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Siaga 12ga....


Nightrain

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Recently purchased a siaga 12ga for 3gun... Only one trip to the range so far.. About 4 boxes of #6 Winchester low brass white box down range... Stove piped every round for first mag. Progressively got better as I shot.. I would assume the beast just needs to be broke in.. Or should I be shooting hevier loads....

Thanks for n e help.

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I'm not a Open shotgunner but most of the ones I know of usually have some tuning done before even going to the range. I have a standard 12 and 20 Saiga and they run fine with the factory mags and lighter loads. I had a few malfunctions early but after that, it usually ran fine.

If you do some searches, there are some guys that tell you some DIY stuff to do to get them running reliably. Here are a few:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=105326&st=0&p=1198276&hl=+saiga%20+tune&fromsearch=1entry1198276

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60645&hl=%20saiga%20%20tune&st=0

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the Winchester shells are the worst and are will jam your saiga.

saiga's usually run pretty good from the factory. they need tuning AFTER you make them open guns with magwell, gas system work, bolt polishing, mag catch, in line comps... etc.

i think the izmash factory should include a good set of files with every gun they sell. :)

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I've only had early Saigas (22") barrel. I had to open the gas ports to .092, but I understand the later ones may be larger/or/ have 4 holes instead of the early guns 3 holes...... Another thing,remove one Saiga recoil spring, try a Colt 1911 spring (12/14#) in it's place. Yes, they take some work, polish the normal stuff, you won't have a fortune in it. Do the trigger conversion it's not that hard to do, (saiga.com). Tons of info

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the Winchester shells are the worst and are will jam your saiga.

saiga's usually run pretty good from the factory. they need tuning AFTER you make them open guns with magwell, gas system work, bolt polishing, mag catch, in line comps... etc.

i think the izmash factory should include a good set of files with every gun they sell. :)

Umm actually Winchester AA hulls are some of the best shells I have found for my Saiga next to Remingtons gold hulls.

Pat

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Out of the box Saiga 12s can be hit or miss. Some work well (like mine) while others are referred to as "Vodka Specials" because they are so poorly made. The number and size of gas ports seems to be a variable, depending on how drunk the machinist was at the time :roflol: My advice would be as follows:

1) Try a variety of low-brass and high-brass shells. If you are lucky you will find something that makes it run 100%.

2) If nothing makes it run, pull the gas plug/puck and inspect the gas ports. If you don't see 4 ports (I assume you have a 19" gun) then you might want to consider sending it back for warranty work before you put too much time or $$$ into it.

3) If you want to work on it yourself, go and visit the Saiga 12 forum where you will find just about any answer you need to make your Saiga 12 run. There are lots of dirt shooters over there, but they do know the platform very well and will give you sound advice.

Good luck.

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the Winchester shells are the worst and are will jam your saiga.

saiga's usually run pretty good from the factory. they need tuning AFTER you make them open guns with magwell, gas system work, bolt polishing, mag catch, in line comps... etc.

i think the izmash factory should include a good set of files with every gun they sell. :)

Umm actually Winchester AA hulls are some of the best shells I have found for my Saiga next to Remingtons gold hulls.

Pat

The 100 rd valupak from Walmart that Winchester sells under the "universal" label are horrible. They call the 1 1/8 oz 3 dram loads but they do not seem to function as well as teh same type Federals do.

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the Winchester shells are the worst and are will jam your saiga.

saiga's usually run pretty good from the factory. they need tuning AFTER you make them open guns with magwell, gas system work, bolt polishing, mag catch, in line comps... etc.

i think the izmash factory should include a good set of files with every gun they sell. :)

Umm actually Winchester AA hulls are some of the best shells I have found for my Saiga next to Remingtons gold hulls.

Pat

The 100 rd valupak from Walmart that Winchester sells under the "universal" label are horrible. They call the 1 1/8 oz 3 dram loads but they do not seem to function as well as teh same type Federals do.

Just goes to show that you can't make absolute statements. There are lots of different types of Winchester shells out there. I expect the cheap stuff to be garbage with any brand.

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At one shotgun match several years ago, one friend had a case of Winchester Universal shotshells and under the summer heat that day the shell crimps were unfolding like flowers blooming. Very poor construction.

for clarification, i was referring to wally world bulk pack winchester shells, which are the cheapest crap ever made and jam my saiga way worse than others.

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a tail of two Saiga's my first Saiga I purchased in 2001 it's been a great gun and done all I have have asked of it for a long time. Early last year I was on a business trip to Alaska a friend of mine had one and wanted to sell it so I bought it from him. The gun would not cycle anything but the heaviest loads.

I sent the internals to a guy in Portland and he smoothed them out and the gun runs like a champ now.

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Iwhen I purchased my saga I had a similar experience. One on the issues was the ejector rubbing on the bottom on the bolt. I filed the bolt until it would slide back and forth smoothly, then I polished the bolt and added a Carolina shooters supply competition recoil spring and adjustable gas Knob. Mine will run reliably with the federal Walmart bulk pack but in competition I use the Remington nitro Gold sporting clay ammo from walmart.

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