Converting a Saiga

The Automat Kalashnikov design, especially that of stamped receivers, is quite simple.  The receiver merely serves the purpose of holding the trunions, front and rear, in the correct distance from each other, and to provide rails for the bolt carrier to ride on as it cycles.  Typically, military AKs come with a bullet guide (feed ramp) riveted to the front trunion between the magazine well and the breech.  Because of the design of the Saiga magazines, this feature is omitted.  However, if you want to use high-capacity military surplus magazines, you will have to have a bullet guide in order for the ammo to feed reliably.

There are two sources for these bullet guides.  One is to purchase a Bulgarian part from K-VAR.  The other option is to make one.  Since this is a budget conversion, I will show you how to make one and install it.

The bullet guide is merely a piece of curved metal that lifts the projectile into the breech as the bolt strips it off the magazine.  Using milsurp magazines, the projectile would rebound off the breech face of the barrel below the chamber without the bullet guide.  Now, it just so happens that the curve required is circular, so a section of pipe will work great.  You can use any thick-walled steel tube or pipe to make this piece from.  A really economical alternative is a 3/4 inch I.D. ( 1 inch O.D.) pipe nipple.

1. To begin, cut the threads off of one end of the pipe nipple.  Cut it as square as you can.

2. Carefully measure the distance from the breech face to the trailing edge of the pipe.

3. Transfer the measurement to the pipe starting at the end you cut the threads off of.  Scribe a line and cut with the kerf just inside the scribe line (between the scribe line and the cutoff).

4. The next task is to split the ring that has been cut from the nipple into two half-rings.

5. Now we need to shape the half-ring.  If you look into the receiver on the left hand side above the rear of the front trunion, you will see a rivet head sticking out into the interior of the receiver.  We want the left side of our half-ring to clear the rivet.  We will do this by cutting a notch in the half-ring to get the position that we want.  I will be doing this on my mini-mill, but you can saw or Dremel the bulk of the notch and dress it up with a rat-tail file.

6. Next, we will have to relieve the right side of our half ring if enough metal to allow the bolt and carrier to clear out home-made bullet guide.  You can determine the index of the cut by placing the half-ring into the receiver, pushing the notch cut in step 5 up against the rivet and running the bolt assembly up to the half-ring.  If you look into the magazine space, you can see where the bolt impacts the half ring on the right side.  Mark this point and cut across the end of the right side of the half-ring.  Try to keep it as parallel to the carrier rail as possible.  You will probably need to angle the cut from outside to inside.  This can be performed with a file.  Once the cut has been made put your home made bullet guide into the receiver, push it up against the rivet on the left hand side, and work the bolt assembly back and forth to ensure clearance.  While the bullet guide is still in it's correct place, take a marker and make a dot at the lowest point (tangent to the trunion) in the center of the bullet guide.  This will be where we make the attachment point.

Here is a drawing to make this task easier.  This drawing is for the .223 Remington carbine, and the dimensions for other calibers ma be slightly different.

<<Insert drawing here>>

7. The next step is to attach the home made bullet guide to the front trunion.  To do this, we have to drill two holes, one in the home made bullet guide, and one in the front trunion.  It is very important that these holes line up, because we are going to screw the bullet guide to the trunion.  I recommend a 6-40 machine screw.  It requires a Number 33 drill bit (0.113").  A 1/8 inch drill bit is too large and a 7/64 inch drill bit is too small.  Number 33s can be found at Home Depot, Lowe's, or ACE Hardware stores.  Chuck your bullet guide in a vise, concave side up and drill a hole through it where you made the dot in step 6 above.  Once the 1/8 inch hole is completely through, very carefully countersink the hole with a 1/4 inch bit.  When you are finished deburr the bullet guide with sandpaper.

8. Place the bullet guide back into position.  If you have a center punch that will fit through the hole in the bullet guide, use it to mark the position of the hole to be drilled in the trunion.  If you don't, chuck the Number 33 bit in a hand drill, and use the drill to begin the screw hole, but only enough to make a mark.

9. Remove the drill and bullet guide from the receiver, and then continue drilling the screw hole in the trunion, but this time, use the #33 bit.  A word of caution: go slow when drilling the trunion.  The metal is very hard and you could break your drill bit.  Use a drop or two of oil while drilling.

10. Once the hole is drilled, it is time to tap it with a 6-40 tap.  Again, go slow, and use oil.  One thing you do not want to do is break the tap off in your trunion! (Ask me how I know these things).  Use oil and make a 1/4 turn and back it out 1/4 turn. Continue till your tap is well through the trunion.

11. Remove the tap and place the bullet guide into position and screw it hand tight onto the trunion.  Do not try to make it white-knuckle tight.  A couple of lb-ft of torque will do for now.

The screw must be at least flush so that the bolt can pass over it, and the bolt carrier must be able to easily go into battery.  After testing, I plan to polish the bullet guide with emery cloth and phosphate it.

12. Replace the bolt assembly and work it back and forth, checking for clearance.  If the clearance is OK, reassemble the receiver with the bolt carrier assembly and springs.  Retract the bolt all the way back and release it and allow it to slam into the breech under spring power.  If it continues to work correctly, insert a magazine with a couple of dummy rounds and cycle them.  If they cycle into the breech correctly, we have done a good job.  If not, we may need to adjust the lips of the magazine or the position of the bullet guide.

After a successful live-fire test, we will revisit the attachment of the bullet guide with more permanence. I use Loctite® brand thread locker, but any type of thread locker will do, or you may silver solder the bullet guide in place.