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I love my Saiga 12!


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My lovely wife gave me a new Saiga 12 2 Christmas's ago. At  first I was thrilled. I took it out back and shot it numerous times. I noticed a lot of the infamous FTEs. Started researching and decided I needed to get the bolt & carrier polished, so I sent it to he who shall remain un-named. After like 4 months, I finally got my parts back (at least I got them), they looked great. I re-installed them and it ran a bit better. Still not the Range Monster I hoped for. Decided the problem probably (not prolly) was in the gas block. I acquired the courage to disassemble the gas block. Found the 4 holes were clear and the right dia., but they were somewhat blocked by the opening surrounding them, so I got out my Dremmel and re-worked the surround hole. Put everything back together and it worked better still. Was fairly reliable shooting high brass high power loads. Decided to live with it that way for a while.

In the mean time, I decided to convert it. After reading everything I could find, and watching bunches of videos, I jumped head first into that little job. Actually, it wasn't that hard using parts from CSS.

Got it back together and found my reliability was again, sub par.

Corresponded with Shannon from Cobra's Custom. Even though my wife was now watching all the money I was spending on my Saiga, I sent him my FTG as well as the bolt & carrier. He polished the parts, re-profiled the hammer and tuned everything to work together. When I got the parts back, was still having some reliability problems. I was even using a Performance Puck piston and an Auto Plug but it still didn't want to cycle with reliability-especially the low brass stuff. Getting a little desperate now, so I went back to Shannon. He told me to get rid of the aftermarket parts (Auto Plug & Performance Puck, clean & lube everything and SHOOT THE THING.

That's exactly what I did. After a few boxes, I noticed the gun was running better and better. Now, my gun will run virtually anything I want to feed it, low brass, birdshot, whatever.  No after market miracle parts, just  Saiga stuff. It just had to be broken in with the new internal parts.

I want to thank Shannon for the good work, as well as the good advice and patience.  If any of you Saiga owners are having any performance issues, I suggest you get with Shannon and follow his advice. The man's a magician with these Russian guns. Thanks again Shannon.

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Edited by goldenpony
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Sounds like my saiga when I got it. I took out all the aftermarket parts that it came with, profiled and polished the bolt and carrier myself, lube, and kept shooting it. I was very close to pulling the gas block off as 1 of my 4 holes is ever so slightly covered by a hair, but ended up not needing to.

 

It stopped giving me problems and I'm at 450 flawless rounds and counting!

Shoots low brass of all brands.

Thanks again to all the reputable and knowledgeable forum members who helped me out!

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I love both my lovely wife and my Saiga-12, but man, how do you get a wife that knows enough to buy you a Saiga-12? My wife generally approves of my guns, and rolls my eyes when I "need" a new one, but she doesn't really even know what a Saiga is. Don't let that one get away--the Sagia or the wife. smile.png

Edited by MR_22
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I love both my lovely wife and my Saiga-12, but man, how do you get a wife that knows enough to buy you a Saiga-12? My wife generally approves of my guns, and rolls my eyes when I "need" a new one, but she doesn't really even know what a Saiga is. Don't let that one get away--the Sagia or the wife. smile.png

Well, it's like this. I watched an episode of Deadliest Warriors that pitted Russian Spetsnaz Special forces troops against U.S. Green Berets. The Green Berets used Mossberg pump 12 gauge as their close in weapon while the Russians used Saigas. I was so impressed with the Saiga I kept talking about them for days. Come Christmas time, she remembered and bought one at a LGS. Yup, I think I'll keep both her and the Saiga.

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