SSN Vet
Member
I'm afraid that I may have damaged my Saiga x39 while converting it to the pistol grip configuration.......
When drilling/punching out my trigger plate rivots, I cut a block of wood and sized it to fit the exact width of my receiver interior. This supported the receiver walls so I could mount the rifle into a vise on my drill press.
Every thing seemed to go o.k., but on the first rivot I drilled (the one at the front of trigger gaurd), I had to drive it "agressively" with a pin punch to get the rivot out.
On the subsequent rivots and the spot weld, I drilled out more material and was able to punch out the rivots more easilly.
I failed, however, to remember to back up the underside of the receiver with a section of pipe, to serve as an anvil. So when I beat on that first rivot, all the force was translated through the recever, to my custom fit block (which sat on top of the rails and stood proud of the upside down receiver top) and then to the bottom of the vice opening.
Unfortunately Newtons 2nd law tells me that when the receiver rails pressed down onto the wood block, the block pushed back up on the rails.
Everything seemed to go fine. I re-used the existing trigger guard, installed the PG, the G2 FCG, and the new stock (I did not re-install the manual BHO).
Gun seemed to be just fine. Bolt carrier slides just fine on it's "track" and the mechanism seemed to operate correctly (I really like the G2 trigger).
Took rifle to the range and fired it with the stock Saiga 10 round mag. Chewed up three boxes of ammo. (Wolf Mil. Classic and Winchester) with no problem. The action cycled just fine.
When cleaning the rifle after the range trip, I noticed that the rail (track that the bolt carrier rides on) on the starboard side of the receiver appears to have a slight bend in it, just about a half inch behind the front edge of the rail. It humps up ~1/16" and then back down.
Now I'm freeking out, wondering if I bent it while pounding out that first rivot.....thinking that my wooden block pushed down the rear 3" or so, leaving what looks like a hump near the front edge.
The rifle is fairly new to me and I can't remember if the rail had this contour before I converted to PG or not.
I've attached a photo which illustrates the area I'm talking about.....and added some exagerated lines to show the contour (which can't be discerned in the unedited photo).
Any chance any of you guys with x39s could run your finger up and down the right side rail and take a close look and tell me if it appears perfectly flat, or does it "hump" as I described.
Though the rifle does appear to function properly, I'd hate to have the bolt carrier riding back and forth on a "bumpy" track for the rest of it's life. And I imagine that the whacky forces of inertia as the bolt carier goes over the bump could potentially degrade the rifles accuracy.
Any helpful comments or suggestions are much appreciated.
and yes.....
I've posted this on the Saiga-12 forum, where I received one helpful response.
I know this rifle was never intended to be "sniper accurate".
I know that the AK action isn't exactly "precision machined" to slide like a ball bearing track on a linear motion robot.
When drilling/punching out my trigger plate rivots, I cut a block of wood and sized it to fit the exact width of my receiver interior. This supported the receiver walls so I could mount the rifle into a vise on my drill press.
Every thing seemed to go o.k., but on the first rivot I drilled (the one at the front of trigger gaurd), I had to drive it "agressively" with a pin punch to get the rivot out.
On the subsequent rivots and the spot weld, I drilled out more material and was able to punch out the rivots more easilly.
I failed, however, to remember to back up the underside of the receiver with a section of pipe, to serve as an anvil. So when I beat on that first rivot, all the force was translated through the recever, to my custom fit block (which sat on top of the rails and stood proud of the upside down receiver top) and then to the bottom of the vice opening.
Unfortunately Newtons 2nd law tells me that when the receiver rails pressed down onto the wood block, the block pushed back up on the rails.
Everything seemed to go fine. I re-used the existing trigger guard, installed the PG, the G2 FCG, and the new stock (I did not re-install the manual BHO).
Gun seemed to be just fine. Bolt carrier slides just fine on it's "track" and the mechanism seemed to operate correctly (I really like the G2 trigger).
Took rifle to the range and fired it with the stock Saiga 10 round mag. Chewed up three boxes of ammo. (Wolf Mil. Classic and Winchester) with no problem. The action cycled just fine.
When cleaning the rifle after the range trip, I noticed that the rail (track that the bolt carrier rides on) on the starboard side of the receiver appears to have a slight bend in it, just about a half inch behind the front edge of the rail. It humps up ~1/16" and then back down.
Now I'm freeking out, wondering if I bent it while pounding out that first rivot.....thinking that my wooden block pushed down the rear 3" or so, leaving what looks like a hump near the front edge.
The rifle is fairly new to me and I can't remember if the rail had this contour before I converted to PG or not.
I've attached a photo which illustrates the area I'm talking about.....and added some exagerated lines to show the contour (which can't be discerned in the unedited photo).
Any chance any of you guys with x39s could run your finger up and down the right side rail and take a close look and tell me if it appears perfectly flat, or does it "hump" as I described.
Though the rifle does appear to function properly, I'd hate to have the bolt carrier riding back and forth on a "bumpy" track for the rest of it's life. And I imagine that the whacky forces of inertia as the bolt carier goes over the bump could potentially degrade the rifles accuracy.
Any helpful comments or suggestions are much appreciated.
and yes.....
I've posted this on the Saiga-12 forum, where I received one helpful response.
I know this rifle was never intended to be "sniper accurate".
I know that the AK action isn't exactly "precision machined" to slide like a ball bearing track on a linear motion robot.
