Correia

Bringing this old thread back up. Somebody asked for video of a sub 2 second Saiga 12 reload. This is a video of a little local fun machine gun shoot. I do a Saiga reload at 5 minutes 10 seconds into it. I'm rusty too. (opened gunstore, have only shot 2 matches in last 10 months) Get sloppy on the insert, working out of a vest instead of a belt, and I let my elbow get too high. But it is still under 2. It isn't as hard as some people think it is. I would think that some of the really good shooters on here could do it a lot faster.

I've got a professional building a webpage for my company right now. I'm going to talk to him about the feasability of hosting some videos. I'll be glad to record my reload and post it here.

Honestly, I suck with pistol compared to most of the posters on this board. I'm not ranked in USPSA, and I'm only an Expert in IDPA. I'm pretty good with rifles, and I live for shotgun. Smkshwn has seen me reload a Saiga. I'll set the timer par at 2.5, at the buzzer, reload, and have the gun back in action before it beeps. srf, I do have relatives there, but don't know them. There are basically two Portugese Correia familys in the world, in about fifty countries, and we're all related somehow. Most of the Portagees in the US ended up in the NE, Mass, RI area, or went west and ended up in California. surfmaster, right now, I'm waiting as eagerly as everybody else. I'm not taking preorders until I have firm price and ETA. I'll be sure to post here though.

smokshwn, thanks for the kind words. I can't help it. I like Russian guns. I'm a distributor for Russian American, and I've been selling the S12s as fast as I can get them in. I honestly think that when 10 round magazines are available, these are going to take over 3gun. I've got several hundred of both kinds of the 10 rounders on preorder. I have 3 of the original 8 rounders for my Saiga, and I love it. I've practiced the reload quite a bit, and have gotten it down to just over 2 seconds consistently. Rather than bevel the bolt, I've just learned to load with the action held open manually. I keep my left hand on the mag like a vertical foregrip, keep the gun at the shoulder, grab the charging handle with my strong hand, lock the gun in place with my trigger finger holding the charging handle to the rear, and my thumb holding the gun in place. (I have plenty of hand strength, this might be hard for some people) Drop mag, grab new mag, rock and lock. Support hand stays on mag. When I return my strong hand to the stock, the bolt goes forward. Gun is back in action. That was me in Frontsight magazine with the Saiga this month too.

I've been using a Saiga 12 in 3gun for awhile. I have had really good luck with reliability, but I've only used the factory 8 (9 if you squeeze hard) mags. I echo what the others have said. The higher the round count, the more advantage to the mag fed. Now on a stage with lots of movement, reload-top off opportunities, it is more moot. Stand and blast lots of rounds, depends on the round count. I can load a few shells into a tube fed faster than a new mag into a Saiga. But more than that, the mag wins.

Craig, you still kicked the crap out of me. Nice margin there. I can't help it though, I'm on a mission now. I'm going to build a race AK. I've got an EOtech on the way. Sometimes it is just fun to be different.

Here are the results from our 3gun style rifle only match that I shot in last Saturday. I took 2nd overall and 1st with irons. I used my 7.62x39 Vepr. http://www.udpl.net/results/2005/Rifle-Car...Time5-28-05.pdf There were a few CQB style hoser stages, some 100 yard position stages, and then a 200 yard stage. Seven overall, I'm guessing about 150 round count. This is just a local match, but the shooters at UDPL are pretty good, and put on an excellent and challenging match. Yep, positively getting a .223 one out of the group buy now.

I started this thread like a year ago and just realized that it was still on the page. You are right about the Saiga 12. It is awesome. I've been using a Saiga 12 in local 3gun for the last year, and it is a blast. On the higher count stages I can really move up in the scores. (I need it too, because I'm still a pretty lousy pistol competitor) I wrote an article in SWAT magazine a few months back about the Saiga 12. I've become a big fan. I also agree with you on the .223 and 5.45 AKs. I'm getting a .223 Vepr from the group buy that is going on at www.fbmginc.com right now. (Dirt cheap too) I talked about trying a .223 Vepr and setting it up specifically for 3gun last year, but finances just didn't allow it at the time. But for under $500, I can justify screwing around with one now as the base for a comp project. I'm going to stick a JP comp on it, just to be really really different.

I'm bringing up this older thread because I just found it. I'm kind of sensitive about this topic. Last year at our state match I took 2nd place Sharpshooter in CDP. The guy that won was a Master in SSP & ESP. (Glock shooter) He shot a Glock 21 in CDP and beat all of us by an absurd amount of time, as well as every single CDP expert and about half the masters. He had not classified in CDP in something like 5 years. It was just plain silly to most of the shooters, and pretty darn offensive to those of us in SS.

www.robarm.com The Vepr is actually based on the RPK. It is a lot stiffer and has a heavier barrel. I can do sub 2 inch 5 shot groups at 100 piece of cake, and I lack the patience to be a good benched shooter. I've done 5 inch groups at 200. I'm sure a better rifleman would be able to do better than that. My next Vepr will be .223 and I know a few people with those and they are all uniformly very accurate. I can operate the safety with my trigger finger with out shifting my grip. I've gotten my mag changes to where they are pretty darn fast, (as long as I still have one in the chamber, lack of bolt hold open slows you down). My next one will have a reddot or an EoTech. I just have not decided on which one I'm going to go with yet.

Hey Gabe. I'm using a Vepr K in 7.62x39 with Krebs A2 sights on it. I'm asking because I'm hopelessly addicted to this sport, but I hate AR15s. I know they are great guns that absolutely dominate this sport, but I've just had some personal experiences that have left a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing against the gun, just a personal choice. I was asking because I'm building up another Vepr, this time strictly for 3gun. I was just curious if anybody had ever accomplished anything of note with one. I'm going to try, but I wouldn't bet on it, seeing as that I'm really not very good, but the fun is in the effort.

Out of curiosity, are any of you aware of any good shooters who use an AK type rifle in 3gun competition with any sort of success? Do you think it is even feasible? I've been using one for a few years now, and I do pretty good, but I have really only shot at the local club level, with few exceptions, and the only large matches I went to I did not do very good. Just curious.

Wow! Just read the COFs. Those are some wicked cool stages.

Ok, so the match is limited shotgun only. Is there a maximum barrel length rule? I know that capacity is limited to 9. (once again embarresing myself with my lack of USPSA knowledge)

I e-mailed you guys once for details but I have a few more questions, as I love 3 gun shotgun, but my background is not in USPSA so I'm not as familiar with that system. I know USPSA says 9 rounds for limited, 10 rounds for open, but is there a maximum barrel length rule? (30 inch barrel, 12 shot Choate) If you have a 12 round tube, can you shoot limited and just start with 9 in the gun? If so, can you top off more than 9 shells in the gun after the buzzer? I believe that USPSA has no distinction between pump and auto correct? Just limited and open? Or if I chose to use my gamer gun, does USPSA have any rules against magazine fed shotguns? (Saiga) Would a Saiga with 9 round magazines be a limited gun?