myself putting such a quality oil finish on the wood was a little overboard when you consider the guns value, but I was keeping my hand in mixing up the finishing oil’s applying it and watch it change the wood that was as plane as a deck plank to something with a bit of interest and character. As usual I have taken some photographs of my efforts along the way in the hope my sad attempts at improving my skill at photography, though no improvements as yet!

That is truly an example of "making a silk purse out of a sow's ear" & I mean that in the most positive way.

Very nicely done.

looks better than new....all the work you put into her would of run $2000 at a smiths and in most cases would not of been near the same quality.....I was quoted 350 to 400 just to put in a stock oval....

Nice work. Your garden is beautiful, by the way. Hope the shoulder heals to the point where you can use it, and, don't be like an excited schoolboy, and try to push that date to before you should. TIme heals all, it just takes more of it, in older guys.

Good Luck.

Ted

I'll guarantee you that's the best looking Baikal most of us will ever see.

Outstanding work, Damascus. Very nice job indeed.
JR

Ted I am not sure about the shop rules on posting non gun related photographs but I don’t mind having my knuckles rapt for a couple of photographs.
I would like to say it was all my own work and that would truly be a lie in reality I married the “Gardener” I just do the land scape work.
I have been lucky to live in a small quiet Cheshire Village for some forty years with this view but the world does not stand still and Brit land is a very small Island. Now over the last three years there has been a massive boom in house building in the countryside and unfortunately my village has been caught in the middle of it. So the view is going to go as are the cows they are not mine but that was what Cheshire fields once looked like before we joined the d*m “European Union” and milk quotas where introduced and the cows disappeared first and they call it progress.



I am now beginning not to believe that an English garden is a sort of a recompense for living with such foul Brit Maritime weather.
Though I do feel the saying “if you do have a God you are closer him in a garden” still holds true just, when you sit on the bench and listen to the sound of the country that will soon disappear for ever.

Grand job you have done their Damascus hope your shoulder has the speediest of recoveries.

Sorry to hear about the development i know the feeling Damascus.

I have been in my village for 15 years now and in the last five the farm, buildings, and keepers house have been sold and done up, houses are being built on land that was previously left due to gypsum. There was a useless but amenable little paddock in the village which is probably no more than two acres, and that now has a development and eight houses shoe horned into it. Our sewer infrastructure and roads can not cope with this kind of development but there is no sign of the local council addressing these problems which already cause issues for residents.

Beautiful work Damascus. It's amazing the wood that you can find hiding under factory finishes. Beautiful garden too, thanks for sharing.

Steve

Well done. Would love to see a separate thread/tutorial posted by you on how you came to get such nice finish on the wood and pull some character out of the gun's stock.
Also to learn more about the process of fitting that oval.

Very impressed. Thank you for sharing.

Bls I do think that the subject of stock finishes and how to finish a gun stock are subjects that have been practically talked to death on this forum. Also it always seems to come over as this is the way it is done dictatorial!! And as we Brits are Guests on this site the last thing that is needed is some Brit going over the same old ground extolling the virtues of this is the way we Brits put finishes on gun stocks in the Victorian Edwardian period. Also the method and finish I use is a take on the traditional finishing system I have worked on over time but the one thing the finish being as near as traditional as are modern times will allow needs a lot of time to do correctly, and these days people want things done by yesterday!!!
Back to the stock, this is a photograph of the stock nearing the end of the finish process taken with a low light angle so that you can see the woods figuring I managed to bring out.
Though I will do a how to do it if it is not going to be, not this D*M!! Subject again!! Though it will have to be a little time in the future because “she who must be obeyed” has rather a lot of summer chores for me to catch up with.

Wonderful woodwork, wonderful garden. I have used the "silver coin" method of creating inlaid stock decorations. I needed a rather large disk, so hammered a US fifty cent piece into the exact size I needed. It worked very well and looks like a three hundred dollar gunsmith project. It probably took me an hour, start to finish. Fortunately, the wood was already inletted for a missing plate.