Growing the Saiga 12 market

[6500rpm 670]

I'm not sure if anyone is on board with this, or even if it matters to me, but should we as owners be doing more to promote the sales of Saiga 12's? The Saiga 12 has been around for a while now, but it's still kind of an oddity at shows or the range and it really is a hell of of a shotgun, so why hasn't it cought on?

Possibly a lack of promotion?

Why should I care? Because if the gun market for the S12 grows, more products specific to the gun will be introduced and prices will generally drop.

 

My claim to fame, or lack of, deals with a lot of promotional work my team did in the 80's and 90's to promote paintball. When I started, markers sucked and used 12 gram CO2, prices for paint and markers were high and quality was generally low. I was lucky enough to have had sponsorship with some industry leaders that hooked us up with other industry people. We promoted the sport by putting on novice tourneyments and put up sponsor equipment as prizes. We also promoted making the sport more acceptable to the public by introducing bright colored uniforms from JT Racing (rather than camo) and moving the sport out of the woods and developing speedball fields. Bottom line is look at where paintball is today as opposed to 25 years ago.

 

I can't say that the S12 will ever make that kind of leap, but the AK is very popular, and the S12 is just a big AK that nobody knows about. Why, and what can we,or should we be doing about it? (Board owner and Team Saiga members get a free pass on this one)

[mccumber1916 1]

i get your jist...

i promote mine to my friends... and their friends

iv'e got some smei-liberal friends that aren't exactly gun frindly that want to shoot it

 

i like where i think your taking this thought proccess

but short of raising funds and renting tables at gunshows... what do you propose

[topmaul 42]

Win competitions will grow the market. I have a die hard 1100 user that wants to try out a Saiga.

Edited August 18, 2007 by topmaul

[topmaul 42]

I foresee a day when the Saiga will over take the speed loader crowd. We have to work on technique and sooner or later we will over come. Of course 20 round drums help

[inparidel 4]

The best thing you can do to promote the S-12, as well as guarantee that it is around in years to come is to remove the 20 rd. drum from existence (it is tactically/practically impractical anyway). Hey, you asked. . .I answered.

[mccumber1916 1]

The best thing you can do to promote the S-12, as well as guarantee that it is around in years to come is to remove the 20 rd. drum from existence (it is tactically/practically impractical anyway). Hey, you asked. . .I answered.

 

the drum is increasing the popularity

fun for matches... skeet... or just blasting jugs

[Paladin 37]

After much research, I decided a shotgun was going to be my all around defense weapon, I was looking at many different kinds and had never heard of Saiga, when I did stumble across them I thought "wow, what an ugly gun" and moved on. When I stumbled across the Tromix website and watched the video of the semi-auto toss 8 shells in the air at the same time I said "wow, what a beautiful gun"

 

What sold me was the performance, but you have to know about them first. Having people use them at the range, in competitions, youtube, tell your buddies, ask about parts at the gun shop (even if you know they don't have any) will help get the word out.

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

I know one damned thing...I'm certainly doing my part. I talk to at least 20 people at every gunshow in my area and give them a hands on experience with what the fugly things should look like. Every one of those people walk away wanting to tell their friends what they saw and hopefully show them theirs one day.

[joelrod47 373]

I love taking my Saiga-12's to gun shows !!!! People will chase you down to look at these guns.......... I usually give 'em two things : Saiga-12 Forum, and TROMIX..........(Adding MD ARMS to that shortly..........)

 

This site, this Forum, I would estimate to have the greatest potential as to fostering interest in Saigas overall.................. Get as many people as you can to come here, and

the Saigas and their owners will take care of the rest..................

Edited August 19, 2007 by Jeaux E

[MikeD 541]

I tell as many people as I can about the saiga-12. I always take one with me to the gunshows. People always want to buy it and it just isn't for sale. I tell everybody they should buy AT LEAST one. I am adding a link page to my site and plan to put the forum on there with something good say, "Find everything you need and want to know about the Saiga line...." or something like that. I remeber when the Russians first mage it. At that time I thought it would never be imported. Shortly afterwards they was but in the stock configuration and during the ban yrs when 5rd mags was the limit and no pistol gripping aloud. I just pass them up knowing I would rather have 8rds out of a pistol gripped pump. And many other people thought the same or similar. Now it is a different story and the market is growing. More and more people are finding the saiga again and giving it another look. I am all for growing the items available for the 12. It is by far my favorite gun!!!

