shot my new saiga12 today.

[German Brat 3]

Went to the range with oobuckshot and game load. The saiga shot the buck perfect on both settings. On the game load it never cycled a round on either gas setting. Last week I ordered the tac47 auto gas plug and the MD stainless piston from the saiga12 store. I also ordered the booster piston from MD. I hope that solves the game load shot problem. I loved the way it shot it took its spot as my favorite gun in my safe. I have a promag 20 round drum that worked well. No jams with the buckshot, I also ordered 2 MD 20 round drums just waiting for those to come in as well. Since my gun now has 60 shots through it should I install the booster or stainless piston when it gets here. I also blew up the cheap plastic screw on break at the end. That post didn't even make it through ten shots. My friend got it on video through his phone. Well guys I am a very satisfied saiga owner.

 

I meant posnot post on my post. Auto correct is a fail sometimes.

[YOT 3,743]

You really need to do a bunch of reading before buying a lot of parts that aren't going to solve your problem. Start with the stickies in this section.

[German Brat 3]

I read them. The port holes are different in every gun there are 2,3 and 4 people bore them differently. I am also going to polish the bolt carrier and bolt. Others have hammer issues from what I read there are a lot of things that are different and work on different guns. My gas tube might not be the right size. Heck there might be some Russians finger nail in there. I also could write lone star a check and send my gun. I think spending 77 dollars for parts is cheap after I spent 800 on gun and 387 on drums. So the lil parts aren't much and the effect on game load can't get worse since I do believe it is under gassed and the light shells only kicked the bolt halfway back. At least I can try the booster puck on stock plug and if that doesn't work then I will read a lot of stickies and I feel I already have. When I do go out and shoot next the bolt carrier and bolt will be polished and that might solve itself. I doubt it though.Not really concerned about it cause the 1100 is the bird killer and the buckshot will be ran through this,just would like it to fire both. Thanks for the advice though.

[gunfun 3,931]

I can promise you that if it wouldn't run a single round correctly, the booster won't be enough boost. Those things will give a slight boost to guns that run aprox 95/100 shells correctly, but not 0/100. The commercial builders don't all do it exactly the same, but to my knowlege, all of them are within a range: 4 ports at .078" -4 @.093" This isn't something there is disagreement on. what exact size they settle on within that range, and the shape of other profiling they do varies.

 

You can experiment with doing the things that have been shown over and over to not work most of the time, or systematically address the 3 things that solve the problem every time they are tried. 1) Just slick up the rails. 2) get your ports to at least 4 unobstructed ports @.078"+ 3) if desired, re-profile then bolt, carrier and hammer. You may choose to do #2 after #3. That is about as far as the real variances between successful methods go. Some just pick a port size and drill, others work up gradually. It's what it will take to get your gun running. The only real question is how much money and frustration and ammo you waste before you settle on dealing with the real problem.

 

I am not trying to be bombastic and tell you that my way is the only way because I say so. The problem is that those are the only steps that really help.

[German Brat 3]

I appreciate the info gun fun. I know I am new to this but I did some homework, will do 1&3 before I start getting bore hole crazy. I have no problem wasting 2 3/4 ammo anyways since I think that is what I and this gun can do very well. I also had to order the puck to be 922r compliant, still will not until the brake gets shipped too. Being a realist is not bombtastic and I just hope 1 and 3 work, if not I will have to get the micrometer out. I like tinkering with things so this will definately be a fun adventure and will update the progress as I go.

[German Brat 3]

Just read your sign. You are a library within a post and are very helpful. Thanks for posting on my topic. You could have just wrote blah and I would have gathered a lot of info.

[gunfun 3,931]

No prob. Lately I feel like I have been sounding like a know it all. There has been a wave of new guys lately for some reason, so all the old mistakes come up and get shared around. I just want to head some of those off and save people some expensive hassles.

 

You'll get there and have fun doing it. By the time you are done, you will have a rock solid reliable gun that can only really be rivaled by the MKA 1919. You are in an elite club of the few using a shotgun based on 1950s tech instead of 1890s tech! Most people probably will never know how good a shotgun can be.

[YOT 3,743]

There has been a wave of new guys lately for some reason, so all the old mistakes come up and get shared around. I just want to head some of those off and save people some expensive hassles.

 

You'll get there and have fun doing it.

