I recently removed a messed up barrel from a 7.62x39 Saiga with the intention of replacing it with a new Bulgarian Barrel. I'm not sure if this is well known, but I thought that I should share this if anyone else was thinking of doing something similar. After having a tough time pressing in the barrel, I measured the chamber diameter and it turns out that the Saiga has a .871" diameter trunnion and the Bulgarian barrel is .908. Is my best option to find somebody with a lathe and ask them to turn down the new barrel to match the trunnion? Also, has anyone removed the barrel from a Saiga before? Was it an odd diameter?

http://www.legionarms.com/pages/Dimensions-%26-Plans.html
This site states that Bulgarian barrels have smaller chamber diameters than other Euros, which is in contrast to my case.
http://www.k-var.com/shop/AK-601.html
My new barrel.

All Saigas, except the 308. are AK74 or more modernly AK100 pattern -- which uses 22mm. Your Bulgy bbl is AKM pattern -- 23mm ish. Turning down the diameter should work but there may be an issue with the mag shelf height and bullet guide.

yep 22mm vs 23mm

you will probably also run into issues if the barrel is already populated, as the Russian barrel is set up for long-lug trunnion, and the Bulgarian barrel is for short lug, so the barrel needs to be pressed in further - this will mess with rear sight block, gas block and handguard retainer locations if they're already populated.

Interesting. I knew that Saigas were 74 pattern but I was under the impression that 7.62x39s still had 23mm trunnions. Let's hope there isn't an issue with shelf height or the bullet guide.


The barrel is not populated, however the gas port is port is already drilled. Will that cause a problem? Also, what's the difference between the long lug and short lug? One older and the other is newer, or used by different countries?