IZh-12

The IZh-12 (ИЖ-12) is a Soviet double-barreled shotgun.

History
IZh-12 was designed in early 1960s as a successor to the IZh-59 "Sputnik", in 1962 first shotguns were made. Since 1963 began its serial production.

In January 1965, the price of one standard IZh-12 was 158 roubles. The price of one custom IZh-12 shotgun (with engravings, walnut stock and walnut fore-end) was between 250 and 270 roubles.

In 1967, a detachable diopter sight was proposed for IZh-12 shotguns.

In 1974, production was discontinued. In total, 311 633 shotguns have been made and 129 000 of them were sold to foreign countries.

In 1976, a new detachable diopter sight was proposed for IZh-12 shotguns.

Design
IZh-12 is an over and under hammerless shotgun, with one barrel above the other.

Both barrels are chromed and have chokes at the muzzle end.

It has a walnut or beech stock and fore-end.

Variants

 * IZh-15 (ИЖ-15) - over/under combination gun with a rifled 5.6×39mm barrel over a 16 gauge smoothbore barrel. It has plastic or rubber recoil pad on its shoulder stock and can be equipped with optical sight

Users

 * USSR
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom - unknown number of shotguns were sold as civilian hunting weapon