My "bump in the night gun." AK63D parts kit, TDI rail, some crazy bright light, and a cheap red dot that I found in a box of old parts -- still holds zero! The muzzle brake is tapco I think. Best $12 I ever spent.
I have found a new hobby as a AK 47 magazine collector. This is some cool shit here. I'm actually having a good time researching about all the different variations and factories of manufacture. My latest addition, Izhmash bakelites.
Took awhile but I was finally able to get my hands on the elusive Russian Izhmash slabside magazine. Not rare, but not too common. Wish I could have gotten two. Two is one, one is none.
Here is a good example of a Chinese Traditional AK magazine. Note the 2 ribs along the bottom of the mag. And the spine of coarse. Still on the look out for a nice Sino Soviet mag.
Congrats on a great rifle man. My SGL is one of the finest rifles I own. Have fun with the conversion! 556 accuracy with AK reliability is hard to beat.
Yep I have read up on them a bunch. Carolina seems to be the go to place for Saiga conversions. Or you can ship it off and get it done as well. Guess it just depends on how much you wanna get into it or if you have the tools to do the pressing yourself. Wish the AK was as easy to exchange barrel components as an AR.
Figure you gotta ream the muzzle diameter down if you want to thread it to common 14x1LH or in his case it would likely be better to swap the front sight block with integrated 24mm threads. Barrel will still likely need to be reamed to press on the sight block, and if you are going that far and it doesnt have it already, might as well replace the 45 degree gas block to a 90 degree to mitigate bullet sheer and keep it milspec. Above all make sure that bullet guide is installed properly so you do not run into any feeding issues.
Next start stocking up on them mags. Widely available, just still a bit expensive.
Labor of love indeed but the end product is a Russian AK as close as you can get to the real deal. The receiver, barrel, BCG and bolt all Russian make for a great rifle. Kvar furniture, and AK ALG trigger, and 74 style break and you have a very nice example.
Afghanistan Circa 2004. I did not have a good appreciation for the rifle just yet and could not appreciate the history I was holding in my hand at the time.