[The Robfather]

after seeing the fellow on sons of guns discussing saiga conversions being 60% of his business i'm starting to kick around the idea of investigating this road again. to answer some early questions, i don't want to do the work myself in this case and i've tried all the usual suspects, that is local shops and have gotten everything from don't worry yourself with 922r, what the hell is 922r and oh sure we do that and here's your bag of parts back two weeks later. so what local gunsmith can do this?

i don't want a pistol grip. i don't want new furniture. i just want some internals changed so i can use high cap mags. yes they're preban. thanks.

 

[SigSauer228]

Seriously, do this yourself Rob.

 

[Schneiderman]

Have you figured out exactly how you want to meet 922r compliance? As in, what parts you want replaced?

 

[The Robfather]

Have you figured out exactly how you want to meet 922r compliance? As in, what parts you want replaced?

yes. trigger parts. gas piston. there's a site that allows you to count the parts for compliance. my conversion is a little trickier because i have cutom russian hardwood stock and foregrip that i don't want to replace and i can't play the magazine bottom / follower issue.

i took it apart myself in order to invesitgate the project and i honestly do not feel comfortable in my ability to complete the task. as a matter of fact i needed to have a friend reassemble all of the parts for me and repin the trigger group.

 

[Schneiderman]

I'm looking inside the saiga I converted and trying to remember what it looked like before the pistol grip conversion. I'm not sure if you can replace the trigger and disconnector without moving the FCG to the pistol grip location. I have to find my baggie of original parts and compare, I might be wrong.

 

[DefMan]

You check the youtube videos to see if you can do it yourself?

 

[Schneiderman]

I found my original parts. It looks to me like you might be able to replace the disconnector and hammer with US parts and keep the original trigger position but you would not be able to use the US made trigger, unless someone makes a set of original style US made FCG parts, which I'm not aware of.

 

[The Robfather]

yeah you need to mill out the trigger slot a bit.

i have layed it out and have the parts i just do not want to do it myself. i'd like a gunsmith. just looking for names of gunsmiths if anyone knows locally who do this sort of work.

 

[Edward_Blake]

Is there a reason you don't want to send it out of state? I watched the Youtube video of the guy who does the conversion and it seems someone who specializes in the conversion and understands the laws would be your best bet. If the local gunsmith is going to be using your rifle as a learning tool, I'd prefer to just do it myself.

 

[bruzz123]

" i just want some internals changed so i can use high cap mags'

all you need for that is a bullet guide. a $24 part. i bought one for my 7.62 and had a gunsmith do it, as i do not own a drill press.

 

[bruzz123]

here's what mine looks like (i hope the pic is attached).

 

[The Robfather]

Yu need to make additional changes to the rifle to allow it to legally use hicap mags.

 

[The Robfather]

Is there a reason you don't want to send it out of state? I watched the Youtube video of the guy who does the conversion and it seems someone who specializes in the conversion and understands the laws would be your best bet. If the local gunsmith is going to be using your rifle as a learning tool, I'd prefer to just do it myself.

You make an excellent point ed. I may just do this.

 

[bruzz123]

Yu need to make additional changes to the rifle to allow it to legally use hicap mags.

like what? there aren't any that i'm aware of. functionally speaking the bullet guide is all you need. you can actually use the old saiga 10 rnd mags (after you file them down a little in the saiga with the bullet guide installed) in addition to stnd ak pre-ban mags. many people like to change out the trigger group because they don't like the trigger that comes with the rifle. the new trigger group also allows them to install a pistol grip. also you can then use standard ak 30 rnd mags and drums. there are hi-cap saiga mags that you can use with the unconverted rifle, but they are not allowed in nys. if you do the conversion, you have to ensure that the new parts u add keep the rifle compliant, but conversion itself isn't done for the sake of making the rifle compliant, it's done for functionality - so that you can use "real" ak furniture and mags and the tapco trigger group.

you can try going here http://www.saiga-12.com/ for more specifics. or you can call carolina shooters (843)267-9084 Mon-Fri 10am-5pm EST and ask them, they actually sell this guide.

 

[bruzz123]

maybe this might help

http://www.ak-47.us/AK47_Parts.php

http://thegunwiki.com/Gunwiki/BuildAkVerifyCompliance

ok i think i get it. you would lose three parts if you switch to pre-ban mags or foreign mags no matter the size. namely, the mag body, the follower and the floor plate.
so we need to offset by three parts and this is easy.
swap out the factory forearm/handguard with an american made one.
http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/-strse-267/TAPCO-SAIGA-TRI-dsh-RAIL-HANDGUARD/Detail
swap out the factory butt stock with an american made one.
swap out the factory gas tube with an american made one.
all can be done without a gunsmith, it was easy. youtube has plenty of posts on how to remove the gas tube.
also on the preban mags you can swap out the followers and the floor plates offsetting two parts right there. MidwayUsa carries the followers and maybe the floorplates Remember only the mag body counts as pre-ban.

 

[BirdistheWord]

My understanding was that if you want to use hi-cap mags you needed fewer then x imported parts, period. The reason was anything but a 10 round mag, even pre-ban, took it out of sporter configuration.

Is that not correct?

 

[The Robfather]

My understanding was that if you want to use hi-cap mags you needed fewer then x imported parts, period. The reason was anything but a 10 round mag, even pre-ban, took it out of sporter configuration.

Is that not correct?

Bingo. Amd ive got ak preban mags that work without a bullet guide. Just welded the lip on the front up a bit to act as a guide similar to the saiga plastic mags do and blammo.

Not changing the stock or foreend. I have custom russian hardwood on there.

Im going to see if i can get that guy from sons of guns to do it. Shoot be a hoot if i can make it happen.