Forums.NitroExpress.com

Got my Bailkal sxs 30-06 brand new - about $1000 CDN all in. Interesting........ the filler betwen the bbls is stamped steel screwed together from underneath. The bbls look good, tight action that started to loosen up a bit with a little oil and working it. The stock is walnut and kinda nice - oil finish. Triggers quite heavy- about 8 lbs, a little creep but broke when you got used to them. It fit me well, is lighter then I expected - about 7 a bit lbs.

O yes, when I opened te box, the rear sight fell out of the box. Ther eis a nice screw to adjust and hold the rear sight in the dovetail, but even full tight, the sight still slipped around. I cut a little shil stock, some red loctite and the screw grabbed good now. I never did try the iron sights tho.

I cleaned the bbls well, ran a OAL guage into it and found , that as mentioned before - not a lot of freebore, but enough to work with. I had at least 2 tenths of an inch when i set to the cannelure of my bullets -- I dont have the exact measurements with me at this time.

I loaded Federal brass, CCI 250 mag primers (cold weather up here - a habit of mine for almost all my ammo), and 180 gr Remington bulk spire tips.

Loaded 52 , 53 and 54 grains of Win 760. I load this alot for my several 30-06 with my favorite load for several being 54.5 gr.

Cobbled together a scope mount with an old redfield low variable and off to the indoor range.

From a lead sled bench rest, without touching the adjuster in any way, I shot the first 2 shots with the 52 gr. At 25 yds they were off to the right about 8 inches, with the left bbl about 1/2 inch from the right in the same horizontal plane. Broke the rifle to extract - opened relatively easy - now the part I dont like - with non-rimmed rounds you have to pick out the brass and it may hang up on the little spring steel extractor - but they acted as any rifle does with this system, no real issues.

Adjusted the scope and fired 3 more sets of 2 letting the bbl cool for about 5 minutes between. The front trigger shoots the right bbl and rear the left.

I was now shooting the 52 grained loads from 50 yds (my max for the range) - all were within 1-2 inch, left on left and right on right.

I moved up to the 53 gr loads. They magically appeared 7 inched to the right -- same type of grouping tho - slightly less, about 1.5 inch or under. I tried 2 52 grained shots and they went to that same area in a good 1 inch group. I suspect my old scope was jumping around a bit - will try a new version soon.

I re-adjusted the scope and fired the next 4 two shot groups - all centered on target and less then 1 inch apart in the same horizontal plane! With such a crappy trigger - I am impressed. Breaking the rifle was slightly more difficult, and I mean slightly - but you could feel it.

I took 2 shots now with the 53 gr - the group size opened to about 4 inch and I could not easily open the action. I did open it with a fair bit of force - while the primers were very slightly cratered, there was no primer pop - I suspect the slight cratering caused the rifle to jam as the face is very tight to the bbls.

I will try 180 gr roundnose to see if they make a difference , but my 52 gr load of W760 looks to be a winner. maybe 52.5 gr or so. I have to try it over a chronograph , but I suspect I would be in the mid 2600's ft/s - plenty for critters.

Overall i am impressed, my friends say it looks horible, but it will likely be with me this fall as a quick acting , jump out of a truck gun. The gunsmith - a euro fellow who actually backed me up on the rifle - said he could work on the triggers for me to get them a bit better.

worth $1000? I dont know ---- I know i wont worry about it when I hunt with it - but $1000 is a $1000 ---- only time will tell.

I would post pics if I only knew how. Next time I will be outdoors with my chronograph at 100 yds and a better scope and mount.

Post Extras