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Old March 4, 2013, 09:46 PM   #1
JackBeQuick
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is Saiga 308 a AK or what is difference?

is Saiga 308 a AK or what is difference?
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Old March 4, 2013, 10:21 PM   #2
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Well a standard kalishnakov AK is select fire, chambered in 7.62x39 or 5.45x39, and has wooden furniture. Saigas look very similar, and the action cycles in an identical manner (piston), but they tend to not come with a pistol grip and have synthetic furniture. A 308 is a remarkably different round too
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Old March 5, 2013, 12:28 PM   #3
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Yes it is an AK. It's just modified with different furniture and trigger parts to make it look more like a "sporting rifle". Whatever that's supposed to be.

With relatively minor changes, it can be restored into a more or less standard AK type rifle.
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Old March 6, 2013, 02:14 AM   #4
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The Saiga is manufactured by Ishmash in Russia. It is the original AK plant. To meet import restrictions, it is made in a 'sporter' configuration...no pistol grip, bayo lug etc. Internally it is almost identical to a traditional semiauto AK, with a couple minor tweaks. It uses proprietary magazines and has an extended trigger bar with resulting nasty trigger pull.

I 'unconverted' my x39 Saiga a few years ago and am somewhat familiar with the differences.
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Old March 6, 2013, 02:44 AM   #5
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The 308 is a little super sized campared to the 7.62x39.
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Old March 6, 2013, 02:55 AM   #6
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Quote:
Well a standard kalishnakov AK is select fire, chambered in 7.62x39 or 5.45x39, and has wooden furniture
Not really... the current production milspec AK's use polymer furniture... wood has probably been out of favor for decades.
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Old March 6, 2013, 07:59 AM   #7
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I could be wrong but the saiga 308 uses a 3 lug bolt vs an AK using a 2 lug bolt, for better lockup and accuracy. I own a saiga 308 but not an AK so I may be wrong about this.
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Old March 8, 2013, 12:08 PM   #8
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saiga is an ak. So you do own a AK.

Saiga rifles are imported as "sporter" rifles as chris said. to meet some import regs or something.
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Old March 10, 2013, 02:19 AM   #9
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The Saiga is not a proper AK.

They are made in the Izhmash facotry and are very similar but you can't just put a pistol grip onto the Saiga, it takes a few other mods to make it into one.

Also as 308 is not what round the AK47 fires, one would assume they are not exactly the same.
You can also get a 12ga Saiga, which is also not what an AK47 fires.
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Old March 10, 2013, 03:08 AM   #10
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The .308 Saigas are part of the AK family of guns, just upsized slightly to handle the larger .308 rounds and with a few minor design differences to meet import regulations.
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Old March 10, 2013, 03:49 PM   #11
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Quote:
The Saiga is not a proper AK.
It's more "proper" than just about any other AK on the market, seeing as it's built on the same Russian assembly line at Izhmash as the modern AK-74M and AK-100 series rifles.

The Saigas share hammer-forged chrome-lined barrels and many other common parts with their respective military counterparts, and many Saigas sold commericaly on the international market are practically identical to the the military rifles, aside from lack of select-fire.

The Saiga sporter sold in the US to meet 922(r) regulations can be easily converted back to the standard pattern with a few tools, a conversion kit, and a Saturday afternoon. Your end result will be closer to a modern-manufacture stamped Russian AK than just about any rifle out there. Which is exactly why Arsenal stamped receiver rifles, among others, start life as Saigas.

Now the Saiga 308 is a slightly different beast, as its receiver (like the VEPR) is based more closely on the (AK-derived) RPK design than a typical AK.
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Old March 12, 2013, 11:46 PM   #12
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Nothing big to add, other then be sure you are buying parts that will fit the .308. I'm pretty sure a lot of parts are not interchangable with the 5.45, .223 or 7.62x39 rifles.
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Old March 13, 2013, 10:05 PM   #13
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The stocks/grips will fit once its converted. The forward furniture will not. It will need modifying in order to do so, along with a handguard retainer clip of whichever style you choose to go with. I have a saiga 308. It looks identical to an ak except its receiver is alittle thicker i believe, the barrel is thicker and 3 locking lugs. It may also be slightly longer although i have never held 2 side by side and checked that close.
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