[whatmanual 44]

What I do is take it to the indoor range nearby often. Nothing like the pop, pop, pop, ping ping, and then you unload 10x 00buck or slugs. Certainly a head turner. I remember this big guy next to my booth who was instructing his girlfriend how to shoot a glock or something simply say "I almost shit my shorts" after I unloaded a mag (destroying the target).

 

That is when people often ask about it. Initially its concern that Im shooting a .50 cal in there and it looks like an AK (its a pitsol, shotgun, and non-bottle nose ammunition range). Well of course I tell them its a Saiga 12 -a shotgun.

Jaws drop and sometimes there small comments exhanged like "wow, wall-o-death right there" or whatever. I tell them about the forum.saiga-12.com and also Tromix and AGP arms where I got the mags. I even explain that there's wraithmaker and mdarms drums coming out soon.

 

I offer (key point) to let them dump a mag of 00 buck from the Tromix. After a quick instruction on action, more than half like to take me up on it and peer down the Kobra sight and squeeze them off. Interesting is the 1, then 2, then 3, then the rest turn out to be at a sustained semi-auto rate as they are not being bucked into oblivion. That's when I see they have the smile ear to ear that tells me they're hooked.

 

Of course, a great conversation piece of gear is one of my various Zombie T-shirts I tend to wear. People sometimes ask why I own such a gun? Im like "Zombies" (with a matter-of-fact look of course)

 

 

~Steve

Edited August 19, 2007 by whatmanual

[MAAnew 162]

Forums work a lot better when there is a steady flow of members. I email every mag customer and tell them that they should join and contribute to the Saiga-12 forum.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if anyone is on board with this, or even if it matters to me, but should we as owners be doing more to promote the sales of Saiga 12's? The Saiga 12 has been around for a while now, but it's still kind of an oddity at shows or the range and it really is a hell of of a shotgun, so why hasn't it cought on?

Possibly a lack of promotion?

Why should I care? Because if the gun market for the S12 grows, more products specific to the gun will be introduced and prices will generally drop.

 

My claim to fame, or lack of, deals with a lot of promotional work my team did in the 80's and 90's to promote paintball. When I started, markers sucked and used 12 gram CO2, prices for paint and markers were high and quality was generally low. I was lucky enough to have had sponsorship with some industry leaders that hooked us up with other industry people. We promoted the sport by putting on novice tourneyments and put up sponsor equipment as prizes. We also promoted making the sport more acceptable to the public by introducing bright colored uniforms from JT Racing (rather than camo) and moving the sport out of the woods and developing speedball fields. Bottom line is look at where paintball is today as opposed to 25 years ago.

 

I can't say that the S12 will ever make that kind of leap, but the AK is very popular, and the S12 is just a big AK that nobody knows about. Why, and what can we,or should we be doing about it? (Board owner and Team Saiga members get a free pass on this one)

[EZDontLeadEmAsMuch 0]

I've got an idea that would make the Saiga the hottest thing in scatter guns. Get one in a movie. More specifically get some badass Tromix model in some movies. Seems like directors who are big on picking the right cars, picking the right music, and picking the right look for their heros would love to have a short barrel saiga if they knew the gun existed. Maybe Tromix could mail a few to Hollywood during pre-production of The Punisher II. Just think what Dirty Harry did for the .44 mag.

[mp5man 1]

I stock the bad boys in my gun shop. We have the 12's and the 410, extra AGP mags and all the accessories for them. My gunsmith does any conversion work, so I can give a turnkey product. If I sell out, which in the past has been common, I just bring one of mine to the shop and continue trying to pre-sell them. It works cause I have had several pre-sold just waiting for them to come in. Right now is a good time since I can actually get them. I love talking up the converted Saiga-12 as one !BAD! gun. Saiga-on!

[kmoore 3]

I foresee a day when the Saiga will over take the speed loader crowd. We have to work on technique and sooner or later we will over come. Of course 20 round drums help

I have yet to see a definative awnser on the drum use in USPSA matches. Is there one out? I bet if a few of the big dogs were to go pro saiga then you would see a definate ruling in favor of drums. Not to mention a lot of used open shotguns for sale

 

Check out the rule book at uspsadotcom. I believe I quoted it here a year or so back if you want to search here. Short answer :

 

Renegade matches are a hodge podge. Mostly less restrictive rules.

