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Bolt on LHG retainers


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It isn't the handguard retainer's outer rim that makes it not rock up and down. The locking bolt/cam and notch in the barrel is what holds it in place paralell to the barrel, and the side grooves are what keep it from rotating. It seems that your handguard itself is what is rocking up and down. The regular AKM wood handguards and most polymer ones, hug the barrel and that is what keeps them from rocking. The wood ones also have a set of tension springs embedded in the front on Soviet style ones. What lower handguard are you using that is rocking up and down? It could possibly be the retainer but also instead the handguard itself.

 

It's a K-Var lower handguard:

 

ak-022usg.jpg

 

As far as I can tell, the only thing that prevents it from rocking up is friction between the upper tabs and the lower handguard retainer.

Edited by GTwannabe
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Yes, it seems the front of that one has a different shape. But I have never held one in person. Do you have a picture of what the inside of it looks like? And a pic of the face of it?

 

Here are some photos of one of the retainers and a standard soviet type wood handguard. Don't mind the gunk, the thing's still in its cosmoline slumber and the retainer just emerged from its cosmoline slumber. :)

 

But anyways, as can be told by the pics, the handguard itself hugs the barrel, which keeps it from rocking up and down, as it has nowhere to go. the rear tab that sticks into the receiver keeps it from rotating or sliding side to side. The tension spring on the handguard pushes away against the inside of the retainer to push the handguard towards the receiver and hold it firmly. And then the retainer locks into the top notch to keep it sliding paralell to the barre, and locked into the side grooves to keep it rotating.

 

The face of the retainer and the handguard are normally the same size and dimensions, this particular one has a small chip missing on the top corner of its face as can be seen in the 3rd and 4th pictures. But you can see how the other side matches the retainer properly.

 

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Yes, it seems the front of that one has a different shape. But I have never held one in person. Do you have a picture of what the inside of it looks like? And a pic of the face of it?

 

Here are some photos of one of the retainers and a standard soviet type wood handguard. Don't mind the gunk, the thing's still in its cosmoline slumber and the retainer just emerged from its cosmoline slumber. :)

 

But anyways, as can be told by the pics, the handguard itself hugs the barrel, which keeps it from rocking up and down, as it has nowhere to go. the rear tab that sticks into the receiver keeps it from rotating or sliding side to side. The tension spring on the handguard pushes away against the inside of the retainer to push the handguard towards the receiver and hold it firmly. And then the retainer locks into the top notch to keep it sliding paralell to the barre, and locked into the side grooves to keep it rotating.

 

The face of the retainer and the handguard are normally the same size and dimensions, this particular one has a small chip missing on the top corner of its face as can be seen in the 3rd and 4th pictures. But you can see how the other side matches the retainer properly.

 

post-21696-12712202871216_thumb.jpg

post-21696-12712202951286_thumb.jpg

post-21696-12712203029415_thumb.jpg

post-21696-12712203126968_thumb.jpg

post-21696-12712203189575_thumb.jpg

post-21696-12712203249567_thumb.jpg

 

It looks like this:

 

968692.jpg

 

There is no barrel clip, just a heat shield.

Edited by GTwannabe
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  • 2 weeks later...

a li[/A little late to the game but, wouldnt dinzags retainer work better if instead of notching the barrel put a small dimple for the set set screw?sub]ttle late to the[optional][/optional]

 

It will work, yes. But in my opinion, a full horizontal notch with a cam lock and two interior side locking lugs, the same way the Soviets did it, is a lot more sturdy than a round clamp with a single set screw. Dinzag's retainer also costs a full $55 more than the one at CSS.

Edited by Klassy Kalashnikov
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  • 6 months later...
...heat it up so it doesn't snap.

 

Yea, I was thinking about that if I had to bend it a tad. I am hoping it will go right on though. All I have is the picure to look at right now. Seems like it will go right on. I think the hard part will be getting it to stay there, Lol.

