[WeedWhacker]

For you Saiga-12 owners: how much, if any, lead or plastic bits accumulate in the gas system, specifically in the front part with the moving round cylinder?

After about 100-200 slugs, I noticed that the gas cylinder didn't move freely. It took a brass hammer and brass punches to get the danged thing out, and about 30 minutes of scraping with a sharpened aluminum rod to get the smallish amount of lead sheeting out of the front of the gas tube.

As for the plastic bits, well, I didn't pay close attention to the composition of the dark flakes I found in the gas tube, but there was a decidedly "burnt plastic" smell...

Is that normal, or a sign of a problem?

[Correia]

I'm going to go with problem. I've never seen that before. I've got over 6,000 rounds through one of mine, and I've never even looked inside the gas tube. Occasionally I stick a rag down there and pull it back out, but that is it.

If your gun was imported by Russian American Armory, call them and tell them what is happening.

[Dave Rishar]

I've noticed plenty of carbon and such in mine, but never plastic and certainly not lead. Of course I've never run 100-200 slugs through mine in one sitting, either.

You mentioned that the gas piston wasn't moving freely -- was the Saiga still cycling properly? The reason that I ask is because there have been a few occasions where hundreds of rounds were fired at one sitting through mine and upon later cleaning, the gas system was so full of fouling that the piston needed to be pounded out. (Not wiggled, not tapped, but pounded.) The Saiga still ran fine in this condition but I don't like leaving my guns like that. It took quite a bit of work to get it clean afterwards. I still make it a point to clean the gas system out every hundred rounds or so but it's really not necessary.

What did the piston look like? Just as dirty, less so, more so? And what is your gas system set at?

[WeedWhacker]

Whoops - yes, it still cycled fine. I wasn't aware of the "problem" until I tried to give it a good cleaning. The cylinder didn't take a sledgehammer to work it free, but did require several sessions with a long brass rod and a small brass hammer.

The gas system had been set to "1", the tightest setting, almost since the very beginning (it won't cycle some birdshot at the tightest setting). I figured that as long as I wasn't planning to shoot at birds out of a 19" open choked shotgun, why bother with it?

The piston, the part attached to the bolt carrier, was nearly pristine after a moment's effort: I simply wiped off the residue with a rag - no scrubbing, etc.