The Saiga Project of 2017

A few months ago we did a few feature pieces on the Soviet designed 5.45×39 cartridge and a brief article on the Saiga sporting rifles that until a few years ago were still being imported. We also highlighted a few pieces and parts that would fit the Saiga since they generally have different furniture dimensions than standard off the shelf communist block produced AK’s. All of that has slowly been leading up to a project that we have generically referred to as The Saiga Project of 2017. 

Simple Beginnings 

Our Saiga project rifle started out as a IZ-240 sporting rifle and ended up in my hands through some good old-fashioned horse trading as a partially converted Saiga AK-74. I say partially converted because there was some work still left to be done to it when I received it. If I had to put a label on the Saiga when I got it I would say it was 75% completed. There were a few things we had to do before even making a parts list or a plan and that was performed as complete of a tear down and inspection as we mere mortals could perform. The tear down did identify a few issues.

The first issue that we came across on the tear down was that our rifle had the dreaded “Sheppard Hook” firing pin retainer installed. Anyone who knows AK rifles has a universal dislike for this small bent piece of wire that locks the firing control group into the receiver. The part that was in the rifle was worn and stretched and let the retaining pin walk out. This of course allows the fire control group fall out of its proper position. Luckily I had a spare Krebs Customs  retaining plate in a spare parts box. A few minutes later and our rifle was cycling safely with no ill effects.

The Plan

Now that our project rifle was operating safety we completed the rest of the initial safety check and put a few of the cheapest 5.45×39 rounds I could find through the rifle, Wolf, only the best for our project. After a few magazines I consulted with our guys and came up with a plan for the ugly little rifle with potential. Our first order of business was to do this project as cheap as we could, because in this economic climate, who doesn’t like a cheap project. The goal was to not spend more than $125.00 on any one part of the project, which would mean some used parts I was pretty sure. A few observations scribbled into my Field Notes notebook and I had a plan in place.

Having already used some spare parts early in this project I had a good feeling about this one. I noticed while scrounging around for the AK-47 retainer plate I had mil spec AR-15 buffer tube and a spare B5 Systems stock, more extra parts that I didn’t have to pay anymore money for, two more in the win column. With the parts at hand it became clear I would have to violate one of the basic principles of AK ownership and that is “Thou shall not make your AK to look like an AR-15” . So knowing someone would lose their minds on the internet about this build I went to one of the few places I trust for AK parts and that is the AK Operators Union Local 47-74. A few clicks of the mouse and we had a Definitive Arms M4-AK Adapter on its way, so far we were into this project $69.99

The Rest of the Project

Having put a whole $70.00 into this project we had a little room for some extravagant parts, so I scoured around and found a set of universal fitting Brugger & Thomet AK hand guards for $125.00 on an internet forum. The hand guards new have a suggested retail price of $395.00 so at $125.00 they were a great deal. This part of the project could have been the most difficult because the Saiga rifles lack a hand guard retainer on the barrel like traditional AK rifles.

The B&T hand guards use a similar mounting method as the Magpul Zhukov furniture that is current on the market. This B&T system clamps around the barrel and uses screw through the lower hand guard to secure it in place, not the best method but it works for our rifle. The rail which we also highlighted before is a quad rail instead of my preferred rail system of M-Lok but when dealing with a non standard rifle and trying to be cheap, beggars can’t be choosy.

While looking at my parts boxes I was wondering what I would want next, when I saw yet another piece acquired in some trade that I have forgotten about, and that was a dyed Magpul AK grip. Not having any idea what else I was going to do with this spare part I added it to my pile of goodies and rang up the total…FREE. With the addition of the grip I had a grand total of roughly $194.99 into my build. I decided that as soon as I ordered some spare magazines that I would assemble my project.

Assembly and Range Testing

I made a quick visit to GunMagWarehouse.Com and ordered some Bulgarian steel lined AK-74 magazines and then immediately went to work assembling the Saiga Project. In little under an hour I had it stripped, cleaned, and all the new components installed. Since the rifle was assembled I decided that waiting 5-7 days for my box of magazines to show up was not going to work, so I took the only magazine I had for it and hit the range. I was curious to see how the lighter caliber would feel and perform compared to it’s bigger brother the 7.62×39 mm. I would keep this first range session to only using a 50 yard range.

In the interest of keeping this brief I will say that the rifle is as heavy as the 7.62 x39 variant and uses a magazine that is essentially the same. The rifle feels, operates and handles just like and other AK based rifle on the planet but with a round that doesn’t hammer on my twice surgically repaired shoulder. Our initial results at 25 and 50 yards with the rifle was what you would expect from shooting at close ranges, nothing that was out of the ordinary. This was my second time shooting the 5.45 x 39 mm, the first being the day we did operations checks on the rifle. I will admit that after 300 rounds of shooting, I completely understood why people like the 5.45 cartridge so much.

Now that our project rifle is assembled and initial testing has been done, we are entering phase 2 of our project .Our goal is to let any shooter at the range or that we have come in contact with locally to try the AK-74 and the 5.45 round for themselves. We plan on having the AK-74 stretch its legs and run out to targets as far as anyone can take it. Many time shooters want to try new guns but are afraid to invest the money in them if they aren’t happy. This way we can give back a little bit to the shooting community and let them test drive a new rifle and caliber to many. Below we have included an end of Phase One picture of our Project Saiga, What do you think ?