TargetTalk

This is my first post so, Greetings All!

I have a IZH 35M, great pistol, BUT.......I kinda' cringe at the idea of cleaning from the muzzle, even with the supplied brass rod. Or am I doing something wrong?

Hopefully I will get over this aversion, but if not, what is the going selling price for these?

TIA

You have to strip the pistol down to clean it properly. It's a fairly simple exercise.

For a quick-and-dirty cleaning, just run a loop of weedwhacker line or dental floss down the barrel and use it to pull through a few patches. You will have to detail-strip only for a major cleaning.

Idahoan wrote: I have a IZH 35M, great pistol, BUT.......I kinda' cringe at the idea of cleaning from the muzzle, even with the supplied brass rod. Or am I doing something wrong?

I never clean from the muzzle end. I use a flexible Otis or Patchworm (http://www.patchworm.com/) to clean from the breech end. A 25 cal brush bent at a right angle to clean the chamber then a few patches is all that is needed. And a few strokes with a toothbrush to clean debris from the boltface and extractor. I strip mine once or twice a year. Mine has been very reliable - one or two failures to feed over the last 2000 rounds of Wolfe ammo.

I have a PDF of the manual if you'd like a copy ( PM me ). This describes field stripping and includes pictures of the process - it's very simple. You'll want to know how to do this eventually in any case. It's the only way to give the pistol a thorough cleaning.

Hopefully I will get over this aversion, but if not, what is the going selling price for these?

I'm sure you'll get over it. But if not, they go for anywhere from $400 to $600+. It really depends on the venue. I'd gotten mine about 9 months ago for $425 w/ 4 magazines. Others selling recently on gunbroker have gone for $600+.

From what I have seen reported, IZH35Ms seem to come in two varieties. Unreliable cranky pieces of junk and indestructible tanks. If the gun is working well for you then you are probably with me in the second category. As far as cleaning, the only routine cleaning I have found necessary is to clean the chamber with an angled brush and to knock the big chunks off of the feed ramp. Every so often I will pull a snake through it. Why? I don't really know. I usually completely strip mine once a year after 3K-4K rounds just because I figure it's due not because it has given me trouble. I am starting my 4th case of ammo with ZERO issues of any kind.

If it's working well then keep it and shoot it but please leave the muzzle alone. One small nick in the worng place and your tack driver can turn into a shot gun.

Good luck,
John

From what I have seen reported, IZH35Ms seem to come in two varieties. Unreliable cranky pieces of junk and indestructible tanks.

That seems to be the case. But I also suspect that this phenomena had been exacerbated by incompetent gunsmithing. That is, you have some 35s with substandard metallurgy which are basket cases. But you also have some - I'm thinking of those w/ feeding issues - that are repairable w/ a little tuning. But it's apparent that many owners relied exclusively on EAA for support, and EAA's smiths may not have been competent to fix these problems.

Cleaning?
I recently stripped my Izzy down after two years of fairly serious shooting and found there was really nothing to clean. The gunk must drop out the bottom somewhere.

Only place my Izzy has every needed attention is to brush out some of the waxy lube which can build up around the mouth of the chamber. I have fed it a diet of mainly Eley, Fiocchi and SK and never had a misfire or fail to eject, even though I neglect to clean it.

As for the barrel, I clean it with another five rounds!!

Thanks for all the input, I will re-read the manual, it seemed to have stopped describing the field-sttripping procedure without getting to the barrel removal part.

I do like to at least keep the barrel oiled. It's not as damp here in North Idaho as in Seatle for instance, but bare metal still needs a bit of oiling thru the winter.

Don't worry about removing the barrel, see Fred's advice.

The Funny thing about mine is that it feeds certain ammo better when I allow a 'grime ramp' to build-up at the transition to the breech. When I'd first gotten it I was shooting Wolf's target ammo. This would occasionally mis-feed - the bullet nose would jam into the upper rim of the breech. But this only seemed to occur immediately after cleaning. So I stopped cleaning this area - voila!