555JM

If you can find what you want and can afford it, buy it. People here talk like this is still a hobby. It isn't.

Thanks, Red, that helped.

Picatinny vs. Weaver mounts...is there a difference? Looking to hang tactical lights from the SGM tri-rail forends on a couple of my Saigas. Believe the SGMs are Picatinny. Found some lights at a reasonable price at CDNN. Their catalog lists them as Picatinny; their website shows them as Weaver...part number the same.

I've got enough for now; just looking. Has the supply line dried up again?

I put one on an unconverted long barreled 7.62x39 Saiga. Sighted it in at the range. Appears to work fine. The old eyes found it easier to use than the blade sight and I seemed to shoot it better. Decided to put either Mojos or Krebs on my other Saigas as $ becomes available. Will probably try a Krebs next so I can compare the two. Like you, I stuck with the basic version; less to screw up.

When I take my .308 Saiga to the range, I drag along my .308 bolt guns; a Rem. 788 carbine and a Ruger 77. Both are scoped. Both shoot 1 to 1.25" groups at 100 yards with my handloads. The unconverted long-barrel Saiga pretty much stays with them shooting groups around 1.5 to 1.75" with the same handloads....and iron sights. Not shabby. Wish my 7.62x39 and .223 Saigas did as well. One thing: I take my time shooting groups and don't let the barrel heat up.

OK, Chevyman, where did you see those 10 buck-10 round Saiga factory magazines at Classic Arms? I didn't even see SGM mags there. Will those VEPR mags work? They're nearly $30 each.

Cerebus, Try this: 1) Buy a bullet guide with installation kit 2) Buy a small file 3) Buy a few 20 or 30 round surplus magazines 4) Put them all away in a safe place, do not use them 5) Buy as many 10 round Saiga magazines from Classic Arms as you want and USE THEM; strictly a sporting arm, right? 6) When the SHTF, dig out items 1,2, & 3 7) Install the bullet guide 8) File the mag catch 9) Insert a surplus magazine 10) Zap some Zombies When things fall apart, no one is going to be obsessing about whether your gun meets 922( r ).

Had the gas tube rail on my 7.62x39...for a couple of hours. Realized I'd have to modify the OEM handguard if I wanted to use it, so took a few minutes to see if I really wanted to mount anything up there before hacking up the handguard. Turns out, I didn't. The Burris EER scope I have didn't have enough eye relief to work; the Leupold pistol scope had too much. I'm not big on red dots, as I often leave switches on and run down batteries. So, off came the Ultimak. It's still sitting in its box. Wasn't about to buy the Ultimak lower handguard. It looks nice, but Boomsick's rig

Performance of the two will be similar. The Saiga will be more reliable, easier to strip & clean, mags will be easier to find, and it won't be fussy about ammo. The Mini-30 will be more compact, better balanced, more attractive and probably $300 more expensive. If the Saiga gets beat up he won't lose sleep while a ding or scratch on a clean Mini-30 will probably cause traumas. It'll also be easier to mount a scope on a Mini-30; though if my long-gone Mini-30 is any indication, it'll destroy the scope. Mine wrecked at least two but they were inexpensive scopes. Something about the

I've got an old Redfield Widefield (2-3/4x as I recall) on a .223 Saiga. Fun little rig to shoot with nice clear optics, very wide field & an eyepiece that looks like a TV screen. Hope it holds up. It failed on something else (muzzleloader, I believe) and I sent it in for repair. It sat around for years until I tried it on the Saiga. Muzzleloaders seem to be hard on scopes, I've had a few fail and they weren't all cheap. Also had a Mini-30 that seemed to eat scopes. Never put a good one on it, but do recall that it wrecked a Simmons and (I think) a Bushnell...there may have been

This may be the only game in town if you want a new .308 AK with a 20" barrel. The 20" .308 Saiga I got from MAA last fall must've been one of the last. Haven't seen any since. Even the short tube versions are scarce My Saiga, with good handloads and slow deliberate shooting, is much more accurate than any other Saiga I've shot; between 1 and 2 MOA for 3 shots. But no way will it shoot 1/4" groups. Would love to see the AK capable of that.

Earlier in this thread (like 2010), member Georgia PD was going to do an evaluation of the .308 Saiga with his PD sniper buddies. Did that ever happen? If so, could someone link me to the thread? I've checked the posts attributed to him in his profile, but only saw a handful of recent posts.

Using brass cases, I get neck cracks on the second firing in a stepped barrel. You've gotten around that?

"Striker series Saiga" ...got a nice ring to it. When you run out of ammo, gun help you light Molotov cocktail. Those Russkies think of everything. LOL

The 16" 7.62x39 sporter I acquired Christmastime from Classic Arms doesn't have the chamber cut. Ejected brass looks perfectly normal. Gonna try reloading for this one. Finally, a gun to use the 7.62x39 reloading components I've been squirreling away. The receiver is stamped 'TGI'. Has the chamber cut been eliminated in recent product? Or, does it have something to do with TGI? My previous x39s were both RAAC and had the cut.

It probably depends on the gun and the ammunition more than on the barrel length. My 20" 7.62x39 isn't any more accurate than my 16". Both 3-4 MOA at 100 yards. OTOH, my 20" .223 Saiga outshoots both my 16" .223s and my 187 series Mini-14. It's close to 2 MOA at 100 yd....about the same as my 580 series Mini.

Yeah, my first Saiga. Boy did I get taken. Paid almost $700 for my first 7.62x39. It was an impulse buy. Had driven many miles to buy a 580 series Mini-14 that I'd found on the Internet. The shop owner let me look at the Saiga while he filled out the paperwork. Thought they were something exotic at the time as I'd never heard of them. Ended up buying both guns. Ignorance can be costly. One good thing: Every Saiga since has seemed like a HUGE bargain.

Not much that'll be new to the folks here, but a good read nonetheless....especially if you like VDH: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-worlds-most-popular-gun

My long barreled S-308 is picky about what ammo it groups with; but I've only shot handloads in it. It shoots about 1.5MOA using a heavy load of H322. But a starting load of Varget opens the groups up to about 3 to 4MOA. This with the same Hornady 150 gr. bullet. A Ruger 77 and an old Rem 788 liked that H322 load as well. Going to try some heavier Varget loads next. I'm new to that powder.

.308 THEN, you'll have all bases covered...

My experience is that if you get something that'll clear the top cover enough to let you remove it for cleaning, you'll likely need a cheek riser. I know I need one for the Russian Posp scopes and probably should have one for my utg mounted Redfield. I have the 3-bolt utg and it has worked well on a short-barrel .223. For the money, I think they're hard to beat. Kalinka sells more expensive Russian sidemounts that some have had negative experiences with. The only negatives I've heard on the utg came from a poster here called Nalioth. He used to regularly bash them as being paintba

If your have a link for these, l-r-d, I'd appreciate it. Looked for them in the Midway gunsmithing catalog and what I found was quite pricey....probably meant for the la-de-da custom African rifle crowd. I've got more than one Saiga to outfit with these studs and don't want to spend $50-$70 a crack to do it. Thanks.

Thanks, THX. Just ordered one. That site's a little strange. If I'd gone there without your link, I doubt I would've found it.

The SVD version is still available, but not the AK versions. Checked both Kalinka and Eastwave. Are they history or has there been a lull in production?