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I have spent the last few months looking for a 16 gauge hammer gun when I saw one advertised for £75.00 that's 92 bucks American money its a made in the USSR Toz63 I have owned a couple in the past so know about the quality or rather lack of, the gun was described as not being used much, well I took a chance ($92 ain't gonna break me) I picked it up yesterday and for something over forty years old it indeed look unfired BUT probably the reason was it was extremely difficult to even fit the barrels to the action and opening and closing the action required more muscle than I now have.. but my time spent working for Westley Richards was not wasted it only took a few minutes to get the action working like one made in England. These guns are not pretty but built for hard use in Russia.
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Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
John, that's a great find, and especially at that price. Pretty sure a number of these filtered through the cowboy action community decades ago -- and not just the Baikals.
Nothing like knowing what to put a file to eh John! Looks like a good investment.
I dont think I've ever shot a 16... only know 1 person that had one, a Parker and although it was in perfect order it was tired looking.
I got my Rizzini 28 warmed up this morning, 7 pheasants and a Hungarian partridge fell to a total of 9 shots- 3 were perfect head shots( top of skull missing) the rest were DRT.
I digress, nice find now go shoot it !
PS, is the stock laminated?
No it's not laminated but Beech sturdy but not pretty and the previous owner fitted a unnecessary but nice recoil pad.
Good shooting Will, are those Hungarian Partridge as tasty as the others?.
Bill, I think a few have been used in CAS they can certainly take a pounding.
Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
I really don't know John, these are the first time I've shot them.
I figured that was beech( or birch being Russian), if you are inclined to refinish the wood you might want to try vinegar/ 0000 steel wool for stain. I've stained tulip poplar and it evens out the light wood / heart wood very nicely.
Let the steel wool soak a few days then strain through a coffee filter and wipe on for a nice brown.
gamekeeper wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 3:37 pm
I am considering refinishing the stock but have never had much luck with Beech.
That looks pretty sweet to me John! If you do try to refinish the stock, with Beech, I think you'd have better luck with alcohol-based stains, as that's what Swedish Mausers m/96 or m/38 typically have for wood, and that's what has been reported as being best.
If you have to use commercial stains and like a tinge of "Winchester Red" color in walnut stain, the color "Gunstock" by Cabot Stains is very pretty -- on walnut, not sure how it would look on beech. And if you like a hard oil finish like TruOil but want a softer satin sheen, then Birchwood Casey's "Genuine Oil" is a low-gloss version of TruOil -- just rub it on with your fingers, just as you would with TruOil (6 to 10 coats).
Thanks for the tips on stock staining, I have found Beech to be impossible to make anything other than presentable. The varnish that Ivan coated the stock with probably cost 5c a bucket so if I do refinish it I'll probably just remove the old varnish and take it from there.
Jay I think your collection really does require a 1870s style scatter gun just don't carve on the stock like Stumpy in Rio Bravo..
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Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
John, I recently came into a mystery Zouave stocked in what I have always thought was European beech, with the lens-shaped grain structures perpendicular to the main grain. I stripped it with CitriStrip and sanding. Despite my concerns that it would unevenly streak, I used alcohol-based Fiebing's dark brown leather dye and got about as good a color as I have ever gotten in beech. The before color rendition is off, but not too far off.
John, it sure looks better, but when I took it apart I discovered that it had a coil spring lock. It is marked FARA Made in Italy, and I have been told that FARA was an early consortium of small builders organized by the Zoli brothers in the early 1960s. I hope to shoot it this week.
Mine was the Zoli Buffalo Hunter with a half stock, I'm pretty sure the lock had V springs, it was a .58 smooth bore, the one in the photo is a lot prettier than mine was.
I had one of those for a while. They pack a punch, but I found the sights seemed kinda flimsy for the very hard work they could do -- as they did when Val Forgett and George Nonte took them to Tanzania in 1973. Good grief, I have read that story at least a dozen times in my old falling-apart copy of the Lyman Blackpowder Handbook, which I bought new in 1975.
its a made in the USSR Toz63 I have owned a couple in the past so know about the quality or rather lack of, the gun was described as not being used much, well I took a chance ($92 ain't gonna break me) I picked it up yesterday and for something over forty years old it indeed look unfired BUT probably the reason was it was extremely difficult to even fit the barrels to the action and opening and closing the action required more muscle than I now have.. 
but my time spent working for Westley Richards was not wasted it only took a few minutes to get the action working like one made in England. These guns are not pretty but built for hard use in Russia.
