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"Installing Extended Firing Pins to Improve Reliability of Baikal IZH-27EM-1C (MP-27EM-1C) O/U Shotgun"
Besides being known for their less than impressive looks, Baikal Shotguns have always enjoyed a long standing reputation of a durable and reliable poor man’s B-Gun. Think of them as more of a tool and less of an art work. Same can be said about Baikal’s IZH-27EM-1C (MP-27EM-1C) Over and Under Shotgun. Tough as hell shotgun that never misses a beat except it fell of the ugly tree.
However there is more than meets the eye. For hunting and casual sports/skeet, Baikal IZH-27EM-1C (MP-27EM-1C) offers more than sufficient reliability for a budget oriented gun intended for hard field use. However sports/skeet shooting is a different ball game altogether where a bird lost due to a misfire caused by a light primer strike can not only cost you a game but can seriously hurt your confidence in your firearm. This is where Baikals have been known to make some owners unhappy about the choice of their equipment.
Few Baikal owners at my skeet club have also experienced of an odd and totally unpredictable light primer strike from the lower barrels of their Baikal IZH-27EM-1C (MP-27EM-1C) O/U shotguns. The occurrence though very rare usually happens at an extremely critical moment when everything else seems to be perfect. I am sure you can understand the frustration experienced by the shooter at that particular point in time. It adds insult to injury when a shooter starts missing not only due to lack of talent or technique but also owing to firearm malfunction.
Same thing happened to me as well on more than one occasion and I simply chose to ignore it. Its not like I am aiming for the Olympics or anything so had nothing to lose. However I started noticing a pattern emerging when more than a few Baikal owners started talking about it over tea after retiring for the day from skeet. Almost all of them had similar complaints. Some were blaming diminishing quality control of Baikal firearms whereas others were of the view that the hammers spring are not strong enough to ensure consistent and strong primer strikes.
I came back home and started doing a little research on this issue. Found out that Baikal IZH-27EM-1C (MP-27EM-1C) shotgun is loosely based on Browning Superposed Shotgun which was designed by John Moses Browning to be the first affordable (by the average working man if he was willing to save for it) O/U shotgun. Like most Browning designs, Superposed shotguns are very durable and reliable but they are also known for a few light primer strikes here and there.
As the rabbit hole got deeper, I learned that in order to keep the commonality of parts (Hammers, Hammer Springs and Spring Guide Rods etc.) Mr. Browning employed a setup of firing pin that places the lower barrel’s firing pin at an awkward angle which results in these occasional light primer strikes.
As they say, every problem has a solution. This too has been solved by using a number of modifications. The most recommended modification is an extended firing pin that ensures strong and reliable strike on the primer. I thought why not apply the same to Baikal and see if the problem can be cured. The most important thing here is the knowledge of the material (to make the firing pin out of) and the heat treatment involved to get maximum service life out of that firing pin.
Instead of using conventional grade of steels in making the firing pin, I decided to go for Tool Steel. My choices were simple:
1. O-1 Tool Steel
2. S-7 Tool Steel
3. D-3 Tool Steel
I decided to go with O-1 Tool Steel due to the ease in machining and heat treatment of the said tool steel. Compared to S-7 and D-3, O-1 is very forgiving. It can attain relatively high levels of hardness along with good level of toughness. On top of that, O-1 can be easily hardened by heating to a dull red and quenching in oil (for firing pins only).
S-7 and D-3 though better than O-1 are more like “over kill” for the purpose at hand. Lets just say, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Somebody might suggest spring steel but I don't know, Desi terminologies and homeopathic solutions never turn me on. Spring steel is a whole classification of tools steels and without knowing exactly which spring steel one is getting out of a junkyard; one really cannot say anything about its quality.
Anyways, O-1 is easily available (in annealed or untreated form) at most metal suppliers in the form of round bars of various diameters. I chose 12.7mm diameter tool steel rod even though the firing pin diameter was around 5-6mm.
A disclaimer as usual: The following content is for informational purposes only. The author assumes no responsibility and/or any liability in case of an injury, accident, loss of life and/or property that may and/or may not occur as a direct and/or indirect result of exercising the information provided below. The reader assumes full responsibility and liability of the foreseen and/or unforeseen consequences that may or may not occur therefore he/she is advised to proceed with full caution. In other words, if you screw this up, don't blame it on me.
This is how I removed the firing pins:
This is what the firing pins look like once removed:
Took the measurements at all the critical places and decided (with the help of Denovo87 bhai and Moeen bhai) to make the firing pins longer by 0.40mm (0.016inch). The objective here is to make only the tips longer and keep everything else the same. The final total length of firing pins is as under:
Top Firing Pin:
Before = 30.3mm and After = 30.7mm
Bottom Firing Pin:
Before = 31.6mm and After = 32.0mm
This is how you get the new firing pins made:
Continued....................
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really this shorter firing pin issue is a bitch most of the times a shooter changes, repairs n replaces many innocent parts before getting to the original cause of random lighter strikes. 
Originally Posted by M.ASIF KHAN
.. keep it up bro ..
Thanks for sharing 
