IZh-58
The IZh-58 is a Soviet double-barreled shotgun.
History
IZh-58 was designed by L. I. Pugachev, in the last months of 1958, the first shotguns were made.Since 1961, a new varnish with improved characteristics has been used to protect the wooden parts of the gun. As a result, Monetary [reform in the Soviet Union, 1961|since January 1961], the price of one standard IZh-58 was 60 roubles.
More than 1.36 million IZh-58 hunting shotguns were produced in all four standard variants. In addition, one experimental sample of lightweight IZh-58 shotgun was made with aluminium alloy details.
It was replaced by IZh-43 model in late 1980s. The last IZh-58MAE shotgun was made in 1987.
Design
IZh-58 is a side by side smoothbore shotgun. The detachable barrels are made from heat-treated 50RA steelThe barrels have chokes at the muzzle end.
It has a walnut, birch or beech shoulder stock and fore-end
Variants
- IZh-58 - first model In total, 642,000 IZh-58 shotguns were made in 1958-1971 and 73 thousands of them were sold to other countries
- IZh-58M - second model, since 1970 In total, 235,000 IZh-58M shotguns were made in 1970-1976 and 115 thousands of them were sold to other countries
- IZh-58MA - third model, since 1975. It is equipped with new safety mechanism
- IZh-58MAE - last model, since 1977. It is equipped with new safety mechanism and ejector
- IZh-58MA-20M - export variant
Users
- - is allowed as civilian hunting weapon
- - is allowed as civilian hunting weapon
- - the import was allowed