Bolt lock necessary for converted S308?

[eich22 0]

According to the owner's manual that comes with an unconverted saiga 308, part #58 is the "bolt lock". It's the part inside the receiver to the right of the hammer and spring that also protrudes out of the lower part of the receiver just in front of the trigger and trigger guard. After you convert your saiga to be 922r compliant, is it necessary to put this part back into the receiver? I put it back into my gun however I've noticed in pictures of other's converted saiga 308s that some have put them back in and some have not. I don't understand why this is? Can someone explain this?

[theorangeplanet 968]

You don't have to... not putting it back in won't adversely affect anything. They've been known to come loose from their spring occasionally, so many people remove them to ensure reliability. Some people also find its in a bad spot when you move the trigger up. Either way, its up to your preferences. If it starts aggravating you, just take the sucker out.

[eich22 0]

The main reason why I was interested in this was because my gun has been having failure to feed issues. I wasn't sure if maybe this could be the culprit and once I realized other people have converted their gun and elected not to put it the bolt lock back in I was curious to see if I took it out if this might correct my issue. Are there any advantages to leaving it in?

[VR762Shooter 838]

Are there any advantages to leaving it in?

 

You can lock the bolt open....... pretty much the only reason to have it

[ColoradoKLR650 4]

As far as I know, the bolt hold open lever shouldn't interfere with the action unless it has been installed incorrectly.

 

Study the movement of the action by viewing it from the magazine well as you manipulate it (with no magazine in or rounds nearby, obviously). Is the action getting caught up anywhere? Look especially at the bolt returning to lockup against the barrel, that is of course how it looks when feeding a round. Now remove the dust cover and manipulate the action again this time without the recoil spring's tension...anything different? Being very careful and only in a safe area, pay attention to how it feels to charge the weapon without a round...then do the same while actually chambering a round (make sure you have at least 2 rounds in the mag to simulate actual loaded mag conditions, a full mag would be better). Anything different? These things may give you some ideas of what's going wrong.

 

This is also something to look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdkXS9pMyNI

It'll also give you some places to look at for binding/friction of the bolt carrier against the receiver, which along with any bolt friction/binding may be causing your failure to feed.

[TxAgSaiga1979 16]

Putting it back in is quite a pain; thats why a lot of people leave it out. Its especially frustrating if you do like I did, and put the entire rifle back together and realize you forgot to install the safety select lever before putting in the trigger and hammer pins lol.

 

I used the floss method, and honestly if you have some extra hands and some narrow pliers and your helper is sharp, its not that big a deal. More an inconvenience than anything else. I put it back in because I actually like the functionality, and having the BHO installed makes the conversion less of a chop-job, which if I go to sell it ends up adding value.

[gunman1 1,753]

After the 10th time it's a breeze

[SaigaGuy453 6]

Maybe I'm lucky but it couldn't have taken longer than 3 minutes putting it in using a flathead screwdriver and needle nosed pliers.

[gunman1 1,753]

Maybe I'm lucky but it couldn't have taken longer than 3 minutes putting it in using a flathead screwdriver and needle nosed pliers.

I use a "hooked" pick, and a bit of common sense

I was intimidated with my first conversion due to all of bad press I read about it on here so I didn't install it. I figured a couple of things out as I was doing my 308, turned out that the BHO scare is just a boogyman