I have never seen a Saiga with a non dimpled receiver. Also while the front trunnion rivet pattern appears normal for “Euro” builds, the rear trunnion looks like a mix of underfolder and fixed with a extra right by the trigger. Who is the importer? My interest is definitely piqued now as I always look for obscure variants. Sweet rifle and some nice wood too!
Wood that gives you Wood.
Standard type of receiver around that time, look up pics online also and you’ll see the same in all the older ones but I’m not sure when this changed. This one was bought new as a Saiga sporting rifle in 2003, importer back then was EAA.
So after going thru the history of imports, it would seem that this was a standard example due to the AWB of ‘94. When originally purchased what was its configuration of “features”?
They looked like this unmodified example.
Gotcha. This looks like it would be much easier to convert, along with much less holes to weld up.
No welding was needed in converting.
That would explain the “extra” rivets where the FCG was originally. It’s crazy to think how expensive these have gotten over the years.
Ah ok- those are actually just heat resistant nylon plugs made to fill the holes, IIRC they were part of a kit that was made back then to complete the build while maintaining required USC 922r compliance. Wasn’t too difficult to do overall. Wish I had bought more of them at the 2003 price point.
That would have been a better investment than just about any asset class. Unfortunately I don’t think we will ever see Russian imports coming in, probably never. I was into the Chinese imports back in the day and missed out on the Russian ones. I did get the variety of Molots offerings, other than the 5.56 RPK.
Only downside to them are the mags which were unique with the feeding. Surefire made USA made mags which work well and helped with 922r but were hard to find and I have a bunch so haven’t looked at pricing or availability since about 10yrs ago.
They don’t take standard double stacked magazines? Is it a single stack trunnion or something else, as why?
As memory serves- the standard double stacks don’t work as there is a feed ramp built into the factory Saiga mags. I recall some folks have modified the receiver to add one, but the Surefire mags have the same ramp built in as factory and work flawlessly.
I appreciate you sharing and passing some knowledge to me about the Saiga. This has renewed my interest in converting the one I have into the 103 configuration I’ve been holding off on doing.
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