I am still looking around and reading and I've found that people keep saying that Saiga is a good brand but everyone keeps talking about converting it later. What are they talking about?
Saigas are currently manufactured, new AKM series rifles. They are made at the Izhmash factory in Izhevsk, Russia. Unless something has changed recently Mikhail Kalashnikov still works there. I am a big fan of Saiga rifles, to me no AK is cooler than an actual Russian made Kalashnikov. The problem is that 'real' AKMs are military rifles and they cannot be imported to the USA. To get around this problem Izhmash installs a wonky trigger that is relocated further back on the receiver and a crappy plastic shotgun stock. These changes magically change this military rifle into a "sporting rifle" that can be imported to the USA.
I am not an expert on AKs by any means and I've probably missed something but the gist of AK importation and conversion goes kinda like this:
"Converting" or "restoring" a Saiga is moving the trigger group forward to it's originally designed location. This yields a greatly improved trigger for better accuracy and standardizes the weapon so the myriad of original and aftermarket AK stocks and pistol grips can be used. When you convert a Saiga you use US made parts to replace the weird ones that were used to make it legal for importation. This changes the "parts count" on a list of certain components so there are no more than 10 foreign made parts on the list. Less than 10 imported parts makes the rifle legally a US made weapon so it no longer has to be 922r compliant and you can run a flash hider, high capacity magazines, pistol grip, etc.
From what I understand most (or all?) Arsenal brand AKs are converted Saigas. Many people, including myself, convert their own. There is a ton of information about how to do this and what parts options you have all over the web. The Saiga12 forum is hands-down the best forum for all things Saiga.
You read about parts kits and people talking about parts kit guns quite a bit. With the ban on importing complete surplus AKs in place the work-around is to disassemble the rifle overseas and scrap the receiver as this part "is" the rifle legally. Then you can import the "parts kit" that's left over so it can be reassembled into a US-made receiver making it legally a US-made rifle. The problem with parts kit guns is the rifles they were made from vary in quality and some of them were just plain worn out before being parted out and shipped here. Remember that these are used guns, other than the new US receiver. It's also been said that that largest importer/builder of parts kit guns has an army of poorly trained chimps that actually assembles the rifles. This is how you get "canted" (crooked) front sights and gas blocks as well as bullet guides that fall off and other random quality problems.
I think all WASRs are parts kit guns and this is why people refer to "good" or "bad" ones. Their quality of build and condition of parts is all over the place so each individual rifle has to be considered. I've seen "new" WASR 10s that will not hit the broad side of a barn from 100 feet away, literally! I've also fired a few that are as accurate as any quality AK.
