Thread: Baikal single shot rebarrel - Anyone done this?

I have a Baikal Izh-18MH in .223 that I never use, and am thinking about re-barreling it using a .458 blank that I bought off our very own barrel maker homebrew.357.

Does anyone have any experience re-barreling these rifles? are the barrels simply threaded into the barrel adaptor? or are they very Russianed in there (ie heat pressed/pinned)? I would like to salvage the 223 barrel if possible, so chopping it and boring out the barrel adaptor isnt on the table.

I know these rifles come in .308 and other high pressure cartridges, is there any difference between the barrel adaptors on a .223 and the larger cartridges? any issue with stout 45/70 loads for example?

Not sure which cartridge I would use, maybe 45/70 but maybe not. The idea is to suppress the rifle and shoot 400 - 500gr subs from it, and 45/70 case capacity can be an issue for that from what I have read. Any suggestions?

I should mention that I have a well equipped machine shop in my garage.