I always find it somewhat amusing that the newbies come in and ask how to fix a problem and then don't want to take advice, do it their own way instead, then eventually go back and do things the suggested way.

[Big John! 2,062]

There has been a wave of new guys lately for some reason, so all the old mistakes come up and get shared around. I just want to head some of those off and save people some expensive hassles.

 

You'll get there and have fun doing it.

I always find it somewhat amusing that the newbies come in and ask how to fix a problem and then don't want to take advice, do it their own way instead, then eventually go back and do things the suggested way.

While I totally agree. Not everyone has the stomach for working on guns for the obvious reasons. Gunfun (and others) have given some great advice lately. Don't throw money at it. Follow what has been proven to work and you'll be enjoying your gun much sooner than those that don't listen. This is a VERY easy gun to work on. This advice comes straight from a guy who had to grow some testicles and just fix the damn thing... Me!

Run the gun stock until 100%

Make one change at a time so you know what works and what didn't or made things worse.

Smooth rails.

Smooth hammer.

Make SURE ports are unobstructed. Open if necessary.

[gunfun 3,931]

That was a very succinct summary of what needs done.

[Molotov Cocktail 9]

Polishing your internals costs you nothing, if it doesnt solve your problems then you'll still have a smoother running gun. A gas plug is $25, a puck $20 so I'm unsure why everyone keeps talking about spending all this money. Thats not a lot of money regardless of whether your issues are solved or not. I enlarged my ports but I still run a gas plug and MD puck. I like the variability of the multiple settings....

[nucjd 6]

For me ( once making sure I had 4 open ports ) was polishing with sand paper. Just hopped on GunFun's signature link and verified where to polish and sat down and started working. It would have gone a lot faster with my dremel tool but just gave me more time with the internals and increased my knowledge base and experience. That being said, did pick up the CSS reliability kit mainly for mdarms plug. I am now running stock spring, puck and the mdarms plug eating all loads I can get my hands on. I have been thoroughly impressed with the knowledge and willingness to help on this board.

 

also question to you guys with experience. I was noticing that my action as MUCH smoother with the dust cover off and then with it on I had friction points that were very obvious. Is this common for you guys and can this be an issue for cycling or will the dust cover loosen up over time?

[tradingdummy 3]

Here is my saga of my Saiga. When I first got the gun, I had no problem doing drum dumps with 2-3/4, 1250, 7-1/2 shot 1-1/8 ounce Winchesters. At this point I had less than 100 rounds through the gun. Then I added the pistol grip, Magpul adjustable stock, and vertical fore grip. Well, my Saiga didn’t like it. It would not cycle properly with the same ammo, or higher velocity ammo. Hip firing was out of the question. Then I added part of the CCS reliability kit (the puck and plug) and didn’t notice much difference. Then I added the spring that came with the kit, and saw some improvement. Next, and by far the best thing I have done, was take 400 grit sandpaper to the internals. Now I have no issues cycling target loads, and can finally do drum dumps from the hip. Moral of my story, start with some sandpaper. FYI, I have 2 visible gas ports, and can take a dental pick and find the other 2, they are slightly blocked. Good luck, and this is part of the fun in my opinion.

[TheJoe90 27]

Here is my saga of my Saiga. When I first got the gun, I had no problem doing drum dumps with 2-3/4, 1250, 7-1/2 shot 1-1/8 ounce Winchesters. At this point I had less than 100 rounds through the gun. Then I added the pistol grip, Magpul adjustable stock, and vertical fore grip. Well, my Saiga didn’t like it. It would not cycle properly with the same ammo, or higher velocity ammo. Hip firing was out of the question. Then I added part of the CCS reliability kit (the puck and plug) and didn’t notice much difference. Then I added the spring that came with the kit, and saw some improvement. Next, and by far the best thing I have done, was take 400 grit sandpaper to the internals. Now I have no issues cycling target loads, and can finally do drum dumps from the hip. Moral of my story, start with some sandpaper. FYI, I have 2 visible gas ports, and can take a dental pick and find the other 2, they are slightly blocked. Good luck, and this is part of the fun in my opinion.

 

 

You should re-profile your hammer and go back to the stock spring.

 

The hammer you got when you converted is a higher profile, so re-profile it.

 

OR, if you have added other american made parts, you can go back to your original hammer.

 

The other possible issue is your fore-grip may be causing issues. I would never accept a weaker spring as being ok in my shotgun. My humble opinion.