pistonring8 1 Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 Hello, I am a new member to your board and want to first introduce myself and second thank everyone for sharing thier knowledge, triumphs, and failures with everyone. It is wonderful to have the opertunity to learn from others before making a very costly mistake. I am esepecially greatful to thoes of you who share thier knowledge of the current laws governing high caps and pistol grips. My Saiga is a stock 16" . The only mods so far are the vented foregrip and mounted optics. This may be helpful for thoes of you who target shoot often... The 3-9 x 50 will fit on a low mount rail if you pop out the rear sight and slide the scope to the rear. This allows for a larger field of view as close as possible to the barrel tragectary and still maintains a comfortable shooting/sighting position. This is an inexpensive Simmons, and a set of Quad Rings from walmart. Also without the use of your iron sights I would recommend a laser or red dot scope for close range target aquisition or home defense. I was torn between the piggy back mount for my target scope to allow a red dot scope to be mounted beside it, and a laser. After my wife let slip that I may be getting infared optics for Christmas, I went with the laser. This is an inexpensive BSA laser sight that you can find at a gun show or on E-bay for $35. I borrowed this one from my wifes Taurus P92. The BSA laser comes with a pressure switch and two sets of rail mounts, one of which grabs the Saiga barrel perfectly and holds zero very well. I hope this has been helpful. Future possible mods would be the (non-conversion) conversion. Having the fcg so far to the rear of the reciever sets the Saiga apart from the dozens of variants that I run into at the range. Thanks to the guy who thought of this. I am mostly affraid that making the conversion to the stock AK location will take away from the uniqueness of this fine rifle. If it is possible to add enough US parts and keep the fcg in its current location, this will create a rifle with all of the range comforts and a stand alone appearance (nice idea). Also I would like to integrate the laser into the foregrip bringing it closer to the barrel and out of sight. I also plan on pressing off the front sight block and adding a muzzle break. Milling off the rear sight tabs should be easy and give more room for a wider field of view scope. I also own a pair of high cap mags from EAA but dare not use them since they are deemed illegal until the parts count is satisfied (thank you for THAT info.) I look forward to sharing and learning from all of you on this site. I am a long time mechanic and accomplished machinist, but this is the first Saiga that I have owned. And I look forward to customizing it. It was only by accident that I made this purchase at Dunhams sporting goods ($179.00) while attempting to buy yet another Yugo M59/66 I realised that my wife could barely lift it. I was educated on the WASR series AK's but knew absolutely NOTHING about the Saiga, so I bought one. After a few hundred rounds at the range I fell in love, and even sold my .223 Armalite so that I could buy the necessaties for my new Saiga (case, scope, mount, mags, sling). I am going to post a few pics of the T-shirt that I airbrushed for at the range in summertime. It drives my old AR buddies nuts that I can easily keep up with them at the range with a rifle that cost less than thier tactical crap. The T-shirt just rubs it in a little As this brand of rifle and shotgun gets more and more popular I think we will be seeing alot more of it. As of right now, there are not many at my local range who have heard of this great rifle. Thanks again to all of you for the great info. and feedback on this site. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Doerdie 0 Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 Howdy Pistonring8, Good info. Post a pick of your Saiga sometime! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wolverine 10,360 Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 Greetings and welcome pistonring 8. Many of us are pretty new to the Saiga and this site but not firearms in general. It sounds as though you are going through all the same mental gymnastics that i and others have been through. To move the FCG or not. The Saiga is unique and functional. Who wants to mess up a perfectly well thought out and functioning trigger mechanism just to comply with some bullshit law or to copy everyone else. After all if you want a AK 47 look alike, buy one. On the otherhand the Russian Saiga's fit, finish, and quality far exceeds the now available Romanian WASR-10 and certainly costs alot less than a US constructed AK variant at $550 to $950. Anyway, I am attaching a pictorial site showing the ACE conversion that will allow leaving the FCG intact while changing out enough other parts for US to comply with 922r. I look forward to your future comments and posted experience. http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?showtopic=1688 Happy shooting. Wolverine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pistonring8 1 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 Hey! Thanks for the welcome and the link to the conversionless conversion. I am serious when I tell you guys that I have read EVERY single post on this site and have jumped around on the main site alot too. And a special thanks to Shiek for his conversion page, as I have referenced it several times. I am tossing in a few pics of my Saiga. One when it was brand new, one with just the foregrip slotted and one as it is right now. After Christmas (the Holidays) I suspect that I will have a few more nice additions to this rifle, and I will post my progress. I am also going to try and talk the wife into a set of pigtails for the next pic P.S. In my opinion the ergo grip mounted to the adapter block looks both very comfortable and wickedly functional. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pistonring8 1 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 pic 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pistonring8 1 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 pic 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LeadMonkey 0 Posted December 25, 2004 Report Share Posted December 25, 2004 (edited) pistonring8 welcome aboard! On that BSA laser any mods to the mount yours came with ? I bought one and the sad thing is it holds a zero pretty well, the windage tuners were very responsive but mine kept coming off after a half a clip. This pic is the one I have. Edited December 25, 2004 by LeadMonkey Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bvamp 604 Posted December 25, 2004 Report Share Posted December 25, 2004 it is so good to see normal people that think normal things about these guns. mr kalishnakov should be a billionare now, and is not....plus laws, all else...GOOD......she looks like "AH HAH HAH ok" and not "I DONT THINK SO".... very glad to have you aboard pistonring...realistic people are difficult, eccentric, and piss people off a lot. sad to say, everything pisses everyone off eventually... nothin wrong with guns bro.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G O B 3,516 Posted December 26, 2004 Report Share Posted December 26, 2004 Welcome aboard 'ring! Your lady looks to be enjoying your hobby! (mine wants me to convert her a .410 with an underfolder!) G O B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pistonring8 1 Posted December 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 Ha Ha Ha! Thanks guys! LeadMonkey- That is the exact laser I have on there. See the other set of mounting rails on the bottom of the package? Those are the ones that grab the Saiga barrel at the 1/2 way point. If you have trouble holding zero with it, try a few things that worked for mine. Tighten the mount then remove it, you will see light lines where it grabs the barrel. LIGHTLY slot the area that it clamps on with a dremmel. All you need to do is take down the grooves on the barrel, no more. But I would use that method as a last resort if it still wont stay zeroed after all else. I find that the grooves on the Saiga's barrel actually help to keep mine in line. Next, remove the mounts from the laser and take the mounting side of the laser over a belt sander to give yourself a little bit of clearance between the laser and barrel surface and also to flatten out that side because it is not 100% flat. A regular bubble level on top while you sand it is fine for this. And finally, I noticed that the windage and elevation set screws work nicely but dont stay tight in all positions. This is very easily remidied with the smallest of drops of locktight. At this point I was a little affraid of sending a drop down one of the holes into the laser body so I removed the screws and rolled them lightly in some blue locktight and waited until it got tacky before replacing and setting them. Remember to tap on the body of the laser after a few turns when sighting it in. This style of laser sight does not move conjoined with the set screws but rather uses them as spacers for the mechanism inside the body. I hope this helps. I am still laughing hardily at your Rick James avitar, so if I misspelled alot of stuff, thats why! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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