New Converted Saiga Owner (a few questions)

[ridgerunner47 0]

Hello I recently acquired a converted Saiga .223, and I am very happy with it. I have been reading this forum for a few days trying to learn more about the rifle and the different options I have for setting it up. This is an awesome resource and any input is appreciated.

 

First it does not have a a bullet guide installed. From what I have gathered, the general consensus is to install a bullet guide and run Galil Orlite mags or Bulgarian Circle 10's in the .223 . I have two questions about this. 1) The price for the Galil Orlite or Bulgarian mags are about the same price as the Surefire mags. Are they that much better to justify installing the bullet guide? 2) I have seen some very good posts on removing the interdiction tab in the Saiga magwell to run Bulgarian mags. If I make this modification to the the magwell (after installing the bullet guide) will other mags (Tapco, Galil Orlite, Modified Surefires etc) still run reliably?

 

Second, the rifle I bought had a Tapco folding stock. I like the traditional style AK buttstock more. Will the KVAR stock like the ones sold as CSS and Dinzag's work ?

 

Any input is appreciated!

[DFM56 1]

The k-var stock will work if your trunnion still has the tang intact. I don't know of any tapco stocks that require the removal of the tang, so you should be all set.

 

As far as the mags go, I've heard that the circle-10s are the best you can get for .223 mags. I have a few in the mail from midway along with a dinzag bullet guide. The bullet guide won't be hard for me to install since I can use the bridgeport at work, so I'm going with the circle-10 mags just for the hell of it, really . I'm sure someone with more (or, you know, any) experience with the surefires and circle-10s will be able to tell you more.

 

 

[L5K 162]

Welcome to the forum.

 

I don't know for certain about the .223, but for my 5.45, and any other AK, I always run foreign military surplus magazines. The difference is in the construction of the magazines. US made ones, and aftermarket magazines are all plastic. Including the feed lips and locking lugs. The feed lips can break and plastic locking lugs can break. This is my experience with 5.45 and 7.62 AK magazines, and I'm not sure what the options for 5.56 are.

 

As far as the stock goes, yes that will work fine. Any stock designed for a fixed stock (stamped) AK will work. When I say stamped AK I mean pretty much any AK. Milled receiver AK's are more rare, and parts for them are as well. You cannot go wrong with the K-Var stock though. It's exactly like the original polymer stocks, but US made.

[PFerris 76]

I converted my 223 all except the bullet guide, I am just running surefire mags and they run great. Seems this mag thing with the 223's is an issue, not like the 7.62's which will run any military mags after you install a bullet guide. Choices!!

[DrThunder88 912]

Tapco Galil magazines will work with a BG too. The all-plastic caveat applies, of course, but someone here (bohound I think) says they work great in her rifle and my experience seems to agree. I've had limited success running steel Galil 35-round mags in my rifle. The specimens I have are in pretty uniformly bad condition, so it could be a function of being out of spec.

Edited March 3, 2011 by DrThunder88

[ridgerunner47 0]

Thanks for the responses. I am leaning towards bullet guide + Galil or Bulgarian mags.

[marsofold 6]

I have five Surefire mags and a Renegadebuck adapter/nine Fusil AR15 magazines. No bullet guide installed yet, although I do have a bunch of Weiger mags(three modified to fit) and a bunch of Galil mags, (in case I ever do get around to putting my Dinzag bullet guide in).

[vulcan16 971]

Thanks for the responses. I am leaning towards bullet guide + Galil or Bulgarian mags.

 

Surefires for both my 223's. No bullet guide needed and they count towards three 922 compliant parts. This leaves me more options on what type of furniture I can use.