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Failure to Feed modifications


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Well guys, I have been a long time lurker and posted very little. I have however, learned an unbelievable amount of information from the site. Many thanks to those of you responsible for putting this together...you are also the reason that I had to buy one of these beasts. They are an awesome piece of firepower that we need to make sure is available for future sportsmen! Please do what you can to keep the importation alive!

 

Anyway, I ignored the advice and purchased a brand new Saiga 12 with 19" barrel. I proceeded to add as many mandatory conversion parts to the gun as I could, as well as all of the tactical items that a guy could want. I made all of the modifications one could think of BEFORE ever firing the gun - BIG mistake! I say that this is a mistake is for the following reasons:

 

1) Once modified you will play hell claiming any failure-to-eject (FTE) issues as warranty issues.

2) I had no benchmark as to how the new gun cycled to compare the FTE situation to later.

3) If you decide to modify your gun, in my opinion the best method to do this is make sure that you have a reliable gun to start with, and then make your modifications one at a time to validate how each mod effects the firearm's reliability.

 

Once I made all of the modifications, I took the gun out for a test drive. The result was that the gun failed to cycle completely and after 25 rounds, none of them ejected! The next step was to head home and see what the problem was.

 

As a side note, I had already sent my bolt and G2 trigger assemblies off to Pauly for his polish work, which I must say is incredible. I suggest that everyone send theirs to him and help him build his business - you will not be disappointed! He even sent me three port gauges back with the parts to check my factory port sizes and be sure that they are not blocked by the gas block.

 

Upon doing a little research, I realized that when I ordered the twister puck combo kit from Carolina Shooters Supply, that I had been attempting to shoot Wally-world bulk ammo with the magnum twister puck installed. Don't ask how I made that mistake, but regardless I did. I assured myself that this could not be the only gas issue so I pulled the gauges out that Pauly sent to me. I took the smallest gauge (.071") and attempted to insert it into the ports through the gas tube opening. Just as I suspected, two of the three were clear and one was partially blocked. After reading the forum for a while I decided that the factory porting could not be good and decided it was time to attempt to tackle the port resizing that I have read so much about. The first thing that I needed to do was think my way through the job and consider what I would need. While I had a bench vice mounted to my workbench, I did not have any jaw protection on it. I also needed some various sized punches and some other items. After thinking for a while the following list was developed:

 

1) Set of various sized punches

2) Can of PB blast

3) Soft jaw covers for my 4" vise - I found them to have nylon ones with magnets to attach to the vise and cutouts for gripping various types of material

4) Dremel rotary buffing disk and mandrel - Similar to green scratch pads

5) Green scratch pads

6) Fine sand paper

7) Two cobalt 3/32" (.09375") drill bits

8) 2" x 2" x 36" chunk of red oak (amazingly only $7.50)

9) Roll of blue painters tape

 

As a side note, all of these items were available at my local Lowes store. Once I got home I drilled a hole in the work bench so that I had something to drive the gas block pins down into. I then centered each of the two pins over this hole and drove them out with a dead blow hammer and the appropriate sized punch. Keep in mind that the gas plug detent and spring are going to want to come out once the retaining pin is driven out.

 

Next, I put the vise jaws on the vise and clamped the barrel into the vise with the gas block facing away from me. Also, the bottom side of the receiver was facing up. I cut the piece of oak in half length-wise so that if one got ruined, I would have another one. I wrapped the barrel on the muzzle side of the gas block with some of the blue painters tape. With the gun secured upside down in the vice, I put the oak piece up against the gas block and tapped it with a framing hammer. Amaziningly this thing slid right off. I took the gas block completely off and inspected the barrel. As I suspected, one of the ports was semi-blocked and all three of them were very small.

 

I put one of the 3/32" drill bits into my cordless drill and sprayed some WD-40 onto the ports and began to drill them one-by-one. I noticed that the enlarged gas ports were going to need buffed down around the edges because the drill bit raised the metal around the holes. I buffed this area down with the green scratch pads. Once this was done, I cleaned the bore and inspected it. As I suspected, I had a couple of shavings protruding into the barrel. I decided to take my shotgun cleaning kit and put fine sand-paper into it. I inserted it into the barrel and carefully sanded the burrs down to nothing; once this was done I cleaned the bore again. I then took a look at the carbon deposit ring on the barrel to see what I had left. I then realized that the gas block port that coincides with the barrel ports would need to be opened up to allow maximum gas passage. I opened this with a slim dremmel side cutter and rotary stone.

 

I then took the gas block and de-burred the entire thing where the machining work was performed, I them ran the dremmel buffing disc through the center of the gas block to clean it up a bit. Now it was time to reinstall the gas block, which was very simple. Since I had buffed the inside diameter, the block slid on the barrel and I was able to slide it into position by hand. I had to wiggle it a bit, but it went on well. I reinstalled the pins, while correcting the turning of the block back to top dead center. Finally I worked the pins back into position and inspected for issues. With none seen, I reassembled the unit.

