Saiga Conversion Questions Por Favor

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PlayMaker

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I've always prefered the look of an AK but I love the 5.56 so I've started looking for affordable AR's and to my surprise I can get a 5.56 AK from a company called Saiga.

Now I'm totally new to this idea. Can anyone help me out with this project from step one. I want to get 5.56 variant with a 20" barrel and I've heard I might have to do a little conversion to it to get it that way. Where can I purchase Saiga's and I don't trust my handywork converting it so are there people that'll do it for me for a reasonable price?

If someone can baby me through this it'll be much appreciated, thanks in advance.
 
The drill press is optional. A good drill (preferably corded), a hammer and punch, and some good drill bits. If you use a progressive technique on the trigger guard spot weld (starting with small bits then getting larger), you won't ruin your bits. A vise is pretty much a necessity, as well. I did mine in 5 hours, including reinstalling the bolt hold open.
 
Definetly get it my converted 20in 223 is probably my favorite gun. I was lucky enough to get 30 round yugos when they were relatively cheap. The conversion aint hard.
 
go to www.saiga-12.com and check out the forums. All they do over there is convert Saigas. There are sections for the rifles as well as conversion guides. The shotguns are actually converted in the same way. They will also be able to tell you where to get one.

You might also check out www.dinzagarms.com He sells parts and has a lot of conversion and 922R info. He can also be found at the S-12 forum.
 
The conversion is simple to do. You will be amazed how easy it is after you do it.

In addition to the tools listed above, I also found that having some files came in handy.
 
Yup..Dremel, cutoff wheels, cordless drill and some patience.

BTW the 20" version looks goofy after the conversion. Stick with the 16" if you can find one. Someone on the boards did some accuracy testing and found there wasn't any difference between the two, just a little bit more velocity.



BTW Saiga isn't the name of the company, it's Izhmash. They're the original AK manufacturer.

http://www.izhmash.ru/eng/product/weapon.shtml
 
Here is a good tip: Use bees wax on your drill bits for lubrication and use cobalt drill bits. But seriously the bees wax is a old machinist's trick of the trade. You will thank me when you get to the trigger guard.
 
Double tap...

Sneak your wife or mom's beeswax candles and drill into the bottom with your bits then sneak them back.
 
You don't even need a drill press or vise - they'd help, maybe, but I did mine with a Ryobi drill and a Dremel (at age 20). Took maybe six hours, with frequent breaks for drinks and going back to the laptop to make sure I was doing everything correctly.

Hardest part is tapping the bullet guide hole. The rest was a cakewalk.

You can get someone to do the conversion for you if you really want to, but it's not going to be cheap - no matter how much you comparison shop I doubt you'll find anyplace that'll do it for less than $200-300 plus parts (another 200).
 
I have Cadiz Gun Works in Ohio doing my Saiga 12 conversion for $300. That was before they raised their rate though. I can definitely do it myself but I wanted my holes to be welded over and my receiver professionally finished so by the time I found a welder and a bead blaster and bought the finishing materials $300 bucks looks like a steal.
 
I used this page as a guide, its pretty simple if you're handy with tools. This one is also pretty helpful.

I got all of my parts from dinzagarms.

I never found myself wanting a vise, but I did use the conversion to justify the purchase of a halfway decent drill press instead of putting it off even longer (I've needed one for a while, just made do without one, or haven't done what I needed to).

I coudln't find my 3/8 endmill to cut the rivets off, so I spent a good amount of time fighting them. I finally thought to file a flat spot on the top of them (to keep the drill bit from walking off), started with a 1/16th drill and worked my way up.

As stated by Tactical Ninja, tapping the hole for the bullet guide was the hardest part. Well, it want hard, it was just nerve wrecking. The trunion isnt exactly soft, and a broken tap isn't easy to remove.

I used some bumber trim paint from the parts store to spray the bottom of the receiver. I think Header paint would match better.

One thing I didnt do was mount the front of the triggergaurd. Its wedged in between the rear screw and mag catch pretty good, and after fighting with the BHO, I didnt feel like tearing it down again to drill the hole and install a screw that I forgot:eek:
 
You'll need some cold blue, as mostly they are not finished under the wishbone trigger plate that you'll be removing. Paint is OK I guess. A lot of the shotguns don't have the square hole for the pistol grip nut -- its not hard to drill a 3/8" hole and square it up with a small file, but location is the main hassle here.

