FINALLY DONE!!!

[SKSer]

Holy poop, did a Saiga .308 conversion, I swear this was more of a PITA then a parts kit build, lol.



Pistol grip and mag are not installed, waiting for a US mag for 922r and have to install a BB for the pistol grip.

I was going for the "Russian red" on the stock, but it came out more like "pu**y pink", I'm gonna see how it looks in the daylight tommorow to determine if I need to re-do it .

I converted It right off the bat, I never even shot it as the stock crappy configuration, it is sooooooo much better feeling in AK configuration. Now I'm just waiting for my Burris fullfield E1. I wanted to build a little steel puncher out to 5-600 so we will we how she does .

[h0use]

Very nice! Looks good

[CK_32]

Nice..


Very cherry wood.

[NorCalXJ]

Love your furniture. Was it really that hard?

[socalbowhunter]

Looks good SKSer. I like the p**sy pink furniture. It almost looks candy apple red on my monitor.

[LAKings22]

Looks nice ... Good job

[jonc]

Nice!!!

[MrPlink]

I dig it, color isnt bad imo

[phdo]

That looks awesome. Job well done.

[SKSer]

thanks Guys

Love your furniture. Was it really that hard?

Yea, probably cause it was the .308. most stuff "roughly fit", but just about eveything had to be fitted. If it was just a saiga 7.62x39 conversion it probably woulda been a bit easier, or it probably would have went smoother if i just bought all the stuff from Dinzag that was pre-made/fitted for the .308 conversion, but it woulda came out to a pretty good chunk of change difference, and i have more time and tools then money so I just bought all AK-47 stuff and fitted it to .308.


Taking the bottom plate off of the lower reciever was tedious cause, i thought it was just gonna be the two rivets, but it was also spot welded and one of the rivets was pretty close to the mag catch, and you wanna be as carefull as possible to not mess up the reciever so it was alot of measure, drill, grind, double check. When your doing a parts kit you figure, well worst case scenario, if it gets too botched up, ill just buy another $20 reciever flat. With the Saiga, that is the gun so, lol, you gotta be super carefull. So I speant about 2 hours on that

Then i used the existing trigger guard but i heated it up with my torch and re bent it to shape, then drilled two new holes in the bottom of the reciever to mount it, then pulled it all back apart and painted everything, then put it back together. speant about 1 hour on this

The buttstock had to be sanded a bit to fit in the reciever, the shape is the same but im assuming the .308 reciever is thicker. so alot of sanding then checking, sanding, checking etc. speant about an 1 hour on this.

the upper handguard fit because i used an AK gas tube, but the gas tube mouth had to be reshaped to fit, speant about 1 hour on this

the lower hand guard had to be fitted just like the buttstock to fit into the reciever, but the biggest pain in the butt is figuring out the lower handguard retainer, cause an AK 7.62x39 barrel is way thinner in diameter, so cutting a AK one to fit might have worked, but A: i never found a used one for a decent price, and B: i was iffy about spending the money on a new one because i wasnt sure if i would have been able to get it to fit in the first place. This was my biggest head ache, i wasted a ton of time carving a proto type out of wood, then making a mold, and then i attempted to cast a copy out of aluminum, but it came out pretty messed up then i tried to make a second/better mold and messed up my wood copy so i abandoned this idea. then I found a galil hand guard retainer, and cut and ground it all to fit, then drilled and tapped it to be a clamp on type. i spent about 8 hours on my prototype failure, which doesnt count towards the time, but the galil handguard retainer took me about 3 hours

then refinishing the furniture took me about 3 hours

I bought the Tapco AK trigger group, and with that, it fit for the most part, but it didnt come with a disconnector spring and the saiga one was longer and larger in diameter, so i had to drill out the disconnector hole to a larger diameter, and cut the spring down. Then the front of the Tapco hammer had to be grinded down cause in comparison to the Saiga hammer it has about 3/8" of steel on the front that runs into the center support. so total that took me about 1 1/2 hours.

total cost:
wood 32.50
tapco FCG 28.00
galil retainer 10.00
new gas tube 20.00
black paint 5.00
acetone 3.00
rit dye 3.00
polyurethane clear coat 7.00
Tapco pistol grip 10.00
grip screw and nut 7.50

Total: $126
total hours: 12 1/2

cost/time if i woulda went Dinzag
wood 32.50
converted tapco .308 FCG 66.00
tigger guard for saiga .308 25.00
galil retainer 59.00
con verted gas tube 55.00
black paint 5.00
acetone 3.00
rit dye 3.00
polyurethane clear coat 7.00
Tapco pistol grip 10.00
grip screw and nut 7.50

total: $273.00
total hours that would have still been spent converting: 6 hours

I looked up alot of what it took to convert, and ive also built a few different parts kits, so i thought it was gonna be a walk in the park, but it was deffinately more then it looks like its gonna be when your reading internet pages and looking at pictures, ha ha. But WAAAY worth it. just the feel of the rifle is SOOO much better in AK format, especially the trigger pull. Its funny cause it feels almost identical to my 7.62x39 AK, just a little more front heavy, but it shoots .308

[NorCalXJ]

thanks Guys




Yea, probably cause it was the .308. most stuff "roughly fit", but just about eveything had to be fitted. If it was just a saiga 7.62x39 conversion it probably woulda been a bit easier, or it probably would have went smoother if i just bought all the stuff from Dinzag that was pre-made/fitted for the .308 conversion, but it woulda came out to a pretty good chunk of change difference, and i have more time and tools then money so I just bought all AK-47 stuff and fitted it to .308.


