learned a couple things converting my 7.62 today

[armedpacifist 0]

Okay, i converted my 7.62 sporter today. I do remodeling so I have an incredible amount of tools and that helped. Before starting i trolled these sights for a long time. This one in particular was helpful: http://www.cross-conn.com/Saiga_Conversion/Step_1.htm

 

1. Use a dremel with cutoff wheel to grind the rivets down flat on the trigger guard. Don't spend $25 or more on shipping on a new trigger guard when the one you already own will work great. I found that I didn't need to drill and bolt the end of the trigger guard that slides under the mag catch if I didn't do too much bending of the guard to get the hole to line up on the other side. If you leave it pretty much in the shape it's in and squeeze it over to bolt down the pistol grip side, there will be so much sprung pressure against the mag catch that you won't be able to move it around on that side anyways. So, there is some time saved.

 

2. Go to Ace Hardware. They will have hitch pins for retaining the FCG pins. They have 3/16" black plastic plugs that perfectly fill the holes. They look exactly like the rivet heads elsewhere on the gun. You can also get the low profile 8-32 screw, 1/4" long for the trigger guard. Oh, and don't worry about painting it or havign a screw head showing like I did. Your pistol grip will cover it up completely. Ace also has flat black spray paint for grills. It matches perfect and dries super fast. I spent 10 bucks on the paint and about 2 bucks on the other stuff.

 

3. Red loctite for the trigger guard screw, blue for the pistol grip screw.

 

4. If you have the tools, make your own bullet guide. I grabbed a scrap piece of gas pipe from the construction dumpster, it fit the conour of my round trunnion perfect. My first iteration was shaped right but too wide. It really only needs to be about 1/2' wide. Red loctite that in. Otherwise have it welded. Think hard before you just jb-weld it in place.

 

5. Don't buy a FCG already modified for you if you have a grinder and calipers. I wanted to retain my BHO, so I just put the old hammer on calipers, and ground the new one till it was the same width. No brainer. Just don't grind the wrong side!

 

6. You may have to modify the Pistol grip nut to get it to fit. I ordered mine from centerfire systems and the chinese one they sent was way too deep front-to-back as it sits in the reciever. Better to grind the nut than to grind your reciever, in my mind.

 

7. If you have one, use a self-centering drill bit to drill for your screws if you use the tapco folding stock I bought. push the stock in tight, drill, and know that the tightened screws will hold it in place exactly like you want it.

 

8. The tapco saw grip has a cutout space to fit around the trigger guard, but your factory trigger guard is wider than that by a scosche. grind the two sides of the grip to make it fit around it and when you mount it make sure the trigger guard sort of completes the contour of the grip, meaning the grip isn't sticking past the trigger guard into the space, or the other way around. looks cleaner, fells better.

 

9. Getting the BHO spring in place will be very very time consuming. One thing I found helpfull was to bend a little angle into the last 1/8" of the two legs of the spring. Otherwise the two points will dig into the bottom of the reciever as you try to press it down into place, making a tough careful operation that much harder. I tried the dental floss trick I saw on youtube but in the end, I just put all the FCG parts in place. I completely installed the hammer with hitch pin and all, then bent back the hammer spring and hooked it on the ears of the hammer ot get it out of the way. I dropped in the other two fcg parts (trigger and sear?) and started the retaining pin. I then pushed the BHO spring in behind the bho lever and was able to simply push the round wound up section down close enough to the retention pin hole in the reciever, so that I could snag it with a little pointy hook tool I have (hooking the spring through the hole on the outside of the reciever). While holding the spring down in place, I just pushed the pin on through. Hitch pin it, and you've done what I thought was the most difficult part.

 

I use tools every day and am generally a good problem solver. But, this was my first conversion and I have zero gunsmithing experience. If you have some basic tools and you really acquaint yourself with this process, you can do it too with confidence. I did the bullet guide first and tested it out before i moved on with the rest of the conversion. not smart as far as 922r compliance goes, but if i had done it all at once and had a problem, I would have had more trouble diagnosing the problem.