Saiga 5.45x39 Rifle Mod Thread

Dench said:
I dont think the classic AK config is practical for me to use at all.
Click to expand...

Practical? There is nothing practical about my AKM build in my eyes, it is just about the sex of commie design. A practical (read tacticool if you want) build, in my mind, would involve many parts the purist's would puke over.
 
My converted rifle functioned flawlessly and was a lot of fun. I love the round. I think someone earlier said it only took them an hour to do the conversion... That's incredible. It took me an hour to get the screws out of the butt stock! Damn, they were in there good.

I have a few questions though. This surplus ammo is dirty! I sprayed some windex in the gun and down the barrel and stuff after I fired it. Threw it in the tub with dish detergent when I got home. After I pulled it out there was already some rust by the firing pin that I wiped off and some pitting at the tip of the piston. The rest of the rifle is black so I guess there is more.

How bad can this ammo F up our guns? I now have a great shooting gun and don't want to totally F it up with crap ammo. If I forgot to clean it for a week or more, would there be lasting damage and pitting? Would the rust and pitting just be superficial?

Do we need to treat the mags? Every nook and cranny of my rifle is dirty, can this stuff ruin a magazine? It was a pain in the balls to find pre-bans and I don't want to look for more.

Thanks for any info.
 
Well, one good thing about saiga and surplus corrosive ammo = you don't need t worry about your bore. Chrome lining is specifically applied to prevent corrosive primer residue damage.

Piston itself is chromed too except for the face - that's bare metal, if you get it pitted - no biggy, other than cosmetics it's functionally completely fine, but you should clean it anyways. Gas tube on other hand will get rusted heavily on the inside. it's also pain in the butt to clean beause of the fluting - flashing with hot or even cold water right away is better than waiting till it gets home and/or forgotten till next week (or next month).

Bolt face and immediate vicinity should be wiped down thoroughly and oiled. I personally would advice against getting it wet unless you are planning to take bolt apart every time to dry it out. It's pain to put back together.

Definitely no water inside the receiver because it'll get under the rivets and between sheetmetal and trunnion parts etc and WILL rust the heck out of your Saiga overtime. I use set of toothbrushes to clean inside the receiver

Mags are easy to take a part and wipe clean with wet cloth and then oil. better yet get synthetic ones.

As for the rest of the gun - just use a good judgement and look for grey residue. everywhere you see it clean well. over time you will learn where it get's all the time and where it doesn't and cleaning will get easier and more familiar.

But main rule of thumb with corrosive ammo - CLEAN WELL AND RIGHT AWAY. especially true for this part of the countr where humidity in the air is always high. Get dehumidifier for you guncabinet to minimize any potential damage to guns that you forgot to clean or don't use for extended periods of time.

Another solution is a synthetic finish I.e duracoat, gunkote etc. it resists corrosive salts much better than traditional surface conversion finishes a.k.a. blue/park.

PS
Another more exotic method - applying corrosion-resistant finishes like chrome, nickel, cobalt, TiN. One that stands apart from them all and is probably most superior is Boron Nitride, it's anti corrosive high-lubricity, super hard finish. Not as Hard as born carbide abut next best thing. assuming you can do it yourself or find vendor that can do it.


ztargetshooter said:
My converted rifle functioned flawlessly and was a lot of fun. I love the round. I think someone earlier said it only took them an hour to do the conversion... That's incredible. It took me an hour to get the screws out of the butt stock! Damn, they were in there good.

I have a few questions though. This surplus ammo is dirty! I sprayed some windex in the gun and down the barrel and stuff after I fired it. Threw it in the tub with dish detergent when I got home. After I pulled it out there was already some rust by the firing pin that I wiped off and some pitting at the tip of the piston. The rest of the rifle is black so I guess there is more.

How bad can this ammo F up our guns? I now have a great shooting gun and don't want to totally F it up with crap ammo. If I forgot to clean it for a week or more, would there be lasting damage and pitting? Would the rust and pitting just be superficial?

