saiga 12 with factory magwells

[gwc656g 1]

Hello everyone, new member here, I recently discovered that saiga 12s were imported with factory mag well and hinged covers.  not sure what else is different but my main question is will regular saiga 12 magazines fit in the mag well versions?

[David Mark 2,452]

My gut instinct says no.

Saiga 12 mags are much like AK mags. ie: rock and lock. I would image that magwell specific magazines would be engineered differently so as to drop free when the release tab is pressed.

However, this is just conjecture and I would encourage getting a more experienced opinion.

[gwc656g 1]

thats my gut feeling as well, just hoping to be wrong.   I have several mags already and don't really want to have to buy more.

[evlblkwpnz 3,418]

You are referring to the 030/IZ-433. You might make Saiga-12 mags work in it if the front lug is removed, but it really wouldn't be practical. The factory mags that came with them are very rare and usually very expensive. You would be best off going with some factory V12 mags or CSSpecs mags and fitting the mag catch for the mags vs fitting the mags to the gun. With minor fitting of the mag catch Vepr-12 mags will work perfectly. Anyway, the 030/IZ-433 are much higher quality builds than the Vepr-12 and they do have a couple of advantages that yield increased reliability potential.

[gwc656g 1]

thanks for the info, I didn't realize there were so many variations.  Is there a web page where I can check out the options?  I have been told there is another one that seems to be the same except [1] it still has the original tang in place [2]does not have the mag well and is still rock and lock [3] does have the rifle sights and [4] appears to have the hinged/railed cover.

[evlblkwpnz 3,418]

38 minutes ago, gwc656g said:

thanks for the info, I didn't realize there were so many variations.  Is there a web page where I can check out the options?  I have been told there is another one that seems to be the same except [1] it still has the original tang in place [2]does not have the mag well and is still rock and lock [3] does have the rifle sights and [4] appears to have the hinged/railed cover.

That's funky. I have never seen one like this in the US. I will admit my interests are fairly narrow though. I like that plain old IZ-109, they have incredible reliability potential compared to other detachable mag-fed 12 guage shotguns. The KS-12/Komrad is a winner too.

[gwc656g 1]

another idea, how hard is it to remove the magwell and return it to lock en rock?  I have a lot of mags already so i don't want to have to buy more but I really like the factory rifle sights.

[gwc656g 1]

On 3/31/2021 at 10:08 PM, evlblkwpnz said:

That's funky. I have never seen one like this in the US. I will admit my interests are fairly narrow though. I like that plain old IZ-109, they have incredible reliability potential compared to other detachable mag-fed 12 guage shotguns. The KS-12/Komrad is a winner too.

here is a link to the one I saw, rifle sights with no mag well

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/896568096

[evlblkwpnz 3,418]

I wonder what that looked like from the factory. That's a wild one.