 

I read some reviews of this, you do have to file a notch in the barrel which isn't really a problem to me. I would rather do that, actually, instead of worrying about tht thing coming off.

 

One review said this didn't fit a 7.62 barrel, so I don't know if he had some weird heavy barrel or it was a regular 7.62 one. Should go right on the 5.45 then, the other reviews didn't say what caliber their barrels were. Maybe they were not 7.62s?

 

I was going to just make my own but this aluminum one isn't that much more $ so 'eff it, I'll give it a try.

Edited by Kalashniklown
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The 5.45 and 7.62x39 Saigas have the same barrel diameter where the retainer goes in place. One thing I learned while selling my retainers was that some people tried them on .308s which has a much larger OD (I forget offhand but IIRC the standard is .569 and the .308 is somewhere in the .700-range) and commonly call the .308 a 7.62, so that may be why the retainer did not fit. One guy managed to modify one of mine to work on a .410 which was pretty cool.

 

However I have no experience with the other product listed above, and am not sure if it would work on that particular rifle or not.

Edited by Classy Kalashnikov
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Damn, +1 for Brownells. I ordered it one day and it came in the mail like 3 days later.

 

Alright, this thing is all aluminum + anodized. Very light but strong, you have to be completely retarded to break this. It will slide right onto the barrel, no problem. No heating or bending bullsh!t.

 

It has one alen-head crossbolt through it to clamp it on and YES YOU WILL HAVE TO GROOVE THE BARRREL a little with a dremel. Do it right and this thing ain't moving anywhere. Has the hole for the cleaning rod also.

 

 

The $23 I paid for this part is totally worth not doing the work of cutting &/or pressing the gasblock off. 'Eff that. The FSB was enough.

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Good luck with the gas tube, I had to modify all the gastubes I tried on mine. I couldn't get the factory one on again either after prying it off with a bar, without grinding it down some where it mates to the retaining cam thing.

 

I haven't got all the parts yet so I haven't used it but you'll probably want to replace the 8-32 threaded screw with a 8-32x1" stainless one because those treated steel ones are brittle and I don't trust it on a rifle. I also want to narrow the middle of it down so I don't have to groove into the barrel so far, and you really can't do that with the original screw - it'll break apart.

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Yea, it's aluminum but it's not brittle, it'll bend a bit if you need it to. I didn't realyl make mine bend when tightening it, you shouldn't need to. Just tighten it up snug and use lock-tite. If you just wrench it down as tight as you can you'll break a steel one even. I've seen it and I know other people here have done it too :blush:

 

 

 

http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?showtopic=60870

 

 

There's no steel nut that it goes into but what I did is got a slightly longer bolt (one inch) because the Brownells one is probably 7/8 or something. It leaves enough to put a nut on if you want but I haven't found it to be necessary (yet).

Edited by Kalashniklown
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Can anyone help a newbie out and explain how the gas tube stays in place when I add the new furniture? I understand that I'll need a retainer for the handguard, but what about the gas tube cover? Do I just need to buy a new gas tube and cover and not worry about it?

 

look for a video that shows how to field strip an AK. the gas tube is held in by a cam lock on the rear. You just flip the lever and the rear of the gas tube lifts out of the rear sight block. To put in one that is an AK one with upper handguard, you just put that one in and lock it in. Some filing may be required for the cam lock to close.

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Can anyone help a newbie out and explain how the gas tube stays in place when I add the new furniture? I understand that I'll need a retainer for the handguard, but what about the gas tube cover? Do I just need to buy a new gas tube and cover and not worry about it?

 

look for a video that shows how to field strip an AK. the gas tube is held in by a cam lock on the rear. You just flip the lever and the rear of the gas tube lifts out of the rear sight block. To put in one that is an AK one with upper handguard, you just put that one in and lock it in. Some filing may be required for the cam lock to close.

 

 

Thanks. I just wanted to be sure that I didn't need some kind of special part for a military gas tube like the military handguards.

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