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Hello everyone!

Just got my first Saiga about a week ago and this is my first post here and it's going to be a long one I'm afraid. A couple of things to note that may be relevant later, the rifle is in 7.62x39 and I have the misfortune of living in central New York.

I'm a big fan of wood furniture and a big fan of the svds, psls and all. What I'm aiming to do is build a shorty saiganov of sorts. Now, that may be an overstatement. What I really want to do is get some wood psl handguards fitted and figure something else out for the buttock. As I mentioned I live in N.Y. and kommander kuomo says I'm not allowed to have things he finds scary on my firearm. So a conversion isn't exactly on the table right now. I don't want to have to hide this thing in the closet until we get our rights back. I'm looking at a psl handguard set from Ironwood Designs and I feel like I can make that work. The question is what combination of retainers gas tubes and handguard mods is going to fit together and get me lookin spiffy? After I sort that out, I'll go on to figure out what to do about the butt. Thoughts? Thanks for hanging in there if you got through all this!

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I am pretty well versed in the "laws" and my referring to where I live was more to introduce myself and give a little background information so that forum members would understand why a conversion was not my first concern. But thank you sir. What I'm looking for is advice in fitting psl handguards to a saiga. More specifically, what type of gas tube and upper retainer is going to work. For example, if I use an ak gas tube with the built in retainer,can I move the retainer forward on the gas tube to fit the longer psl upper HG? Will I be able to align the vents/slots on the upper and lower handguards? This is my introduction to the ak platform and while I've done a lot of reading and pondering, I don't have the first hand experience to apply these ideas without some guidance. Thanks again!

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Just to clarify. I'm not asking anyone to share incriminating information on converting a saiga into non sporter configuration in New York. And I do not have any intentions of doing so myself. Just changing handguards, and looking for people who have experience fitting psl handguards to a saiga. Nothing illegal about that.

 

Thanks again,

Zack

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the psl guard is very long compared to the ak guard. not sure if it will mount to the receiver without cutting. as you suggest, it will need shortened to fit the saiga with a retainer. with the length of the psl guard, you may be able to mount it to the two pins sticking out at the gas block. i think several people have used them on their 308 saigas.

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Yeah, I've been able to find at least one 308 someone did. I'd like to attach the lhg with a retainer I think, before the gas block.I thought about the pins too but I think it might not look as good. I'm getting hung up on all this anyway because I still don't know what I should do about the back end. I almost want to put a std. Ak or maybe rpk butt stock on it, but I don't know how comfortable it's going to be without a pg. If only I could do a full conversion...

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If you are going with a retainer, you may wish to look up some of the traditional wood pieces. A nice set of set of Russian guards in red may appeal more. It's going to take a lot of mod on a psl guard to fit. If you are an inexperienced wood worker, this can be a tough mod.

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If you are going with a retainer, you may wish to look up some of the traditional wood pieces. A nice set of set of Russian guards in red may appeal more. It's going to take a lot of mod on a psl guard to fit. If you are an inexperienced wood worker, this can be a tough mod.

I'm fairly confident that I could make it work. But alas, I may still go a more traditional route as you suggest. I'm kind of liking the flat sides and profile of the sa85 forend. As far as I can tell, the handguards would work with the ak gas tube and bolt on retainer. I might get all the wood from Ironwood then to make color matching easier. Then I'll be lurking around looking for hardware.
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I did something similar on my .308, and it consisted of the following:

 

-PSL Handguard

-Dinzag HG Retainer

 

I mounted the HG Retainer directly behind the gas block, and trimmed the PSL wood to fit. It's not that hard really if you have some patience, and basic woodworking skills.

 

The upper HG is a standard AK gas tube and the PSL Upper shaved to match the lower.

 

Saiga3083_zps79a17b7a.jpg 

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Now that's what I'm talkin about. Very nice. The only thing that turns me off of this setup (slightly), is how the upper retainer sits in the slot of the lower handguard. That's what made me wonder if it was at all possible to move that retainer forward, so that you could fit a longer upper handguard. Pop it off and tack weld maybe? I haven't seen one in person so Idk. Do you have any more pics? Perhaps a good profile, so I can get a better idea of how it looks with the short barrel? It's a 16" right? Do you have a pic of it before you threaded the barrel or was that before you did the handguards?

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Now that's what I'm talkin about. Very nice. The only thing that turns me off of this setup (slightly), is how the upper retainer sits in the slot of the lower handguard. That's what made me wonder if it was at all possible to move that retainer forward, so that you could fit a longer upper handguard. Pop it off and tack weld maybe? I haven't seen one in person so Idk. Do you have any more pics? Perhaps a good profile, so I can get a better idea of how it looks with the short barrel? It's a 16" right? Do you have a pic of it before you threaded the barrel or was that before you did the handguards?

 

Factory AK gas tubes have their furniture brackets spot welded on, so they could be moved after grinding the welds and re positioning. After a few mock ups I determined that it wasn't worth the trouble for me because the lower HG and upper HG were almost exactly proportional to their original config just shorter. 

 

It is in fact a 16" barreled Saiga .308, and it was bone stock when I got it accept for a Tapco T6 Saiga stock. It looked just like this

 

Saiga-308_zpsc6zcksqm.jpg

 

And then after the conversion. I did the conversion and threaded the barrel at the same time.

 

Saiga%20.308%204_zps4vptcyga.jpg

 

Saiga%20.308%201_zpspvbijutr.jpg

Edited by mrwiggles2004
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