School me on Saiga 12's

[damon1272]

I own plenty of shotguns and a few years ago I bought a 1100 tac 4. I really like it but lately I have been looking hard at the saiga 12. I love the idea of a box magazine and I see more guys are using them in 3 gun. How well do these guns hold up. I was looking at the standard saiga so that it should not fall into the assualt weapon catagory or am I wrong. Please tell me you experiences, what chokes if any do they use?

[hcbr]

I've shot my buddy's saiga, it's a great gun, the magazines are definitely convenient to load than a standard mag tube, wasn't sure what choke he had but he kept telling me that the gun was definitely better at shooting slugs and buckshot , but it can still shoot any game load as well. the mag button was a bit of a pain to get used to, but if you shot an AK, Saiga 12's will be very familiar since it's based of a similar platform. some of the saiga 12 owners on here can chime in on exact details, but for what it's worth, it's definitely a great gun!

[mikemaccham]

How funny, i'm in the same boat with the same gun. I am lookin at selling my Remington 1100 Tactical for a Saiga 12.

[EBR Works]

I was looking at the standard saiga so that it should not fall into the assualt weapon catagory or am I wrong.

Unfortunately, the stock S12 is still considered an AW in California without a mag lock.

See here:

http://www.calguns.net/caawid/sgflowchart.pdf

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[damon1272]

Thanks for bursting my bubble! I was wondering why they wern't more popular. No need to look anymore if I can't change magazines. Thanks

[Shady]

Thanks for bursting my bubble! I was wondering why they wern't more popular. No need to look anymore if I can't change magazines. Thanks

you can change the mags
you just need to use a tool to drop the mag

the saiga 12 is heavily modifiable for competition shooting
many great products available and good prices

my s12 is my favorite thing in the world

ps it comes with an adjustable gas block
for shooting an assortment of loads

[hlcarbine]

shoot one, one with a pg and you will be hooked.

BTW I own both shotguns, and the 1100 is for huntin and the saiga is for plincking and HD.

[cyrus]

Got one. Shoots ANYTHING. Does not fail to fire EVER unless getting crazy fire rate.

Build is not nice like an AR-15, but it is a AK47 right. One of the coolest guns ever. If I go shooting I say s&W 41, Saiga 12, and whatever else. blah blah.

[damon1272]

Well I guess I will still consider looking at one. They have one at Parallax Tactical for sale. I'll take a look this week and decide if I should get one. Thanks for the input.

[diego-ted]

Well I guess I will still consider looking at one. They have one at Parallax Tactical for sale. I'll take a look this week and decide if I should get one. Thanks for the input.

If you are in San Diego, and I take it you are, you are welcome to test shoot mine!

diego

[stix213]

If you're wanting to shoot light loads, your Saiga 12 "might" require some TLC to run them correctly. Meaning possibly needing to adjust the size or number of gas ports on the barrel. This involves some disassembly and use of a drill press.

Also some after market mags are poorly designed and can cause jams from my experience (my surefire 10 rounders are terrible, which is funny cause my Saiga 7.62x39 surefire mags are flawless). Once you have a set of working mags and your gun tuned the thing is just so much fun to shoot.

The stock 5 round mags are great by the way. My 10 round promag drum is nearly flawless, and I have a 10 round box mag by some other company (starts with an "A" I think, can't remember at work here) and it has never had an issue either.

That's basically the list of everything that had gone wrong with mine. Now my Saiga 12 is my go to weekend clay shooter.

Edit: Also, some people don't like that you shouldn't leave your mags loaded up as the plastic shells can deform and cause jams. I've personally experienced this after only one day of a mag being loaded with federal bird shot. It might also confuse people that its much easier to insert a mag with the charging handle pulled back. There are after market modifications that address this, but I find it good enough to pull the handle back, engage the BHO, insert the mag, then release the bolt. You can do it rather quickly with practice.

[Shady]

If you're wanting to shoot light loads, your Saiga 12 "might" require some TLC to run them correctly. Meaning possibly needing to adjust the size or number of gas ports on the barrel. This involves some disassembly and use of a drill press.

please do not do this

there is a 25$ vplug that fixes this problem without having to
alter correct russian factory spec's

[damon1272]

If you are in San Diego, and I take it you are, you are welcome to test shoot mine!

diego

I will have to take you up on that after the first of teh year. Thanks for the offer. I will contact you.

[markslyon]

I've got a damn M1A scout squad and assorted other BS up for trade and I want a converted Saiga 12......if someone wants to do a trade let me know for sure. I've been wanting one for a while now. It appears that they are crap out of the box but once you get em rigged up they run real good. There's a sick one on the Magpul art of shotgun dvd.

[Sam .223]

my S12 works flawlessly, i have a Tapco PG and stock on it, not converted, and i haven't had an issue, i also use AGP 10 round mags and there aren't any issues with those either. there are some out there that have little quirks with lite loads and there are multiple ways of fixing that. the biggest problem i have is carrying my mags since they so big.