Replacement irons for a featureless Saiga?

[mhswlee]

Hi, so I recently acquired a featureless Saiga. I slapped on a UTG side mount and a budget red dot sight because I hated the irons and liked the idea of a readily removable optic. However, I noticed that I could not get a cheek weld with the sporter stock the way it is, so I added a cheek riser. (It adds roughly 5/8s of an inch in height, so it's sort of like an AR--very comfortable.)

But now I have a problem: I cannot use the iron sights! xD

So, to the point: I am trying to find an elevated iron sight replacement that allows me to remove my side mount if my red dot dies without having to remove the dust cover. I have done a lot of research on the matter, and have not yet found an ideal solution.

I was wondering if there were any featureless Saiga users that use a side mount who have also opted to replace their iron sights. (Suggestions from others who are knowledgeable in this area are, of course, appreciated.)

If it is any help, here is the gun as it looks now (sorry for the quality):



Yeah. The purists are probably gagging now.

--

EDIT: I forgot that I should add some things that I considered and am curious about:

I looked into using HK sights, but I want the rear half of my dust cover exposed for the side mount removal. (Plus, I find seating irons on my dust cover to be haphazard, since the thing does have a tiny wiggle.) Is there a way to run HK sights with a rear iron sight forward of the dust cover?

And what about flip-up sights? Is there a flip-up sight designed to be forward mounted for the AK? Or perhaps a flip up sight that can be seated in the rear sight block in place of the old rear sight blade?

[JBaus]

funny you should mention something about iron sights. I literally just watched a video covered by NutNFancy on Youtube where he spoke about a set of new iron sights that he placed on his AK47. This maybe something to looking into or consider.....Below is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9aFATFbJ04

Another thing that you may want to look into is attaching a Kydex Grip to a pistol grip (Youtube has a video) which would still keep your gun featureless and you can place a forend grip and not have to place a bullet button. I was looking into doing that with a 7.62 Saiga since I found a pistol grip and adjustable stock that would fit in place of the sporter stock.

And yes, we are going to hear from the Purists about keeping an AK an AK, but technically, Saiga is a different rifle that originated from the same factory where AK's are built. It's like how Ford has Volvo parts.......

Keep us up to date with more pics progressing to the final finished rifle.

[TZL]

Just ditch the side mount and put the red dot on the quad rail

[Dr Rockso]

RS Regulate has co-witnessing sidemounts for red dot sights. If your micro red dot has the same mounting pattern as the Aimpoint T1/H1 or Primary Arms models you could just slap that on, remove the riser, and keep your stock irons. I have the full size red dot version with an Aimpoint M3 and couldn't be more satisfied.

I have not seen elevated iron sights for AKs. I'd be kinda surprised if they exist since the AK's height over bore allows suppressors to be run with regular sights, which is the usual reason for tall sights in the first place.

[mhswlee]

Just ditch the side mount and put the red dot on the quad rail

Four things:
1) I wanted to be able to remove my red dot sight whenever I wanted.
2) I hate the AK iron sights.
3) I don't want to make the front half of my gun any heavier than it already is.
4) You do not get co-witness even with a quad rail. I mean, seriously, I would need a gas piston mount to get a solid 1/3 co-witness.

[Lagduf]

RS REGULATE.

If you have a side optic rail then this is the optic mount you need. You can cowitness the dot with the iron sights.

http://www.rsregulate.com/products.php

[mhswlee]

@Dr Rockso, Lagduf
The RS Regulate looks interesting, but I would like to point out that the purpose of the thread is really to look for elevated iron sights rather than a new side mount.

I'm not terribly interested in cowitnessing the terrible AK iron sights as they are. Indeed, I would rather stick to my UTG 5th generation (it's low mount, but not as low as the RS Regulate AKML), and not co-witness at all than to have to use these things.

[SoCal1]

I'm in the process of building my featureless AK47 and will probably go with these:

http://www.onesourcetactical.com/samsonflip-upfrontrearsightsethk-style.aspx#.T_YhRjF5mSM

The front sight wills go as far forward as I can get it on this hand guard:

http://www.onesourcetactical.com/samsonflip-upfrontrearsightsethk-style.aspx#.T_YhRjF5mSM

And the rear sight as far back as I can on this:

http://www.texasweaponsystems.com/id1.html

The problem with mounting a HK style rear sight forward of the dust cover is that the rear peep sight is intended to be close to the eye.

[mhswlee]

The problem with mounting a HK style rear sight forward of the dust cover is that the rear peep sight is intended to be close to the eye.

Exactly my dilemma.

Those dust cover mounts are definitely interesting. But like I said, I really want to be able to take my side mount on and off without a tool. That is one of the appeals of the AK system.

