Question for anyone with higher round count Saiga 12

[CareyH]

I have been shooting open class 3 gun for about 4yrs and have used the same Saiga 12 the whole time. Its truly a rare beast, with very little work when I got it, it has given me 4yrs of trouble free use. And when I say trouble free, I mean 1 malfunction a season if that. I shot a local match in November at it ran like a top as always, but today I went to a match and had FTE after FTE. I am using the same ammo I always do (estate 2 3/4in 3 dram #7 1/2) and have not changed anything since the last match. The gun only has 200ish rounds through it since the last cleaning, and I oiled it before the match. I was using my MD arms 20rd drum when this was happening(again, same one I always use)

When it would FTE, it was more like a stove pipe. It would go back far enough to hit the ejector and pick up the other round, but the head of the spent hull would get caught between carrier and the chamber. The ejector doesn't have any damage, and the extractor feels like it has good tension( but I am not sure how much it should have).

Is there any particular parts I should look at? what wears out?

I am going to replace the recoil spring, and extractor spring(if I can find one), and take the drum apart and clean it. It has always run so good I was really thrown of today when it started puking on me.

I will list everything I have done to the gun.

Carolina shooters supply conversion kit w/ tromix trigger and hammer, 6 posi stock, saw grip, tromix trigger guard

Left side charging handle, polished carrier, and bolt. CSS gas puck, stock gas selector.

thread on chokes, low power recoil spring, extended mag release. R and R racing red dot mount, MRDS red dot, stock hand guard that has been stippled by me.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Flatland Shooter]

How cold was it today?

Could that have caused the problem? Like really thick when cold grease?

Are Estate shells temperature sensitive?

Might wait for a warm day and see if anything changes.

Bill

Edited January 11, 2015 by Flatland Shooter

[CareyH]

How cold was it today?

Could that have caused the problem? Like really thick when cold grease?

Are Estate shells temperature sensitive?

Might wait for a warm day and see if anything changes.

Bill

It was pretty nice for Colorado in January. It was in the low 50's, I run a pretty light oil. I have run the same set-up in 20* weather with no issues.

[OPENB]

Gas ports clear and puck moving smoothly? Hold the gun horizontal and shake back and forth, do you hear the puck moving? Did you get the adjustable gas back on the right setting after cleaning? My brother runs an MDA drum, and had to replace the spring after a couple seasons. Not enough umpf to get the next round up to be fed.

Edited January 11, 2015 by OPENB

[CareyH]

Gas ports clear and puck moving smoothly? Hold the gun horizontal and shake back and forth, do you hear the puck moving? Did you get the adjustable gas back on the right setting after cleaning? My brother runs an MDA drum, and had to replace the spring after a couple seasons. Not enough umpf to get the next round up to be fed.

I will order a new spring for the drum today. I pulled the gas adjuster and puck out at the range just to double check the setting after the first stage that it FTE. When I cleaned it a few hundred rounds ago, I ran a pick through the gas ports. I will pull it apart again and make sure nothing go lodged in the gas ports.

[Mahlsan]

Try contacting j&l gunsmothing out of chesspeake va. He runs a saiga open and does work on them. He has a Facebook page as well.

[CareyH]

Stripped it down and inspected it, I cant find anything out of the ordinary. I replaced the recoil spring and the spring in the drum. I also bought the MD arms booster puck, I am going to hold off on putting that in and see if the spring changes fix the issue.

The spring for the drum was pretty tired, it had over 5k rounds through it. The factory puts 3 full turns of tension on the spring. When I unwound the drum it had just about 2 turns of tension and felt noticeably weaker than the new one. The recoil spring was pretty tired too, so I am hoping this will clear up the problem. Going to put a few rounds through it this weekend....we will see.

[SinistralRifleman]

9,000-10,000 shells is the service life of a Saiga-12. You will see the rivets start to stretch rearward. The top cover will engage less. Actively shooting a saiga-12 for 3-4 matches a month plus major matches I wore one out in about 4 years. They are disposable guns. Factory service life on most AKs is only required to be around 5,000 rounds then they get thrown away from what I am told. The fact they are not built for longevity is why I've always believed it to be a mistake to dump more than a few hundred into modifying them.

[CareyH]

I switched out the spring in the drum and put a new recoil spring in it. Went to the range today and put 200rds through it with out a hiccup. Even with the 2 3/4dram estate shells it cycled 100%. It also cycled 100% shooting it from the hip holding it very loosely. Problem solved

I guess since I am getting near the service life of this gun, I need to start looking at other options.

[nguySBR1]

The ejection cycle on the Saiga12 uses the magazines upward push to eject the shell clear of the action. The worn spring in the drum was most likely the cause of your troubles.