mpristave, Sorry for the late reply. Please see my comments.
Lurked this site for a while and made an account because of this thread.
Thanks and good thinking. I am enjoying this forum a lot. At the moment only good mojo here.
You groups are certainly better than what I get with my FAL with the sam DAG ammo and it seems like a fairly reasonable price as well. I want to build this gun, thanks for the post.
The fal is super fun and I didn't think that any of the russians would do what the 16" is doing. It came as a suprise but at the same time it makes sense.
Everything was beefed up, trunnion, barrel to compensate for the .308 so the barrel tune seems to love the 150grainers. RPK, heavy barrel, rings a bell?
I have a 5.45 Saiga, converted by someone else, and it is also an extremely good quality and accurate rifle not like what you are doing with 308 obviously.
The 5.45 is a great round but selection is not there. Great and fun but obviously in versatility the .308 is king. (military classic)
I have built an AR-15 from an upper, lower, and lower parts, etc how hard is it to convert a Saiga 308 in compairson?
If you have this built then you can try. If you can drill and screw you can defently do it. The work is not that much. Can you ask a friend to help too? It is fun. It might take a few days but I will follow my next conversion step by step and answer any questions.
Also how do you "float" the handguard like you did or is that a natural property of that handguard's installation?
The tapco is bolted where it should be but I didn't put the forward support, instead I moved that support by the base of the barrel (not a 100% floating) but much better than putting any sort of pressure with bypod, weight in the middle of the barrel. It is a matter of simple physics. The lowest the arm the lowest the flex. I will share pictures. It is a simple trick.
And you just purchased and installed the parts that you gave in your example price without any other modifications? I am going to do this if this is the case.... soon.
Yes. Yo do not need them all but before you buy anything you need to make sure they are US parts and you read and understand what is legal in your state, city and how to comply with 922r. I posted some links.
I know of someone who was going to get a company, rifle dynamics, to convert a saiga 308 for them and they did a bunch of things which seem here would be pointless (change gas block, remove barrel and reinstall checking headspace) if its out of the box this accurate with a few parts slapped on.
I don't know that company but the less you fiddle with the barrel, trunion, gas block, piston, bolt,... the better. Those are the original up to spec russian parts that make this rifle a true Russian and a stock who cares but this I would not touch. Some companies make great conversions but you have to pay, sometimes expensive and it is not fun. Although I suggest you look into them if you do not feel comfortable with your drill and screwdriver.
Also I heard with the 308 you do not have to do a modification for magazines which makes it, somewhat, cheaper than a saiga conversion in 7.62x39.
No mag conversion is needed in neither caliber. The .308 has a proprietary magazine and it is just that one design for the .308 AK carbine. You have surefire and others that offer great US made ones. If you are in a free state you can get the high capacity but if you are in the communist states like NY, NJ, CA you need to get 10 or 15 as dictated by law. There are no prebans as these are Saiga special caliber only but they are great magazines, very strong. I don't see a need for more than 8 or 10 mags for system max. Even 3 magazines are ok for most folks unless you are going to war or something.
The Saiga 7.62x39 will take the standard 7.62x39 magazines as this saiga is in deed a true AK-103,104. You need a bullet guide and might need to run the dremmel a bit by the magazine catch but then you are ready for any postban or preban AK-47 mag. It is a now brainer. Again check your state and city laws.
I hope this helps and stay connected.
Cheers,
E.