[Richard Erichsen]

I'm in the process of building my featureless AK47 and will probably go with these:

http://www.onesourcetactical.com/sam...x#.T_YhRjF5mSM

Way too tall. They were made for AR15s.

The front sight wills go as far forward as I can get it on this hand guard:

http://www.onesourcetactical.com/sam...x#.T_YhRjF5mSM

Your distance between sights will be less than a typical Krinkov. Are you sure you want to do that?

And the rear sight as far back as I can on this:

http://www.texasweaponsystems.com/id1.html

Not a great sight. TWS got a lot of questions about what to do about a rear sight and came up with that fixed aluminum aperture as a cheap and dirty solution. I bought one and hate it.

There are alternatives. You'll need to increase the height of the front post by turning it out to use the rear aperature sight for picatinny railed covers like the TWS (there is one other, I can't recall the name, but it's legit), but I have found this aperture to be the best option:

http://www.newenglandcustomgun.com/

Second from the top. It comes with two apertures, but any Williams-style aperture can screw into it, with pinpoint small apertures for distance, or larger apertures for quicker acquisition (the bigger of the two that comes with was way too large for my needs).

The problem with mounting a HK style rear sight forward of the dust cover is that the rear peep sight is intended to be close to the eye.

The Polish Beryl has a flip up front sight. If you really want something to flip out of the way for a low mounted optic, I'd suggest the Beryl method is the better approach.

R

[Richard Erichsen]

Exactly my dilemma.

Those dust cover mounts are definitely interesting. But like I said, I really want to be able to take my side mount on and off without a tool. That is one of the appeals of the AK system.

You do realize the TWS Dogleg 2 hinges to the rear sight base, using a pin through the old sight base as an axis point? When you press the "button" that is the spring guide assembly and holds the top cover firmly down, this releases the cover. It is not the original spring guide assembly you may be familiar with, a new, more precisely made recoil spring guide assembly comes with the top cover and is slightly oversized, requiring a degree of filing or lapping to get it to fit. The bottom of this assembly slots into the inverted T cross section of the top of the rear trunnion.

If you want to inspect the gizzards or field strip, push the recoil assembly forward with your thumb and swing the cover open, proceed as normal with bolt carrier removal, selector switch and FCG. You can't misplace the cover with this system and NO tools are needed for releasing or locking.

R

[SoCal1]

With the extended hand guard I think the sight radius would ok. It would look something like this:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1341535048.388156.jpg

This picture is with the TWS hand guard.

[Richard Erichsen]

funny you should mention something about iron sights. I literally just watched a video covered by NutNFancy on Youtube where he spoke about a set of new iron sights that he placed on his AK47. This maybe something to looking into or consider.....Below is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9aFATFbJ04

Tech-Sights AK100S and AK200S. I prefer the single aperture 200 series with windage and elevation so I can zero to a specific range and leave it alone. AK100 series has two apertures for distance and no room for the elevation knob, but is windage adjustable.

One precaution is that these sights are so adjustable you need to center the front sight post and lock them down with threadlock so you will only be adjusting from the rear. You do not want to chase adjustments at both front and rear. The rear is knob adjustable, so once re-centered you'll never need to use the sight adjustment tool for the front sight again.

The top cover sheet metal parkerizing doesn't match all finishes and may need to be refinished to match. For example, parkerized doesn't match black enamaled rifles like the Saiga.

Finally, the top cover relies on a new recoil assembly guide that slots into the rear trunnion to allow a return to zero. You can expect to use jewelers files to get it to fit and it should be tight to avoid play and if you haven't replaced the spring on the recoil assembly before, it can get pretty exciting without vice grips or a helper.

As for tools - once fitted you can use the tip of a bullet to depress the spring loaded retaining pins on each side to pop the top, push it forward and pull straight up. It sounds more complicated than it is.

R

[SURVIVOR619]

Tech-sights...




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[Richard Erichsen]

With the extended hand guard I think the sight radius would ok. It would look something like this:

[ATTACH]157759[/ATTACH]

This picture is with the TWS hand guard.

That is a very expensive handguard for what it is. The tall sight line above the bore needs to be compensated for mentally at short range (your POI will be at least 2" below your POA), not something the AK suffers from ordinarily.

Co-witnessing always sounds like a great idea until you do it for awhile. I've come to appreciate why very few military weapons are configured to do so, it's distracting. With excellent iron sights like the Tech-Sights AK100 or AK200 series or the TWS DogLeg 2 with the NECG adjustable peep sight, I prefer tall rings/high Kalinka BP02 so that you can change your head position for the optic and lower it to use the iron sights beneath. Try it for awhile, you might find as I did it may be the better solution.

R