Woods 501st

Hi from New Haven County, Connecticut -- formerly from Lower Westchester County, NY. Connecticut seems like the old west compared to where I come from LOL!

It seems so...my local dealer told me the following when I purchased the rifle "Enjoy your new AK....but don't be afraid to bring it back in a big brown bag full of parts during the conversion process." I SO want to prove him wrong! I'm going to use one of the guides I found on the forums as my bible http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/66255-how-to-convert-a-saiga-rifle/

It is pretty much impossible to convert a Saiga without either A: grinding (dremeling) the heads off of a couple rivets on the sporter plate and knocking them through with a punch (yields cleaner results, receiver isn't touched), or B: drilling the rivets out. There is nothing to it. Take a few minutes and browse through the forum. You know after literally spending hours browsing the forums and taking in all of the information out there it seems like I am up a hill if I think I can do it without at the very least drilling. Oh well, thanks to everyone for the quick replies!

I recently took my Saiga 223 out for its first shoot and fired off 20 or so rounds out of the factory mag with no problem. After, I loaded 6 rounds into a 30 round Promag. First round chambered and fired with no problem. Second round chambered but when I pulled the trigger by buddy sitting next to me said he saw sparks and flash out of the action and the round was not ejected. After clearing the jam we noticed that the second round had never actually "fired" the bullet as it fragmented inside the casing and a fair amount of gunpowder poured out. Having never seen this before we cl

So I recently purchased a Saiga .223 rifle with 16"barrel. I really want to do the conversion myself but am very hesitant about any machining/drilling etc. Is it possible to complete a conversion without drilling/milling? If so can anyone direct me to a reliable parts list?