You can buy black binder post screws from McMaster-Carr to fill the wishbone trigger axis holes, these let you reuse the original retaining spring for the trigger axis pins.

Dinzag's triggers are just modified Tapco's but he's also smoothed up the engagement surfaces to make it really nice, almost too light IMHO.

--wally.
 
I was going to get some of my stuff from K-VAR and some from Dinzag, but after factoring in shipping, it ended up being a few bucks cheaper just to order everything from Dinzag - and Tony even dropped in an extra set of cotter pins and a set of E-clips for me. Nice guy! I did order the cheaper of the two triggers; it looks like the more expensive one is just cut out for reinstalling the bolt hold open, which I didn't care for anyway.

I had no problems with my tap; I went slow, used lots of oil and backed the tap out every quarter-turn, as recommended. The hard part was drilling the hole perfectly straight down (I didn't) and keeping the threads continuous (I fudged that a bit). It took a little trial and error to get to a point where I could actually screw the screw into the hole, and the head ended up being slightly above the level of the bullet guide and causing the bolt to hang up about 1/8" out of battery; took a small round file to it and two minutes later everything was fine. It doesn't look pretty, but it works. :)

And actually, I take it back: the hardest part of the whole process is working up the gumption to start grinding on your receiver in the first place. Once you get past that it's smooth sailing.

For the trigger plate rivets, I just Dremeled the heads off as much as I could with a grinding wheel (who cares if the trigger plate gets scuffed up? - you're throwing it away anyway) and, once I couldn't grind anymore, I started a small pilot hole with a 1/32" bit, to keep the larger bit from wandering, and then drilled what was left of the heads down with a 1/4"(?) bit until I was able to pop the trigger plate off, then ground the rivet shafts down a bit more and tapped them out with a punch. Took me maybe fifteen minutes, and that was 'cause I was nervous and trying to be careful.

The trigger group pins came out no problem following the Cross-Conn directions to drill the shoulders out (and despite what it looks like in the pictures, no, you aren't actually drilling into the receiver - that unnerved me a bit) and my pistol grip hole was already punched.

On the advice of another THR member I used matte black brush-on Krylon to refinish my receiver; perfect match except for the texture.
 
The bullet guide was easy on mine. Took me all of 10 minutes. Drill hole, twist tap 1/8 turn each time, back out. Done.

Now the trigger guard reshaping, wow. It must be made of titanium alloy or something because it's really strong.
 
Yeah those russians know how to make some hard ass sheet metal. People who scoff at a the AK's sheet metal receiver never tried hacking away at one.
 
If the idea of doing or paying for the conversion isn't appealing to you there are other options, as shown below with simple easily installed aftermarket parts. Okay, they don't look like traditional AKs, but I'm happy with them. I have the tools to do the conversion, and the skllls, but chose not to, for now.

BTW, on th .223 that is an East German Weiger mag altered so no bullet guide is necessary.

saigas.jpg
 
Storm said:
Okay, they don't look like traditional AKs, but I'm happy with them.
Click to expand...
Before you go this way, please think.

The primary reason folks deconvert their Saigas is to regain the ergonomics and handleability that was designed into them.

The secondary reason (primary from some) is to get rid of the horrible trigger.

The rifles in the above post have achieved none of these goals. They are still out of balance and have horrible triggers.
 
The secondary reason (primary from some) is to get rid of the horrible trigger.
Click to expand...

Exactly I cannot those who can deal with a stock Saiga trigger when a fix is available. Unless people just have never shot a firearm with a nice crisp trigger then I guess they would never know the difference but the stock Saiga trigger is bad.
 
I've got 2 of the .223's. Just converted the 16", waiting for the trigger group parts for my "goofy looking" 20" (he's posted that before, but I still think they look GOOD!). It's easy to do, and as was posted, the hardest thing to do is to work up the courage to start grinding and drilling. It's really quite easy. Just read thru all the tutorials you can find on the links others have posted and you won't have any problem. Greg
 
Beyond not improving the trigger or correcting the balance I am curious as to the parts count on the .223 rifle storm posted.
 
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