 

I then reassembled the gun and she is now ready for the range again, I will update a range report when I get to shoot this baby!

 

 

Edited by Squid 44883
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Update ... the barrel porting is a huge improvement! Prior to porting, the gun failed to eject every one of the Federal Bulk Wally World ammo. After porting the barrel, it failed to eject about 1 of 12 through 140 rounds. I am getting close to a 100%'er. I just received the reduced compression spring from Carolina Shooters today. This should be the last modification needed to get it there. I will be test firing with this spring installed again on Thursday. Another range report to follow tomorrow ... :osama::killer:

 

 

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Is this a common need to do type of thing. I just got my Kvar S12 and it ran almost flawless with setting 1 using a box(25 rounds) of #4 buck. I had one hiccup with cheapo birdshot on setting 2. The next outing with V plug installed, it wouldnt cycle the high brass buck and slugs on setting 1 or 2. Setting 3 was fine for the high brass. It ran the cheap stuff on setting 5 but not on 4. Has 150 rounds thru it so far and has run 100% on the settings stated. Does this seem ok, or should i fiddle with it? Did I just get lucky, or was i not unlucky?

 

On a side not, just took delivery of my RandR targets tactical gun. Haven't shot it yet but dont anticipate problems with that gun

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Well, being that this is my first Saiga, I can only say that I have read that some are reliable out of the box and some are not. Mine was nowhere near reliable, but now it is almost there. I plan on doing a final test soon with the decreased power recoil spring now installed. I anticipate a 100% reliable gun. It sounds like you were fortunate to get a 100%'er out of the box. Good deal for you! Enjoy it.

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Is this a common need to do type of thing. I just got my Kvar S12 and it ran almost flawless with setting 1 using a box(25 rounds) of #4 buck. I had one hiccup with cheapo birdshot on setting 2. The next outing with V plug installed, it wouldnt cycle the high brass buck and slugs on setting 1 or 2. Setting 3 was fine for the high brass. It ran the cheap stuff on setting 5 but not on 4. Has 150 rounds thru it so far and has run 100% on the settings stated. Does this seem ok, or should i fiddle with it? Did I just get lucky, or was i not unlucky?

 

On a side not, just took delivery of my RandR targets tactical gun. Haven't shot it yet but dont anticipate problems with that gun

 

Well, took out my RandR targets tactical gun sat and sun. Works great on high brass. Not so great on the cheap federal remington or winchester. Had about 15% FTE with all low brass on setting 2. Have 150 rounds thru it now. I ordered a KA puck, MD V-plug and if those dont make it 100% reliable i also ordered a reduced power recoil spring. Think this should iron out the kinks. It has 4 ports and all are clear so thats not the problem

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  • 2 weeks later...

I learned something as well this week, and wanted to share it somewhere on here... since this is a recent post it seems like as good a spot as any. So when I was polishing up my internals, trying to get my Vodka special to run, I inadvertently ground too much of the protrusion from the bolt head that pushes the next shell out of the magazine and into the chamber. WEll this causes the lip of the shell to sometimes get underneath the extractor and jam up on it's way IN. I'm mailing it off to Cobra today so he can weld a bit more back on and shape it to correct tolerances for me. I've been trying to figure out what was happening here for months, and after examining it enough and comparing to a buddy's gun... it's that simple.

 

So my advice, Start by shaping/polishing the parts of the bolt/carrier and hammer that touch each other, and don't bother with the parts that don't. If you follow the advice of the big guys on here like Cobra, Tromix, MikeD you'll be fine. And don't bother with cheapie Winchester, grab the Federal bulk packs

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  • 1 year later...

I learned something as well this week, and wanted to share it somewhere on here... since this is a recent post it seems like as good a spot as any. So when I was polishing up my internals, trying to get my Vodka special to run, I inadvertently ground too much of the protrusion from the bolt head that pushes the next shell out of the magazine and into the chamber. WEll this causes the lip of the shell to sometimes get underneath the extractor and jam up on it's way IN. I'm mailing it off to Cobra today so he can weld a bit more back on and shape it to correct tolerances for me. I've been trying to figure out what was happening here for months, and after examining it enough and comparing to a buddy's gun... it's that simple.

 

So my advice, Start by shaping/polishing the parts of the bolt/carrier and hammer that touch each other, and don't bother with the parts that don't. If you follow the advice of the big guys on here like Cobra, Tromix, MikeD you'll be fine. And don't bother with cheapie Winchester, grab the Federal bulk packs

 

 

I am looking for the post that shows what needs to be rounded and polished on the s12 carrier, any ideas i cannot find it

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