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Pistol grip or straight stock.


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I bought the stuff from South Carolina to convert my Saiga, and now one of my relatives is trying to convince me not to go through with it. He has left his Saiga in its original configuration, but he has added the necessary number of American parts in other places, so that he can use high capacity magazines. He hates pistol grips, believes they are clumsy and worthless for semi-automatic rifles, and is urging me to leave my rifle alone.

 

Why do military weapons designers like pistol grips?

 

For those of you who have converted your Saigas, have you noticed any drawbacks or improvements in handling characteristics?

 

Would you do it again?

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I bought the stuff from South Carolina to convert my Saiga, and now one of my relatives is trying to convince me not to go through with it. He has left his Saiga in its original configuration, but he has added the necessary number of American parts in other places, so that he can use high capacity magazines. He hates pistol grips, believes they are clumsy and worthless for semi-automatic rifles, and is urging me to leave my rifle alone.

 

Why do military weapons designers like pistol grips?

 

For those of you who have converted your Saigas, have you noticed any drawbacks or improvements in handling characteristics?

 

Would you do it again?

 

Besides the fact that the rifle handles faster and better, is better balanced, and has a better trigger, it is also a superior approach because it does not limit you to the crappy U.S.-made mags and a small selection of non-milspec parts that are made for those who are afraid to convert their Saigas.

 

I understand the reticence to take on the job of conversion, but it is not actually that difficult, and it opens up a lot of good possibilities for your weapon. You get to use parts and mags that are AK-tough and AK-reliable.

Edited by Jim Digriz
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I bought the stuff from South Carolina to convert my Saiga, and now one of my relatives is trying to convince me not to go through with it. He has left his Saiga in its original configuration, but he has added the necessary number of American parts in other places, so that he can use high capacity magazines. He hates pistol grips, believes they are clumsy and worthless for semi-automatic rifles, and is urging me to leave my rifle alone.

 

Why do military weapons designers like pistol grips?

 

For those of you who have converted your Saigas, have you noticed any drawbacks or improvements in handling characteristics?

 

Would you do it again?

 

Convert it, let the relative shoot it, then the next day help him convert his stock Saiga.:super:

Night and day difference between the two triggers.

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Restore, restore, restore. I take pride in knowing that my rifle is set up the way Mr. Kalashnikov intended. I would restore mine 10 times over. What Jim and geo have told you is absolutely right, you will not regret restoring your rifle. If you have a hand drill and a dremel, one afternoon is all it should take.

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As everyone else here has said, go for the restore. The stock trigger is absolutely terrible. There's so many parts involved that if something goes wrong, you'll have to mess around with all the parts and pieces. More work than it's worth. With the restored trigger mechanism, you have three parts. And that's it.

 

Compare those two. It's a no-brainer. :super:

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You have to restore it or you will never be happy, your stock Saiga is not what you thought it would be. The trigger is so bad you couldn't hit the side of a barn if you were inside the barn. Make it into something you didn't buy, make it an AK, just don't tell anyone you bought a Saiga. scarsam off. It's your gun, enjoy it and make it what you want, not what unknown people on a forum think you should have. Some of us whom don't know anything about guns like Saiga's / sport AK's and can even hit a target at 100 yards with a stock trigger,10 round magazines and no pistol grip.

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The only reason I can think of not to restore the gun would be if I lived in California.

 

A sporter Saiga is a great rifle for the money, but when you change the geometry back to AK style it becomes shorter, faster handling and easier to manipulate rifle.

For me a pistol grip makes for a better straight rearward trigger pull, while allowing easier manipulation of the safety lever and better leverage for holding the gun while changing mags, or working the action. You get all of these benefits with better, inexpensive mags and better trigger group.

If you restore it, it seems like a completely different rifle. In a good way.

 

Downside is that it may look more scary to anti-gun people :victory:

 

:2c:

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He gets three inch groups with his unconverted Saiga. Mine aren't that good; I'm about twice that. He swears that the straight stock is faster, but it sounds like you guys feel differently. Anti-gun people and the difficulty of the process are not issues. He just really swears that a traditional AK with a pistol grip doesn't handle as well, does not point and swing as well as the unconverted Saiga, that the body geometry created by a pistol grip is inherently inferior to the geometry created by a straight stock, and that controlling full auto fire is the only justification for all the drawbacks of pistol grips. I've spent a hundred dollars on a parts kit so that I can use AK mags, and I'm pretty determined to do it. The only problem is that I was going to ask him for his help. He has the tools and expertise to make the job a whole hell of a lot easier. I just don't want to regret it and feel stupid because my uncle tried to warn me that I wasn't going to like the result.

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He gets three inch groups with his unconverted Saiga. Mine aren't that good; I'm about twice that. He swears that the straight stock is faster, but it sounds like you guys feel differently. Anti-gun people and the difficulty of the process are not issues. He just really swears that a traditional AK with a pistol grip doesn't handle as well, does not point and swing as well as the unconverted Saiga, that the body geometry created by a pistol grip is inherently inferior to the geometry created by a straight stock, and that controlling full auto fire is the only justification for all the drawbacks of pistol grips. I've spent a hundred dollars on a parts kit so that I can use AK mags, and I'm pretty determined to do it. The only problem is that I was going to ask him for his help. He has the tools and expertise to make the job a whole hell of a lot easier. I just don't want to regret it and feel stupid because my uncle tried to warn me that I wasn't going to like the result.

 

Try to find some one in your area that has a converted Sagia or an actual AK and shoot and handle that first if your not sure. You can always go back to stock set up after if your not happy with it converted, but then you have all those parts and won't get but pennies on the dollar if you don't use them. The tools needed to convert are tools you can use for many other things at home, so even if you buy the tools needed, it is money well spent.

 

If you can't shoot good enough with a stock Saiga to do what it was designed for, I would say your wasting time and money converting. Just buy something you can shoot good enough for what you want to do, unless it's just for looks or shit's and giggles

 

For me, I'm not crazy about the look of stock AK's so it wasn't even a choice. The Saiga gives you the reliability and the rapid fire of an AK if you need it and for the cost of a couple mag's and a gas piston I'm good to go with 20/30 round mags. I don't need that many mags so the cost wasn't that bad.

Edited by ekim
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He gets three inch groups with his unconverted Saiga. Mine aren't that good; I'm about twice that. He swears that the straight stock is faster, but it sounds like you guys feel differently. Anti-gun people and the difficulty of the process are not issues. He just really swears that a traditional AK with a pistol grip doesn't handle as well, does not point and swing as well as the unconverted Saiga, that the body geometry created by a pistol grip is inherently inferior to the geometry created by a straight stock, and that controlling full auto fire is the only justification for all the drawbacks of pistol grips. I've spent a hundred dollars on a parts kit so that I can use AK mags, and I'm pretty determined to do it. The only problem is that I was going to ask him for his help. He has the tools and expertise to make the job a whole hell of a lot easier. I just don't want to regret it and feel stupid because my uncle tried to warn me that I wasn't going to like the result.

 

If you restore the gun and don't like the results, you can always sell it for for what you have invested (maybe more.)

I hesitated on my first restoration. After the first one, I've restored six rifles, most of them without doing a functional check on the stock weapon and have had zero problems.

The last 7.62 I restored was taken to the range and test fired unconverted. The trigger felt like crap compared to a USA trigger group.

Restore the weapon and you will not regret it.

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this really shouldnt even be a debate. Its a no brainer.

 

I was on the fence for about 2 weeks. I then read about the restorations here and it pushed me into it. Now I know how to detail strip the gun. I would've never learned how had I not restored :super:

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