IZH46M and my Late 4th of July photo post

I finally decided that shooting the Izzy without modifying the grip was getting tedious. So off came the grip and to my workbench I went. I drew out the cuts I wanted to make, I was not planning on fancy individual finger grooves but to just soften the grip so it was manageable.
Well that took only a few minutes, the wood is pretty nice to work with and even though it has been years since I have done any carving or shaping it all came back to me in an instant. I will post photos later today.
The rest of the story is the general condition of the innards of the pistol,
With the grip removed I was able to see inside the workings. Now let me say, this is a brand new gun. Well cared for and stored very carefully, wiped and cleaned after each use. The workings were clogged with muck, I mean it looked like actual mud from a shop floor. The dirty area was a rotating cocking pivot for the loading and unloading of the pellet. I found half pellet size pieces of steel fragments, burrs on the trigger sear, just a mess of 'crapola' (a technical term I learned from my father) inside there. Out came some of the fine tools I have had set aside from years ago when I would rebuild carburators, (remember them) and my distributor tools from way back in the late 60's ( I was a licensed auto mechanic in Ontario but have been out of the trade since 1973). Some fine cleaning, minute filing and removal of the guck and I thought wow, now this is going to be crisp to pull the trigger. Not that the gun was not crisp and sharp before. This is a testament of how well designed this pistol is. There was absolutely no difference. I had a white rag fully brown from the cleaning. The gun shoots the same and clicks the same when loading. Everything moves as crisp as before, you would have thought it would sound or move more crisp and smoothly.
I will post some photos of the grip, I did not photo the cleaning as it was not planned to get into that particular part of the gun.
It was a fun evening just tinkering once again and I think what really has intrigued me about this pistol is the complex simplicity of it. I love to shoot this pistol as well, it is great to one hole 5 shots in a row as seamless as if I was good.
This is another shooter that shoots way better than I am capable of.





View of my shooting range from the deck. We are on a hill and the deck is about 14 feel above the lower patio. So I am usually shooting down.

Zoomed view of targets, 3 cans hanging from an open house sign frame. Not visisble but pretty visible in person.

Finally my photos of the swearing in ceremony when I became a citizen. This is a day late for the 4th but none the less here it is. Photos taken December 20 2007, the best Christmas gift ever. The federal judge congratulating me. The federal courthouse building in Down Town Detroit.

Special rewards for the new citizen. Hand made cookies by a dear friend Debbie Denome who made one cookie for each state and each one labelled and in the shape of a star.



jusr rick in Michigan