USPSA rules limit gun to 10 (+1) (open)

IPSC rules don't limit the gun (IIRC)

[KyleWeiss 0]

The best thing you can do to promote the S-12, as well as guarantee that it is around in years to come is to remove the 20 rd. drum from existence (it is tactically/practically impractical anyway). Hey, you asked. . .I answered.

 

*sighs* I love coming back after a month and missing absolutely nothing.

 

KW

[mccumber1916 1]

The best thing you can do to promote the S-12, as well as guarantee that it is around in years to come is to remove the 20 rd. drum from existence (it is tactically/practically impractical anyway). Hey, you asked. . .I answered.

 

*sighs* I love coming back after a month and missing absolutely nothing.

 

KW

 

don't worry kyle... i think he wore out his welcome.. how you been

[6500rpm 670]

I was thinking about this old post and thought I'd drag it up again. It's been slightly over a year from the original post and look at all the progress that's been made, not only with the S12, but the whole line of Saiga, the board (now with business members and a competition section), and all the bolt on mods you can think of are available or on the way soon. Congrats to all who've done their part.......now if we could only get a stable price on the guns (I kind of blew that one). Just kind of fun to look back on things from time to time and see where we've been and where we're going. What a long, strange trip it's been

All you business members, tinkerers, and shooters should be proud. You to Makc, A+ bud.

[surfmaster 5]

In USPSA competitions, it's 10 + 1 to start. After the buzzer goes off and you fire the first shot and do whatever reloads you want, you can still only have 11 shots in the chamber/magazine and overall gun. You cannot fire one shot and then stick in your 20-round drum. This is USPSA rules; no more than 11 at a time.

 

I foresee a day when the Saiga will over take the speed loader crowd. We have to work on technique and sooner or later we will over come. Of course 20 round drums help

I have yet to see a definative awnser on the drum use in USPSA matches. Is there one out? I bet if a few of the big dogs were to go pro saiga then you would see a definate ruling in favor of drums. Not to mention a lot of used open shotguns for sale

 

Check out the rule book at uspsadotcom. I believe I quoted it here a year or so back if you want to search here. Short answer :

 

Renegade matches are a hodge podge. Mostly less restrictive rules.

USPSA rules limit gun to 10 (+1) (open)

IPSC rules don't limit the gun (IIRC)

[tophatjones 0]

Simple and works for me: take to the range often, people get curious but timid, I let them shoot it, they have tons of fun! Then I answer any questions they may have. It works every time.

[rotortuner 0]

I think one thing that is starting to limit the popularity is price and avaliability. I think a lot of people are out to get a "nice" shotgun and the saiga looks a little too rough or iron curtain for them. I think we can all agree that the saiga is more function over form and kinda rough around the edges. If they were still 250-$300 i think they would catch on faster, but at 500-800 for a stock gun, I think the majority of people would rather pay a little extra and get a name brand gun thats been around forever and they are familiar with.

 

CJG

Edited October 3, 2008 by rotortuner

[jcfreak9901 0]

cool, I kinda enjoyed reading something almost like mccumber has posted recently. Anybody know where that guy went?

[waltham_41 52]

I do a lot of talking about the shotgun in general, and I also refer people to this forum so they can learn. Just my little part, but every bit helps

[frankd4 1]

[stiletto raggio 20]

While I worry about the "streetsweeper effect" enough to want to buy a couple more before the election, I will say that I think we are safer now than we were in the 90s. The Democrats have realized that guns are a losing issue for them, and I hope is stays that way. Still, all we need is an executive order to ban all Russian guns from import. That would ruin things for a bit. The best hting ot do to protect the Saiga is to keep it OUT of movies. Die Hard got the AUG on the banned list.

 

At any rate, I think the best hting to do is get people comfortable with guns in general. The Saigas are taking off on their own. Now the most important thing is keeping the number of gun owners up, and making those who aren't gun owners more comfortable around and appreciative of firearms. If you haven't done it, you would be surprised how many people will take you up on an offer to take them to the local range. Maybe five percent won't enjoy it. The rest will love it, and think twice about their attitudes towards guns and gun owners.

Edited October 3, 2008 by stiletto raggio

[frankd4 1]

I write letters to my State and federal Reps I keep very actice in the NRA and Local Republican party issues at work I was the only one with a CWP now all the guys have one and they all are shooting IDPA and USPA we are always looking for people to bring into the sport, Most people just need to be shown how much fun the sport is and take to it like fish to water. Education is the best tool to fight the anti gun leftist commie bastards, we need to promote the sport and expose people to the fun side of things, by doing this we keep our god given rights to keep and bear arms.