Saiga-12 crimped loads in magazine

[good things 0]

New guy here.

I am thinking about a Saiga-12, 22" for home protection and hunting.

I've heard good things about them, especially reliability, which is very high on my desirability meter.

I'have heard though that if the shells are loaded into the well and left there for a day or so, then the shell will crimp on the end and not load into the barrel/cahmber.

Also the shells will crimp if just left in the magazine???

ISITSO???

Has anyone had this problem?

If so, any solution?

Thanx

[Gaddis 1,689]

For "crimp" I assume you mean a little flat area that develops on the top of the first shell (caused by it constantly pressing against the bottom of the bolt), right? Yes, I have seen this flat area develop with mine (after leaving the mag loaded for over two weeks), but never seemed to suffer any reliability problems because of it. I think the Saiga-12's chamber is cut generous enough plus the strong recoil spring seems to negate this.

[Tokarev 0]

I had mine loaded with S&B 3" mag loads and left it that way for about a month. I did notice some squashing on the first shell in the magazine but didn't think too much about it. After a time, I decided to try to chamber the first shell only to find that the shell was squashed so much it wouldn't feed.

 

I have since replaced the S&B buckshot with some Russian steel cased shells. These haven't deformed at all but I can only seat the magazine with the bolt closed if I load with four shells. That's not too big a deal to me and I'm happy to have the gun by the bed again.

[Gaddis 1,689]

Hmm, maybe the 3" shells are more sensitive to this happening than the 2-3/4" ones are? Looks like a test might be in order.