Do we need to treat the mags? Every nook and cranny of my rifle is dirty, can this stuff ruin a magazine? It was a pain in the balls to find pre-bans and I don't want to look for more.

Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...
 
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I can hardly agree with that.
stock lies comfortably against the check and provides excellent support while shooting. Assuming you are talking about regular kind, not underfold or sidefold - those are given to be uncomfortable.

as for the pistol grip it works well. it's not too small and it's not too large for most people and it's equally comfortable while wearing mitts or gloves.

bare in mind that AK is utilitarian military rifle that's was designed for ease of use and reliability in any adverse conditions from the Equator to North Pole.

Extreme ruggedness beats 'finger grooves' and adjustable stock any day. While adjustable stock was long enjoyed by US original M16 rifle came out with fixed stock. No other rifle of the same period as AK had adjustments Including m16.

As for complains about shortness of stock itself - this just individual opinions. Americans are use to different shooting stance. also average american soldier is taller than average east-european soldier. hence the differnces
 
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I dont have any problems with the stock. I meant "the stock pistol grip" as in the "pistol grip that comes with the rifle."

I think the pistol grip is to small. I use the US Palm AK grips on my AK's. I'm not an AK purist.

The grip can be seen in photos I've posted of the green AK:
odakp.jpg

Also on this one, which is currently off to paint.
P1010006.jpg


Both these rifles have Warsaw pact length stocks. Ones a KVar and ones a Tapco.
 
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ztargetshooter said:
My converted rifle functioned flawlessly and was a lot of fun. I love the round. I think someone earlier said it only took them an hour to do the conversion... That's incredible. It took me an hour to get the screws out of the butt stock! Damn, they were in there good.

I have a few questions though. This surplus ammo is dirty! I sprayed some windex in the gun and down the barrel and stuff after I fired it. Threw it in the tub with dish detergent when I got home. After I pulled it out there was already some rust by the firing pin that I wiped off and some pitting at the tip of the piston. The rest of the rifle is black so I guess there is more.

How bad can this ammo F up our guns? I now have a great shooting gun and don't want to totally F it up with crap ammo. If I forgot to clean it for a week or more, would there be lasting damage and pitting? Would the rust and pitting just be superficial?

Do we need to treat the mags? Every nook and cranny of my rifle is dirty, can this stuff ruin a magazine? It was a pain in the balls to find pre-bans and I don't want to look for more.

Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...

Mike pretty much nailed it with cleaning.

I'll add this... with the bores on these being 5.45 you'll need a soft .223 brush for it because to my knowledge, no one makes a 5.45 cleaning brush yet. Its a very small bore so if you are cleaning make sure you get a cleaning rod made for .22/.17 caliber.

As for the bath tub trick, well, thats Dench. [grin]

I don't recomend it because water will stay where you don't want it to and that will cause problems in the future. Scrubbing with old toothbrushes, Q tips, and a quality water based cleaner like M-Pro7 is the way to go, then apply oil afterwards like Break Free CLP.

Mags won't need any cleaning to protect against corrosion because just about every 5.45 mag out there is plastic. A quick wipe with some Simple Green should clean them up easy if you're worried about them getting dirty. The chances of you're springs rusting are very slim.
 
Dench said:
I dont have any problems with the stock. I meant "the stock pistol grip" as in the "pistol grip that comes with the rifle."

I think the pistol grip is to small. I use the US Palm AK grips on my AK's. I'm not an AK purist.

The grip can be seen in photos I've posted of the green AK:
odakp.jpg

Also on this one, which is currently off to paint.
P1010006.jpg


Both these rifles have Warsaw pact length stocks. Ones a KVar and ones a Tapco.
Click to expand...

I checked out the US Palm grips and didn't care for them. I agree that the standard AK grip is a little thin but I keep it on my originals because they were designed for it. On some of my Saiga builds that are beastly such as the .308 where I like a little more control, I go with the MD Arms Molot style. They're $12 as opposed to $30 from US Palm.

