tjschul 0 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 (edited) I could use some help from the experienced Saiga smiths please. I took my newly converted Saiga 12 to the range today for its first workout. The gun turned out to be a single shot. It would fire and load a second round, but when the trigger is pulled again...nothing, like it didn't cock. The action seems to function normally when I manually cycle it. The carrier cocks the hammer back, the disconnecter holds the hammer back until I release the trigger, when the sear then holds it. I can do this forever with out fail, but fire one round and it won't cock (I'm guessing) for the second shot. There is no indication on the primer of the second round, of hammer follow and it never doubled. Any clues? Edited October 15, 2008 by tjschul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunnysmith 4 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Sarah Brady has put a curse on you? We have to know if it is resetting the hammer first. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Superhawk138 202 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 I could use some help from the experienced Saiga smiths please.I took my newly converted Saiga 12 to the range today for its first workout. The gun turned out to be a single shot. It would fire and load a second round, but when the trigger is pulled again...nothing, like it didn't cock. The action seems to function normally when I manually cycle it. The carrier cocks the hammer back, the disconnecter holds the hammer back until I release the trigger, when the sear then holds it. I can do this forever with out fail, but fire one round and it won't cock (I'm guessing) for the second shot. There is no indication on the primer of the second round, of hammer follow and it never doubled. Any clues? What load are you shooting. Make sure your gas regulator is set correctly. #1 for high brass (slugs, buck, and magnum) and #2 for low brass bird and small game shot. Also make sure you have 4 gas ports on the 19" barrel most 22" and 24" have only 3. Also a recoil buffer causes problems with the carrier travling far enough back to cock and load another round. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TonyRumore 1,332 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 I would say your trigger is not resetting (moving foward when you release it) after your first shot. It will reset when you hand cycle it for the next shot. Pull the top cover off and make sure both hammer spring legs are sitting properly atop the trigger bars. There is a good chance that during shipping, the R/H leg got jarred over toward the center of the gun and is sitting directly behind the disconector. Tony Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tjschul 0 Posted October 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 I would say your trigger is not resetting (moving foward when you release it) after your first shot. It will reset when you hand cycle it for the next shot. Pull the top cover off and make sure both hammer spring legs are sitting properly atop the trigger bars. There is a good chance that during shipping, the R/H leg got jarred over toward the center of the gun and is sitting directly behind the disconector. Tony BINGO! You guys are good. The R/H spring leg (end) was indeed sitting behind the disconnector and was keeping the disconector from moving freely. It wasn't that way when I put it in during conversion work. I noticed that it easily slipped back out of place with just a little nudge. I ended up having to bend the spring leg outboard to keep it from dislodging. Is this a "Saiga thing"? Never had a hammer spring leg "jump" out of place on any of my AK's. Looks like the bolt hold open device might tend to move the spring leg in that direction. Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
darick 0 Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Did bending the hammer spring work? I'm having the same problem with my saiga 12 where the bolt hold open device might be pushing the r/h hammer spring leg off the trigger.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tjschul 0 Posted October 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Did bending the hammer spring work? I'm having the same problem with my saiga 12 where the bolt hold open device might be pushing the r/h hammer spring leg off the trigger.. Yup, Tweeking the spring worked fine. Bent the spring (being careful not to "unwind" it) so that it now pushes out toward the BHO device, and also so that the second 90* bend from the end is lower than the trigger bar. Fired about 50 rounds today without a problem. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
darick 0 Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 oh cool! i just bent my right spring leg and now it stays put =) now just to wait for someone to tell us that's not what we're supposed to do just kidding.. i hope.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 Thats EXACTLY what you are supposed to do! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tjschul 0 Posted October 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 Thats EXACTLY what you are supposed to do! Still not sure why this seems fairly common on the Saiga. Never seen this problem before and own a few AK's (various polish, bulgarian, hungarian), none of my AK friends have either. Must be the bolt hold open device on these guns. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunnysmith 4 Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 Replacing the Saiga hammer spring presents a problem as noted below. It's the short hammer spring leg on a Saiga for the BHO that must be noted by the person doing the conversion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tjschul 0 Posted October 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) Replacing the Saiga hammer spring presents a problem as noted below.It's the short hammer spring leg on a Saiga for the BHO that must be noted by the person doing the conversion. Thank you , valuable info in those pics. I didn't notice the difference before. I was having trouble with the stock (shorter leg) spring doing what you show the (standard) AK spring doing however. Looks like one more saiga specific spare part I'll need now though. Edited October 23, 2008 by tjschul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.