Home Builder Thread

Very nice BersaOwner...may I inquire as to where you pick up the parts kits ?!

 

Thanks...!!

 

You can also modify a new SAIGA rifle into the original Kalishnekov action as long as you use enough American made parts to do so. I converted a SAIGA that was chambered in .308 Winchester/ 7.62 doing so and was a great shooter for accuarcy and reliability, and eventually sold it. Now wish I still had it. Problem with the 7.62 X 39 Soviet SAIGA rifles is that they changed the mouthpiece part of the chamber so that when you fire the neck flares out a bit near the shoulder. This was to signify that it was from a "commercial" SAIGA AK-47 and not one made for military issue. A rebarrel can solve that if you have the equipment and such.

 

Actually what was changed on the Saiga was the feed ramp. The mags that came with it were made to keep the ammo a bit higher and sorta acted as a feed remp. So the standard mags wold not work with the non-exsisting fieed ramp. The ammo came out of them a bit lower and struck the end of the chamber a bit low causing a FTF. The standard mags also would not lock into the mag catch cause it was cut a bit thinner for the Saiga mag.

If a standard mag was used, either you had to mod the mag to the mag catch or mod the mag catch to the mag thickness. If that was done, a small piece of 3/4" chunk of pipe had to be fitted to the notch left between the barrel and receiver to fill in the gap where the original feed ramp was suppose to be. Piece had to be drilled and receiver also. Receiver then had to be tapped to take a flat screw to hold the handmade feedramp in place. Handmade piece also had to be counter sunk to keep the head of the scrrew from hitting the bullets as they crossed the new feed ramp.

There were several methods of doing the standard X 39 model. That was the one I used along with the USA parts to keep it 922r compliant. Worked just fine, but I didn't keep it. Got plenty of standard ones.

 

You are very correct, on the feed ramp. Saiga magazines were made to include a sort of "uplift" of the nose of the bullet to make sure it cleared. I am not sure how that would work on the .308/7.62 NATO since I bought a couple magazines that were 20 capacity and had the built in ramp alread on the magazine. Now I don't ever recall finding a .308 standard metal military magazine, although they did build a very few for certain military requests.

What intriged me about Saiga was that they were built in the original Russian factory Izmash, IIRC. But for 7.62x39 Saiga rifles they had no viable feed ramp and one had to modifiy the receiver to use military magazines. They did also make that funny chamber that expanded the neck just a bit right about the shoulder. Although it is said with brass ammo a resize would put it back in place, it was questioned how many reloads you could get from a case with all that neck expansion and resizing.

 

You can also buy a laser cut piece of sheet steel and "you" have to weld the pieces in place and use a brake to bend the metal into the shape of the receiver. Advantage is "you" do the work and essentially you are building your own firearm (Very Legal) and does not have a recordable serial number.

 

I've assembled alot of ARs, thought about trying the AKs, but never got around to it.

Here's some of the ARs I've done

 

a few more

 

What's that on the magwell in the third pic...?!

 

Mako Magwell grip. It's a 2 piece deal that screws into itself, no mods to the AR needed. It gives a good place to get your second hand when you want an in close/tight stance, and it also acts as a flarred magwell for speeding up mag reloads.

Cost about $25
http://www.themakogroup.com/product_p/mwg.htm

 

How does that polymer lower hold up?

 

Thanks bhale !!

 

Nice bunch of ARs bhale187.

 

So far it's been great. The green furniture one has over 1000rds through it without any problems, and no signs of wear. I bought 2, planned to torture one to the point of breaking and keeping the other. After seeing several videos online of others already tortured them I figured why bother? Here's the thread I started on glock forum in plans of documenting the torture tests.
http://www.glockforum.com/forum/f25/new-frontier-lw-15-polymer-ar-lower-10233/


The black furniture one is for sale actually.
http://www.glockforum.com/forum/f39/ar15-midlength-magpul-12487/

 

one of my rifles. Upper and lower built at home. AR Performance 6.8 X 43 (SPC2 chamber) barrel 16". Adams Arms Piston system. Magpul hand guard. Dime sized groups at 100 yards.

 

A .223/ 5.56 Saiga I had converted and have since sold it.



Using handload it shot very respectable groups.

 

I had always heard the 223 versions of the AK platform were alot more accurate, with that ragged holed 3 shot group I'd say that holds true for yours. Nice setup, and nice shooting. What kind of glass do you have on there?