I am wondering if there is any possible way to use a 7.62 barrel on a 5.45 Tula Parts kit. My main questions about the build would be:

Would a Saiga 7.62x39mm barrel with the 22mm barrel trunnion size work in the Tula 5.45 trunnion?  Are the gas ports drilled far enough forward that they would be in front of where the barrel would need to be cut?

Would a traditional 7.62 bolt and bolt carrier work with a US made shortened krink gas piston, or do I need the Krinkov specific bolt and bolt carrier?

What US made gas piston would need to be used, the 5.45 or the 7.62?  I am not sure if it would change because of the FSB/GB that come with the Tula kit.

Are there any other things I would need to convert in order to make the build work?  Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to give.

you can use a saiga barrel but would probably need to change the feedramp, or get a 23mm trunnion and a 23mm barrel and a 7.62 hinge block.  the gas port on a regular barrel is far enough forward that it would be cut off and you'd drill a new gas port for the krinkov fsb.

there is a krink specific bolt carrier, it's skinnier on the stem from the charging handle to the piston, also K-var lists a specific piston for 7.62, the carrier on my SAM7K uses an AMK style bolt.

sell the tula kit buy a m92 pistol or kit

Search out forum member AEnemaBay. He seems to have a good grip on the technical shit. He'll probably be along eventually.

Awe, well ain't you sweet?



OP, if there's anything I've learned working on AK's is that pretty much anything is possible. Would I personally use a Tula kit to make it into a 7.62 gun? No, simply because I think that it would be better built as it was intended, but that's the purist side of me talking.  If you happen to go ahead with the project there are some things you'll probably run into:

1) Most 7.62 bolt stems are larger than 5.45 bolt carriers, and therefore the bolts won't fit. This can be worked around by using a current Saiga bolt but since K-Var doesn't have any of them anymore that will be a task all in itself.
2) Tula AKSU trunnions are notorious for having oversized barrel journal holes. So you would have to measure the opening with a caliper and hope you can find a barrel to match.
3) You can certainly cut down an AKM barrel to AKSU specs but finding someone competent to do it without waiting over a year is going to be a challenge.
4) When the Bulgarians started building 7.62 AKSU's they made a modified bolt carrier and gas piston that you won't be able to recreate from the parts in your kit. However, I'm not so sure it's necessary.

Essentially, it can be done but it's going to take a lot of waiting on your end just to have a bastardized build. If I were you, I would offer to trade the Tula kit for a Bulgarian 7.62 AKSU kit with an original barrel. Now you will more than likely have to add cash to the deal, but you'd be getting all of the correct parts and the only thing you should need is a receiver (NDS-1KP, or 74U LLC khyber would be perfect). Another option is to build one from a 7.62 Saiga like I did:

(This pic reminds me that I need to get off my ass and refinsh this damn thing. Also, that I need to vacuum the area rug.)

I completely overlooked these questions:

1) Yes, you could use a bolt and carrier from an AKM kit. It will require replacing the gas piston (which you know). But if you're going to do that then you might as well sell the Tula kit to fund a Saiga and the necessary parts to convert it into an AKSU.

2) The differences between the 5.45 and 7.62 AKSU pistons are the piston heads and the length. I used a 7.62 piston on my Saiga conversion and it required me to shorten the bolt carrier stem in order for the bolt carrier to fully close once the FSB/GB was installed in the correct position. You could use the 5.45 piston on the 7.62 carrier without shortening the bolt carrier without any issues. I just wanted to use the solid head piston so I went ahead and shortened mine.

Here's a pic I took of the different pistons:

Thank you for all of the great info in the last few posts.  I have some thinking to do now.  Whether to buy the M92 kit, convert a Saiga, or just build the Tula Krink as is, and look for something else in 7.62.

I would not hesitate to build the Tula kit the way it is supposed to be. It would definitely be an investment.

Aenemabay did you do all the work on your saiga yourself?

I didn't do the barrel since I don't have a lathe (yet). I had Esteps Guns do the folding stock conversion originally since he was so cheap. But after a ton of broken timelines and promises I finally got it back and ended up completely welding it all up because he screwed it up bad. Go look up his current feedback thread on the AK Files to see all of his "happy" customers. Now I've done a few of them myself and should have done it from the get go. So I re-cut the folding stock, shortened the bolt carrier for the 7.62 piston, drilled the gas port, cut the handguard retainer, pressed and pinned the barrel components, and welded up the old Saiga holes. It runs beautifully and haven't experienced a single malfunction.

Sticking with the converted Krinks, does anyone know if there would be an issue putting standard Saiga 5.45 barrel on the front trunnion of the Tula Krink?  Would it headspace with out any issues, if headspaced correctly?

why do this? just buy a blue jack barrel or a ak-74 and have it cut down by a professional