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Got my friends hooked on Saiga


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My buddy is on leave from the army right now and we both got ourselves Saiga-12's, his first one and my second. Local gunsmith had them at $585, which is a good price by current standards.

 

We got most conversion parts from CSS, but Greg was out of DIY trigger guards and we got that and a Tapco grip from MAA (who forgot to ship the grip). Luckily, I had a spare SAW grip, which I let him use. Removing the pins, Clinton Plate and the innards, as well as refinishing the bottom with DupliColor 500 Degree Engine Enamel, all went very straight-forward.

 

We did hit a snag when installing the Tromix Modified G2 FCG with Krebs retaining plate. The BHO spring was a bit tricky as always, but not too bad. We couldn't install the safety, because the tab that engages the trigger appeared to be too big. So, we filed that tab quite a bit until it fit. Only after that did we notice that the trigger didn't have its full range of motion and the disconnecter was catching the hammer when the trigger wasn't pulled. At that moment, nothing quite struck me as being out of place, but I grabbed my converted S12 and spotted the difference: his trigger didn't quite fit all the way through the trigger hole, restricting its motion. Some guy posted about running into the same problem just yesterday, but he was clever enough to ID the problem before butchering his safety lever, like we ended up doing. Any way, we filed a 1 mm or so of metal off the front of the trigger and it fit just fine. Unfortunately, the tab on the safety lever is kind of too short now. The safety does engage, but there's a shitload of slack. We are getting a replacement safety lever.

 

Ran into a second snag when installing the Chaos Extended Quad Rail. The rear sight leaf just wouldn't want to slide out, no matter how hard we smacked it with punch and hammer. We even tried heating it up with a blowtorch. Ended up just taking the dremel to it and cutting the shit out of it, until it just popped out. Now, the project is finished.

 

I mostly just told my buddy what to do and he did him himself, tho I did have to take over a few times, such as when installing the BHO, etc. He is very proud that he got to work on his own gun and seems to have the Saiga bug now, talking about converting an S308, 7.62x39, second S12 etc.

 

Parts:

 

  • Arsenal SGL-12
  • Tromix Modified G2 FCG
  • Tromix DIY Trigger Guard
  • Tapco Black SAW Grip
  • CAA Aluminum Stock Tube
  • Magpul CTR Stock
  • Tromix Bolt-on Charging Handle
  • MD Arms Gas Regulator
  • Russian Short Birdcage Flash Hider
  • Chaous Extended Quad Rail with HK Sights

 

 

Gun porn:

 

post-10789-0-64712600-1303408308_thumb.jpg post-10789-0-78314800-1303408314_thumb.jpg

 

post-10789-0-34625100-1303408321_thumb.jpg post-10789-0-32319100-1303408326_thumb.jpg

 

post-10789-0-18458700-1303408331_thumb.jpg post-10789-0-50672400-1303408336_thumb.jpg

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Looks nice.

 

I'm the one who had the same problem with the trigger yesterday...I was following the CSS video and they said wiggle the trigger, so I wiggled the trigger and found no movement. It's easy to miss if you haven't worked on these guns before.

 

Even fixed correctly, I had to grind quite a bit off my Krebs safety lever to get it to release in the Fire position.

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Looks nice.

 

I'm the one who had the same problem with the trigger yesterday...I was following the CSS video and they said wiggle the trigger, so I wiggled the trigger and found no movement. It's easy to miss if you haven't worked on these guns before.

 

Even fixed correctly, I had to grind quite a bit off my Krebs safety lever to get it to release in the Fire position.

 

I have Krebs enhanced safety on my rifles. I tried to install it on my S12 before and did need to shorten the tab too. Also, this safety left a big gap between itself and the receiver cover. That didn't look so nice to me and so, I went back to the stock safety.

 

By the way, I converted 3 Saigas before. I should have spotted the trigger thing, but I was tired and buzzed on beer.

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Looks nice.

 

I'm the one who had the same problem with the trigger yesterday...I was following the CSS video and they said wiggle the trigger, so I wiggled the trigger and found no movement. It's easy to miss if you haven't worked on these guns before.

 

Even fixed correctly, I had to grind quite a bit off my Krebs safety lever to get it to release in the Fire position.

 

I have Krebs enhanced safety on my rifles. I tried to install it on my S12 before and did need to shorten the tab too. Also, this safety left a big gap between itself and the receiver cover. That didn't look so nice to me and so, I went back to the stock safety.

 

By the way, I converted 3 Saigas before. I should have spotted the trigger thing, but I was tired and buzzed on beer.

 

My Krebs lever sits just far enough out to be a tad loose...it does not rub the receiver as tightly as the stock one. So far I'm liking it that way (easier on my paint job) and is tight enough not to move by accident...but it doesn't sit far enough out to affect the look at all.

 

 

 

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