GOOD BUY ON FIRE ARMS

Saiga, truly the best Rife on today's market for today's money.

 Tidbits from Kelley H.

There are not many bargains in firearms. My experiences with firearms have convinced me that the only way to get your money's worth is to hone your bartering skills and hit the local gun shows until you find the firearm that you want to barter for are a price you can live with the Saiga was engineered to comply with Clinton era restrictions placed on the Russian Federation with even fewer "evil" features than other imports as a condition of securing loans, the Saiga rifle is a highly modified derivative of the AKM rifle. Unlike other Ak derivatives where they were primarily military rifles slightly modified to comply with US import regulations, the Saigas was engineered from the beginning for commercial civilian use.

The Saiga has a complex trigger group specifically for semi auto use, while the potential of this gun satisfies those looking for a utilitarian rifle, but are willing to give up classic AK looks, it has a sheet metal receiver, but it also uses the higher quality component manufacture for the AK100.

The furniture on most models is black plastic, with OEM magazines being a combination of plastic and metal, the sights are realistically graduated for the effective accurate range of the 7.62X39 cartridge, although there are models of the Saiga in .223 and 7.62X51 thats the military version of the 308, there is in addition to these sporting series of very similar Saiga shotguns all derived from the same basic AK action.

The most noticeable difference from the classic AK design on this gun is the stock and trigger group arrangement. In order to make the gun more "sporting" the trigger group was reconfigured to place the trigger and trigger guard further to the rear in the action, so as to eliminate the placement of a separate pistol grip and allow the use of a more or less conventional Monte Carlo type stock “internally” the gun is still largely AK, but with some components added in order to compensate for the new triggers geometry.

Needless to say, this also makes the usual full auto conversions the most difficult of all of the semi-auto AK derived rifles.

The more subtle difference is the magazine and magazine catch arrangement, they come with a unique 10 shot magazine that is derived from standard magazines, but is not directly compatible with and will not lock properly in a conventional AKS and likewise, a conventional AKs will not function in the Saiga without some kind of modification of the gun and sometimes the magazines, I found that modification of the gun alone is relatively easy to allow the use of standard magazines. This is not only a benefit for getting some firepower out of the package, but also to allow the functional use of common. "hunting legal" five shot magazines that are readily available on the open market,Some states hunting laws require that the magazine be blocked to prevent loading more than five rounds during the hunting season, and for those wanting a larger capacity check out the local gun show you can find them in a 20 round clip.

Practice ammunition is inexpensive and widely available. This is the same cartridge used in the AK-47, which was adopted by almost every country in the world outside of North America and Western Europe. Currently, East German manufactured ammunition is available for about .07 per round by mail order in case lots. Chinese surplus ammunition is also easily available for less than .10 per round. If you shop around at the gun shows or get a copy of Shotgun News are Gun List you will be able to find plenty of low priced ammunition.

This low priced ammunition will all be full jacketed military ball, often steel cored or steel jacketed. This makes it unsuitable for hunting anything but small game, and eliminating pests and predators. As practice ammunition it's cheaper than making your own, and you can still buy hollow points at the gun shows.

All the major U.S. ammunition manufacturers have begun producing this cartridge. The Remington soft point seems to perform well on game. The others may, I haven't seen them used yet. Non-corrosive military type ammunition is available, made in Portugal and South Korea. This is less expensive than the U.S. commercial ammo and is good enough for training, practice, and pest and predator control.

This is not a target rifle, and the intrinsic accuracy is no better than 3" at 100 yards with any that I have tried. In terms of practical accuracy, it is easy to shoot and comfortable for most beginners. I have seen several novices get hits on 100 yard targets with their first shots from these rifles. Since the effective range of this cartridge on predators and small deer is no more than 100 yards, this level of accuracy is acceptable.

If you need a simple, rugged, reliable rifle for deer hunting at close range, pest and predator control, self-defense, or just something a little more interesting than a .22 to plink with, the Saiga sporting rifle may be right for you. The price is certainly right I bought one for my Wife $300.00 out the door.