My official foray into gunsmithing

[Visceral_Malice]

Well guys, I've got a pretty exciting project going on right now I just wanted to share.

I was in my preferred local gunshop Monday picking up a Mosin Nagant I had ordered with a buddy of mine. My friend had ordered a Saiga-12 from him a while back and we converted and did some modification on it and we got to talking with the owner about it. We showed him some photos and he asked if we would be interested in converting and modifying onefor him.

He wants us to convert and basically add everything imaginable on it and he plans to sell it at the local gun show coming up here. Needless to say, I was actually more excited about this than the gun I had just picked up.

We should be getting it tomorrow, so I'll post some photos and keep some updates on the process.

[Mister Freeze]

It's fun. Good luck.

[Visceral_Malice]

I like your 2-tone. We ended up putting that magpul foregrip on my friend's we did a while back and its so nice on that gun. These things are some of the nicest guns I've worked on largely because they are so big and everything is thusly accessible.

Is that the tapco stock?

[Mister Freeze]

Yep

[Visceral_Malice]

So this took a lot longer to post than expected because the Saiga took a while to get here. Anyway we got the entire process done last night and I had hoped to have a more thorough look at everything, but just ended up with some pictures of the finished product.


So, we did the conversion added the UTG quad rail, magpul afg foregrip, magpul mbus sights, the tromix brake, a nice hogue grip, the magpul moe stock, and that's a promag 12-round drum.



A closer view of the mid section



Another angle



A closer view of the front


This was a really fun project besides getting that damned bolt hold open spring in place. The last one we had was LRBHO we it was considerably easier than this one.

[Rapier1772]

Looks sweet, I like the drum Only 12 rounds though? :p

A closer view of the front

Is there no back to that rail? How sturdy does that make the rear sight? (Not that you really need a sight on a shotgun...)

[blueorison]

I need sights on my shotgun when I am shooting slugs at 100 yards into one ragged hole.

But I assume you were dry in humor, Rapier?

I have a question; how many rounds have you put through her?
Many Saiga's I've seen being used jam often, was wondering on the reliability with all the modifications done.

[Visceral_Malice]

Rapier someone actually makes a 20 round drum but its massive. The 12 round was what the shop owner wanted on it. That specific rail doesn't quite go all the way to the back, but it goes way past where the original back sight was and as long as you tighten the hell out of it, it appears to stay sturdy. I don't really have a dot sight or anything to put on it and test out how it holds zero, but the flip up sights work well with it.

Blue reliability is the same after modification. All that is done on the conversion is you have to move the FCG forward and put a pistol grip where it used to be. That is the only thing changed inside. We tested 30 rounds through that one and as with all new Saiga 12's, it cycles buckshot and slugs perfectly, but it generally stovepipes every other round with birdshot. You have to give the bolt some break in time before it reliably cycles birdshot. We've put about 300+ rounds through my buddy's and it cycles it almost perfectly now.