jmeck

I had the opportunity to test out my Saiga's carbon fiber hand guard a couple of weeks ago. It works and handles great. I gave it a good heat test by firing 40 aimed shots in around 3-5 minutes ( not exactly a mag dump I know). The hand guard didn't heat up much but the screws that attach it to the mounting brackets got pretty hot , fortunately they are at the ends of the hand guard and I don't grip there when shooting.

LOL, I didn't mean no sling at all. Just something lighter, and simpler . When I bought the 3 point sling I thought it was something I was going to need but a standard adjustable sling should do just fine.

New furniture, working on lightening up the rifle a bit. 7 pounds 14 ounces current weight, might get rid of the 3 point sling as it weighs almost 8 ounces!

I just finished a new hand guard for my Saiga. This mod lightened the front of the rifle by about 1 1/2 ounces. It feels and handles great, gotta get out to the range soon.

Its the Magnolia arms? adapter. I didn't find it that hard to install, but then again I do own a milling machine and used it to mill out the magwelll and front trunnion. You could use a dremmel and a few files, but I'd be sure I had plenty of bits and take my time. Dremmeling the front trunnion is not going to be easy and probably won't look to pretty when your done. great job on that !! how is it holding up over the few months so far ? I've had it out to the range twice, around 120 rounds through it, I really like it. No flexing, bending or other issues. The stock comes from the fa

I would really like to have an aimpoint micro, it would save about 1 and a 1/2 ounces, but $500.00 to save an ounce and a half is too rich for me.

The AR mag adapter and an aluminum milspec mag weight slightly more than a good 30 round steel mag, unloaded that is. Thanks for the suggestions guys but I'm starting believe that in order to remove any more weight I'd have to sacrifice some things I'm just not willing to. I could probably save 1-2 ounces If I used a gas tube mount and removed the side mount plate from the side of the receiver, but I prefer my optics up close.

The R S regulate side mount is 5 ounces, mine weighs the same now. Where do you get a ribbed dust cover? and how much does it weigh?

Couldn't you just drill a hole in the side of the gas block where the gas port is ?, thread it, and use an allen head set screw with a jam nut. It might not be as cool looking as a whole new gas block assy. but it should do the same thing.

Wow! $260-$300 for a hand guard set. It's great looking and all but...

Good job, nice looking rifle.

I'm a little biased towards this mount.

A little more work on the lightening project. I took the factory hand guard and lightened it as well as adding some ventilation slots, removed the heat shield off of the gas tube, and cut off the rear section of the scope mount. If you look at the pic with the removed pieces you can see that the tip of the Saiga hand guard has metal reinforcing imbedded in the plastic, its still ridged with the removed pieces. I needed to blue the gas tube as the Parkerizing under the shield was very minimal, not a big deal to do. With the swapping out of the hand guards and the material removal I shaved

Good advice, your correct the AK platform tends to be heavy out front, I'm going to focus my attention in that area.

Quote:Looks good what's the total weight unloaded The total weight unloaded is 8 pounds 12 ounces Quote:Overmolded yugo grip? Is the rail worth the weight if 5 oz off the rear was worthwhile? I can't remember what brand the grip is, but it fits my hand well. I'm going to mill off the rear part of the scope mounting rail, the part behind the red dot and the rear support arm. It will still have 3 support arms which is plenty, might save 1-2 ounces there. My goal is to try to get the weight, with out a mag, down to 7 pounds ( lofty goal I know). So the whole front hand guard is