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Muzzle brake thread and install


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Well, we (my FFL/Gunsmith buddy and I) did the deed yesterday.  I was pretty much done with my conversion but wanted to do something about the nekidd muzzle.  I am happy enough with the factory hand guards and did not want to mess with cutting off the and replacing the front sight.  I had ordered  a 14MM left hand die, die guide, and muzzle brake from somebody (can’t recall right now) but it might have been Dinzig or CSS.  Anyway, we marked an annular ring 5/8” back on the shroud of the Saiga front sight with a small tubing cutter.  Then we cut around that line (turning the gun in the vice several times) with a good hacksaw until almost all the way through the shroud and with a few taps on a small punch, sheared it off with no damage to the barrel.  We need not have been so careful, and I will explain that later. 

 

Once we had the shroud off we measured the barrel OD.  It was .563-.565, pretty close to 14mm (.551).  I should mention that I did the “shoe shine” thing with a strip of sanding cloth on the exposed barrel until it was very smooth and shiny.  We decided to try the die and opened it up a little with its’ set screw until it still fit in the die handle.  Measuring the before and after OD of the die we were able to easily spring it open .007 which probably helped later.  Inserting the guide in the die and in the barrel I started the die on the barrel and like any good, new, sharp die, it began threading immediately.  I had to back off very often to "break the chip" but could tell it was going fine.  I completed cutting the threads without incident even on the slightly large barrel.  This die had a tapper cut on both sides and therefore I could not use my trick of turning the die around to cut the threads closer to the shroud.  Instead, and this is where the not worrying about cutting into the barrel as mention above comes in, we ended up filing a little relief at the end of the threads next to the shroud. 

 

Had we cut a little bit into the barrel when removing the shroud we would have no need to file the relief in later.  Once we had a little relief cut into the barrel, the muzzle brake threaded on by hand to about 180 degrees shy.  I stuck a rod through the brake and completed turning it till the top ports were TDC.  The brake now will not come off in use although it is a little shy of being “tight” against the cut shoulder of the shroud.  It is a very small amount and I have not yet decided what, if anything, to do about it.  My options are some kind of peel washer (are 14mm peel washers available?), or maybe just dabbing in some coal-black epoxy to fill the crack.  I will shoot it a while and see.

 

To sum, the shroud cutting was damn tedious, but the thread cutting was easy and uneventful.  I probably did not save any money saving the front sight and buying the 14mm die over just cutting the sight off and going with a new, threaded FSB but I got what I wanted and it looks good.  That bare muzzle was bothering me.  I will try and post some pics of the completed conversion soon. 

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  • 3 months later...

Aaah now you still have the thread cutting tools. I faced the same decision about threading the barrel or switching the FSB. Well after threading 3 Saiga muzzles I can say the tools have paid for themselves and are ready for any future use as opposed to buying 3 FSB's.

 

Damn my threading die also has a taper at both ends.

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  • 1 month later...

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