Saiga, Any good?

[280PLUS]

I've been thinking about getting some form of AK action type rifle in .308. My local gun guy showed me a new Saiga for ~$400 and some "Indian surplus" bulk packs of .308 in cans. 640 rounds for $130. What do you think? Is Saiga as reliable as any other AK type or would I be making a big mistake getting into this? Any other bulk .308 out there to be had?

 

[Correia]

280, I recommend you use the search. We've talked about these a few times.

I'm biased. I'm a distributor for Russian American, and I'm neck deep in building 20 round magazines for the Saiga .308. Personally I think they are the best bang for the buck in a semi .308 there is.

 

[Eightball]

Corriea--how much are you selling those 20 rounders for? My Saiga is hungry for more than the 8-rounders it has....

Yes, I like my Saiga, but it's near impossible to zero out the PSOP sitting on top :banghead: .

 

[280PLUS]

Thanks, will do.

 

[280PLUS]

Okie dokie I went through a few pages, opinions seem pretty varied though generally favorable price vs quality wise. I noticed someone complained about crappy "Indian" ammo not working in theirs very well. What is all the conversion talk about. Convert to what? and WHY?

 

[HankB]

"Indian surplus" bulk packs of .308 in cans. 640 rounds for $130.

It's pretty cheap, but "Indian surplus" ammo is not highly regarded by most folks . . . many consider it downright dangerous. Do a search at the FAL files.

 

[Eightball]

Conversion=get rid of the funky "sport" stock, and give it a pistol grip and normal trigger--mine is still sporterized, but has an odd trigger.

Here's a tip as far as ammo goes--Don't buy ammo from a place you wouldn't drink the water.

 

[Onmilo]

Saiga rifles are very good.
Indian ammunition is very bad.

 

[280PLUS]

Here's a tip as far as ammo goes--Don't buy ammo from a place you wouldn't drink the water.

LOL...that narrows it down a bit. I was just kaaking at the price of the other ammo though. Where can I get decent but inexpensive .308 for plinking? Wallyworld white box?

 

[ugaarguy]

Where can I get decent but inexpensive .308 for plinking? Wallyworld white box?

Your best bet is to look for South African surplus or other non-Indian mil-surp.

 

[Correia]

Eightball

http://www.fbmginc.com/index.php?pa...ufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

 

[280PLUS]

Ok, now I just called the gun shop back and lo and behold the ones I looked at do NOT have pistol grips. I hadn't even noticed. What will it cost to at least get this? I'm assuming it's a stock change? Where do I get them / which are best? Does this include the stuff to upgrade the trigger too? From what I read it seems like I'll end up spending ~$800 between the gun and this conversion?

 

[Correia]

I use Tromix for all of my conversions. You can see them on my page if you want. They are in the $700 range, but that is with a refinish and everything.

If you want to do a conversion yourself, you can get instructions over on Saiga12.com

 

[HKUSP45C]

I just got one, new in box, for $319. I love it. So far I love it. It's my very first rifle but, so far it's a blast to shoot. I'm using S.A. .308 at ~$30 for a 140 battle pack.

 

[RooK]

Someone say conversion? This is the 16" .308 version, back when EAA imported them. Got it for $270 then. The conversion (done myself) and parts put it at just over $400 total in it.

 

[Tokugawa]

Corriea, do you know if the new saiga mags you are working on will function in a 308 vepr?

 

[Correia]

Tokugawa, it won't. The mag well is a different size on the Vepr.

 

[mordechaianiliewicz]

Not trying to hijack here, bt I just bough a Saiga .308 with the longer bbl, and wondered about the legality of switching out original stock for a more practical setup.

(Oh, and if not RSA milsurp, get Russian WOLF .308 Winchester, the AK inspred Saiga will take steel case ammo just fine).

 

[rangerruck]

run as fast as you can from any indian ammo. they have NO QUAL CONTROL. they paid their "employees" by the poun dfo ammo they loaded with powder. if that took using sand or other debris, they did it. the few times I tried it, not only was it garbage, but it was dangerous.
Now as for Saigas, I don't work for them, but i would do commercials for them. I am totally sold on not only their reliability, but their accuracy. Thats right, accuracy . I dont even scope mine any more, there is no need when all 3,16 in bbl variants i have are moa capable...they just really are making a good bbl for those bad boys right now. hope they don't ever change whatever it is that they are doing in the process.

 

[rangerruck]

another thing, if you get milsurp ammo, get all the former British empire countries' stuff, including American. Also the S. American stuff that was heavily Nazi populated, is also quite good. I like the Venezuelan and Chilean pretty good. Also the S. African stuff, in the light brown blister pacs, is good because it is quite consistent. I try to use that to check or recheck my base zero's in all my 308 rifles.

 

[280PLUS]

Thank you all !

 

[280PLUS]

FYI, I just now agian had a Saiga 308-1 in my hands. The trigger didn't seem too bad to me but the BIG thing is the ones I just seen have a "tactical" stock on them. It's essentially tubular and incorporates a pistol grip. It could ALMOST be considered a thumbhole stock except the "thumbhole" is very big. Is this what some people are calling the new thumbhole stock?

 

[salty]

Saiga good - Indian ammo bad. However the Saiga's are not cheap to convert to pistol grip and in spite of representations there are no 20 round magazines available - the phantom mags are over $30 if they ever happen so compared to mags for FAL or G3 clone they are expensive. If you want a pistol grip the DSA FAL or PTR 91 is a more cost effective way to go in the long run - in particular when you go to sell it.

 

[slicknickns]

I've been looking at Saigas. Their nice rifles. Besides the common AK mechanism, do they retain the reliability? I'd be using it for home defense and when the shiiit its the fan type situations. The 7.62x39 ones look nice.

 

[Correia]

Salty. I'm the guy building the 'phantom' magazines. I'm a couple of weeks out on the bodies, and the only thing holding me up right now is getting the followers in.

I've sunk a whole lot of my own money into this project. I got sick and tired of people whining on the internet about building them, and nothing ever happening, so we decided to do it ourself.

And yes, they are expensive. Do you have any idea how much it costs to make plastic molds? There are only a couple of thousand Saiga .308s in the country. It isn't like I'm going to get rich off of this project, and we do need to recoup our costs. I'm doing this because I'm a Saiga distributor, and I know the only thing that is holding the .308 back from being one of the most popular MBR type guns ever is the lack of good magazines.

FAL and G3 magazines are cheap because they are SURPLUS. They are military rifles used by dozens of countries, and there have been literally hundreds of thousands of magazines made that have been sitting in warehouses.

How much exactly do you think you pay for a new manufactured quality magazine? Go price a new HK AR15 magazine and get back to me.

As for cheap to convert to pistol grip, if you do it yourself you can do it for about $100. The Tromix conversions I sell start in the mid $600 range, and I'll take that rifle head to head against a $900 PTR or a $1200 FAL. And I own/sell those too.