20110813220237.jpg
 
The bathtub trick works pretty well. Just make sure its dry when you're done. I lay the rifle in front of a fan for a while and rotate it and flip it over to make sure the water gets out when I throw them in the tub.

I've been usuing bore snakes in 5.56x45 to clean the bore on my Saiga in 5.45x39. It works just fine. I dont plan on ever cleaning the upper gas tube on these rifles since its held on by the hand guards. If it falls apart, all well. The hours I would waste taking it on and off will off set the cost of replacing a upper hand guard, which I suspect I'll never have to do anyway.

I dont fall for the "use ammonia" trick to get rid of corrosive salts. Water will do the trick just as easy, and its free. When you relube the rifle, that will kill off any other salts that have snuck into odd spots. I lube my rifles heavily when I know I wont be using them soon, so they get a heavy dose of CLP plus Barricade when they go to sleep for a while. I've never had problems with corrosive ammo when I try to maintain it.
 
vellnueve said:
Personally, I think the standard stock and pistol grip are too short and too small, respectively.
Click to expand...

Thanks to those who gave cleaning tips.

I selected Warsaw length stock for my kit and rifle. 9.25" vs the Nato 10.5". I find Warsaw too short as well. I can tuck it close but I have trouble getting a focused sight picture. You have 1 less inch to move your face away from the sights. I'm going to chuck it and get a Nato length.
 
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Went to the range yesterday for the first time after receiving my two 45rd. bakelite Molot mags.

(Waited literally 4-5 months after ordering them, the place I got them from said the current administration is making importation of things of this nature very very difficult, I received an email with a huge tirade from the owner bashing Obama, his administration and the BATF, lol)

Anyways, it was a good time. I realize these were made for the RPK-74 but it's still pretty rad to have 45 rounds at your disposal with the Saiga 5.45. They're so big they make bench shooting an impossibility, which is good for me, because I need the standup practice, i'm lazy and usually sit down with the bipod out. btw. not one single feed problem.(but I did install a bullet guide)
 
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ztargetshooter said:
Thanks to those who gave cleaning tips.

I selected Warsaw length stock for my kit and rifle. 9.25" vs the Nato 10.5". I find Warsaw too short as well. I can tuck it close but I have trouble getting a focused sight picture. You have 1 less inch to move your face away from the sights. I'm going to chuck it and get a Nato length.
Click to expand...

or you can get an 1inch AK recoil pad:http://centerfiresystems.com/PADAKA02.aspx
 
i picked up a slanted muzzle break for my Saiga, but i'm not quite sure how i'm going to install it. the muzzle and front sight all seem to be one piece...help?

nevermind...just saw the post regarding the tubing cutter...
 
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Blix666 said:
i picked up a slanted muzzle break for my Saiga, but i'm not quite sure how i'm going to install it. the muzzle and front sight all seem to be one piece...help?

nevermind...just saw the post regarding the tubing cutter...
Click to expand...

One thing to keep in mind is that Saiga barrels are often larger in diameter at the muzzle than most dies are cut for. Some Dremel work with a sanding drum to smooth out the machining marks and a crowning tool will help you get a near perfect start for threading your muzzle with the correct TAT and Die.
I recommend reading up on muzzle threading on the Saiga 12 forum and ordering from Brian at Dinzag Arms.
 
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Blix666 said:
thanks for the advice. broke 2 tubing cutters trying to get through that shroud. ran outta time before i was able to get through all the way.

btw...why the hell are these dies so flippin' expensive!?

anybody have any experience with these?

http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/-strse-1068/AK-HAND-GUARD-RETAINING/Detail

http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/-strse-1069/AK-UPPER-HAND-GUARD/Detail
Click to expand...

I have the retainers on my 5.45 with the Tapco Timbersmith stock. Its really needed on that type of furniture and both the upper and lower HG have cuts for the hardware. If you're going with polymer you won't need them.
 

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