Most people with the .223 saiga know that bulgarian mags don't seat for the most part, unless you get a freak rifle that is already cut for it.  Well when comparing two conversions of mine, I noticed that the 5.45 rifle of mine seats bulgarian mags perfectly, and the other in .223 doesn't.  Found that the rear "ears" of the trunnion are machined differently on one rifle vs the other.  Well hell I can take care of that.  Finally got a chance to throw my saiga on the mill after much measuring.  Milled some of the material to match the profile of the 5.45 trunnion and voila.  Wait error.  Still not seating.  Turns out there is another small tab in the rear of the magwell that wouldn't let it slide in the last couple 100ths of an inch or so.  So I hit it with the mill.  Bulgarian circle 10 mags snap right into place and are very snug and secure.  No forward/rearward motion and very little side to side.  Feels like less mag play than my AR.  If anybody is interested I can snap some pics before I throw some paint on it.  This has pb been covered before though.  Just thought I would share for anybody wanting to use circle 10 mags.

EDIT as soon as I got home threw some dummy rounds in the mag and they run flawlessly.  The feedramp that I have is the same feedramp that was put into it to originally feed galil mags.

nice! Have any pics? I'm wanting to pick up a 223 Saiga and d a conversion soon.
 

Can you still run galil mags with no problem with this mod

Good question, let me check it out.  Didn't even think about that one.

Also Nictra, pics on the way.

EDIT here are the pics I just took of both the milled out area of the .223 saiga trunnion and how it compares to my 5.45 trunnion ears in the same area.  When comparing the two before doing the machining.  I just took the difference in height between the two using a set of calipers and milled down to the 5.45 trunnion specs since it seats bulgy mags nice and tight.  

This morning, I just checked fitment of one of the galil orlite mags that I have and it did seat and feed with no problems.  The fitment was a little loose, and the mag was able to wobble front to back maybe a 1/4" at most.  But it didn't have any problems feeding when manipulated in any direction. I will also note though that even before I did this mod, I had a little bit of movement in the mag.  

I also tested a tapco golani/galil whatever mag in the gun.  Before it had quite a bit of mag wobble and I didn't really like to use it, even though it worked very well and never had any problems.  It just always had that cheap feel to it and the mentioned mag wobble.  Now this of course has made it a little worse.  Just slightly more movement than the galil mag has.  But again no problems feeding even when pulling the mag in any direction.  Who knows, maybe I will keep them for some bang around range mags or just gut the followers to mod a bulgy 5.45 mag.

Pics  

Modded .223 trunnion and magwell.





Now the 5.45 trunnion/magwell





Seated Bulgy circle 10 mag in all its glory!!!

I have been wondering the same thing. I was thinking of modding the bulgarian mags instead by trimming the front of them to clear the trunnion. Currently i am just using the SGM saiga mags.

I thought briefly about doing this.  But I have other guns that I use the bulgy mags with, and did not want to cut on the mags that I paid a lot of money for only to have fitment issues in the other guns that they already work well in.  Plus I have been slowly getting rid of my galil mags since they are gradually getting harder to find and now cost more than bulgy mags.  I knew this mod would be the natural progression of this rifle.

in this case, I'd rather mod the rifle than the mag. Looks good! Not as bad as I had pictured in my minds eye. Thanks for pics! When I finally find my 223 Saiga I will do a step by step conversion thread and throw your trick in there if you don't mind. I don't have a mini mill, but my dremel-fu is up to par, let's just say Grasshopper has left the house
 

Yeah I thought for a moment on doing this with a dremel, but my buddy has a mill so it was a no brainer.  Plus I have seen lots of dremel collateral damage on various rifles.  Feel free to use the mod, its why I posted up with pics to show how easy of a mod it really is.  Trim two tabs, about 1mm off a tab on the rear of the magwell and voila, no more settling for crapco or hard to find galil mags!!

I appreciate it, now if I can just find that 223 Saiga......
 

I think my fondness for this newly acquired mod has turned me into a mag whore.  Dropped by Independence firearms since they are about 15 miles from me to see what all they had in stock.  Nice guys and always have lots of neat guns going in and out of their shop.  Saw a few chugo krinks, very few ak rifles from what they normally have in stock.  Also saw a metric shit ton of ar rifles, uppers and lowers around, not sure if they are just not selling or what.  Saw that in their back mag corner that they still had the 6 black 5.56 circle 10 mags that were still there 6 mo ago.  So I took care of that old stock for them.  I can honestly say that this has become my favorite rifle to shoot bar none.  Well Im sure that will change once my order of slr rifles....I mean *pistols* comes in.

Also Nictra.  Word has it that some of the newer .223 saiga rifles have the dimpled magwell, AND an ak74 profile barrel that is .591 instead of .630 in diameter.  Which means you wont have the same problem I did if you want to use ak74 hardware on the barrel.  I would definitely look for one of those particular rifles.  Hell who knows, maybe if you find one of those rifles, circle 10 mags will snap right in from the factory.

I modded my Saiga 223 trunion with me dremel and a MIG. Now it takes and locks up Bulgy mags nicely.

My 223 Saiga has dimpled magwells but still the same funky trunnion. Mags still need to be filed a little to fit. Galil mags fit fine though but still no bullet guide in it yet so they will not work.