Taking the bottom plate off of the lower reciever was tedious cause, i thought it was just gonna be the two rivets, but it was also spot welded and one of the rivets was pretty close to the mag catch, and you wanna be as carefull as possible to not mess up the reciever so it was alot of measure, drill, grind, double check. When your doing a parts kit you figure, well worst case scenario, if it gets too botched up, ill just buy another $20 reciever flat. With the Saiga, that is the gun so, lol, you gotta be super carefull. So I speant about 2 hours on that

Then i used the existing trigger guard but i heated it up with my torch and re bent it to shape, then drilled two new holes in the bottom of the reciever to mount it, then pulled it all back apart and painted everything, then put it back together. speant about 1 hour on this

The buttstock had to be sanded a bit to fit in the reciever, the shape is the same but im assuming the .308 reciever is thicker. so alot of sanding then checking, sanding, checking etc. speant about an 1 hour on this.

the upper handguard fit because i used an AK gas tube, but the gas tube mouth had to be reshaped to fit, speant about 1 hour on this

the lower hand guard had to be fitted just like the buttstock to fit into the reciever, but the biggest pain in the butt is figuring out the lower handguard retainer, cause an AK 7.62x39 barrel is way thinner in diameter, so cutting a AK one to fit might have worked, but A: i never found a used one for a decent price, and B: i was iffy about spending the money on a new one because i wasnt sure if i would have been able to get it to fit in the first place. This was my biggest head ache, i wasted a ton of time carving a proto type out of wood, then making a mold, and then i attempted to cast a copy out of aluminum, but it came out pretty messed up then i tried to make a second/better mold and messed up my wood copy so i abandoned this idea. then I found a galil hand guard retainer, and cut and ground it all to fit, then drilled and tapped it to be a clamp on type. i spent about 8 hours on my prototype failure, which doesnt count towards the time, but the galil handguard retainer took me about 3 hours

then refinishing the furniture took me about 3 hours

I bought the Tapco AK trigger group, and with that, it fit for the most part, but it didnt come with a disconnector spring and the saiga one was longer and larger in diameter, so i had to drill out the disconnector hole to a larger diameter, and cut the spring down. Then the front of the Tapco hammer had to be grinded down cause in comparison to the Saiga hammer it has about 3/8" of steel on the front that runs into the center support. so total that took me about 1 1/2 hours.

total cost:
wood 32.50
tapco FCG 28.00
galil retainer 10.00
new gas tube 20.00
black paint 5.00
acetone 3.00
rit dye 3.00
polyurethane clear coat 7.00
Tapco pistol grip 10.00
grip screw and nut 7.50

Total: $126
total hours: 12 1/2

cost/time if i woulda went Dinzag
wood 32.50
converted tapco .308 FCG 66.00
tigger guard for saiga .308 25.00
galil retainer 59.00
con verted gas tube 55.00
black paint 5.00
acetone 3.00
rit dye 3.00
polyurethane clear coat 7.00
Tapco pistol grip 10.00
grip screw and nut 7.50

total: $273.00
total hours that would have still been speant converting: 6 hours

I looked up alot of what it took to convert, and ive also built a few different parts kits, so i thought it was gonna be a walk in the park, but it was deffinately more then it looks like its gonna be when your reading internet pages and looking at pictures, ha ha. But WAAAY worth it. just the feel of the rifle is SOOO much better in AK format, especially the trigger pull. Its funny cause it feels almost identical to my 7.62x39 AK, just a little more front heavy, but it shoots .308

Sounds like it a tedious project, but well worth it. I am thinking of buying a saiga 5.45 and convert it too. Thanks for sharing if i decide to go with the 308.

[SKSer]

Sounds like it a tedious project, but well worth it. I am thinking of buying a saiga 5.45 and convert it too. Thanks for sharing if i decide to go with the 308.

Yes very worth it. Even the Saiga stock buttstock feels like super thin cheap plastic, the trigger has this weird feeling pull up and in feel (because the way the trigger hook has to work). I pretty much did everything with a drillpress, a dremel, a grinder, and a chopsaw (i used the side of the blade like a belt sander).

the 5.45 will probably go a bit smoother IMHO assuming everything fits better. you just have to do the bullet guide. when reading instructables, i was thinking that would be the hardest part (i didnt do it on mine cause they dont really have AK .308 mags, at least not in plentifull surplus) but after all this id think that wouldnt be too bad, especially if you just go with a guide kit.

If you do end up doing it and have any questions or run into any issues, shoot me a PM

[emptybottle151]

Too bad saiga doesn't make a 7.62x54r

[CK_32]

Love the Paul mall touch too haha

[FX-05 Xiuhcoatl]

Nice rifle.