2004 Baikal Makarov

Hello, and welcome to another Replica review. Today we will be doing the review slighlty differently to the others, mainly because unlike the other guns we have reviewed this is not a brand new gun. so rather than doing a section on what comes with the gun etc i will do a small piece on the history of this pistol because as you will soon find out, this pistol isn't an ordinary replica, its rather something special.

History of the Makarov

The makarov was introduced as a replacement to the Tokarev pistol, it used the newly made 9x18 round that was sometimes referred to as the Ultra round, but most frequently as the "9x18 makarov round". this round was completely incompatible with e standard 9x19mm round that most nato/western forces use and thus couldn't be used in nato 9mm weapons. In the times of the cold war this was of key strategic importance as if the cold war became anything other than "cold" captured ammunition stores couldn't be used against the soviet forces. The pistol was introduced in 1951 as the standard service pistol for most police and military forces within Russia and has also been adopted by many other communist and eastern European countries due to its simplicity in design and versatility. The Makarov was finally superseded by the yarygin pistol (often called the viking) in 2003 although it is still widely used outside Russia by countries such as China, North Korea, Bulgaria and many other former soviet/ eastern European countries. Anyway, less history, and more reviewing... 

The Pistol

So, as i'm sure you've already guessed the gun we will be reviewing today is the Baikal Makarov, and this pistol is from the 2004 batch. Unlike other guns on the market such as the Umarex Makarov, the Baikal version is a re-machined reall 9mm makarov pistol, what this means is that over 80% of this Baikal pistol is essentially a real makarov. So what does this mean for the shooter and the collector alike? Well, putting it simply this is one very authentic pistol, when holding this pistol you can tell that it is very well made, there isn't any play or flex anywhere, it is just like holding a real pistol. when you cock the slide back you can really tell that this gun is made to last, you will also notice that the slide spring is from the real 9mm version, making it fairly hard to cock when compared to other airguns.

Due to the simplicity of the makarov's design it doesn't feature much in the way of "features", however all the features of this pistol are perfectly true to the real makarov. the main feature that you will notice when you look at this pistol is the working safety catch, which functions exactly the same as the real 9mm. As some of you know the safety does have a second function, as well as stopping you from pulling the trigger and cocking the pistol the safety catch also acts as a decocking lever. When the safety is applied when the hammer is cocked, not only does it stop you from firing the pistol but it also decocks the pistol, returning the hammer back to its resting position without discharging the weapon. The pistol also has all the usual features you would expect a pistol to have, such as a functioning slide release/ holding catch; situated just behind the trigger, which holds the slide back with ease. The final feature of the gun is its sights, these are fixed and cannot be adjusted in any way, although they are perfectly fine as the are, although this may be an issue or the more serious target shooters amongst you.

The baikal makarov also has the ability to be field stripped, through virtually the exact same method that would be used to strip the reall 9mm version, Simply pull down the trigger guard and just place it off to one side so that it doesn't spring back into place, then remove the slide by cocking it back and then lifting it up and off the lower body. Once you have done this you have access to all the internal workings making for easy maintenance and easy clearing of any blocked BB's. you can also remove the grips and replace them with better quality grips such pearce grips or wooden grips, this is easily done by removing a single screw in the back of the grip.
In my opinion one of the best features of this pistol is the rifled barrel, this can cause issues which i will go on to mention in a second but on the whole its a great feature, it adds character to the pistol and again makes it more authentic and true to the real makarov pistol, however it does pose an issue on what type of BB's to put through it. Most people use some kind of steel bb, however this would damage the rifled barrel, so you have to look at other types of ammunition. There are several options available, the First being the H&N bb's that are often said to be the most accurate alternative to steel bb's, the second widely used option is the Gamo lead round, although this option is often best for the barrel the accuracy is often compromised by the poor quality of the gamo round, so H&N are often the preferred option.

Overall the Baikal Makarov is one incredibly well made pistol that is a welcomed pistol to any collection. not only does it look great and feel like the real thing, it isn't let down when you take it out to shoot, the rifled barrel helps keep the rounds on the target and achieving fairly acceptable groupings for a pistol. The various options to customise the pistol also mean that you can transform this pistol into a one off, although some may wish to keep it in "out the box" condition. trying to get hold of the baikal isn't as easy or as cheap as the umarex baikal, when they were first released they were retailing at £50, but now they are going for up to 4 times that, because they are so hard to find and so desirable, in my personal opinion the Baikal makarov is worth every penny. If your after a piece of russian history and an iconic airgun then this is the ideal gun for you; if not, you may be tempted by the umarex version which is widely available. thank you for reading another one of our reviews, at the time of writting we haven't got a video review of this gun up yet but that will be following shortly.

thanks again for reading another replica review.