the saiga and vepr factory forearms are made from some type of soft nylon. the resistant properties are not too good. neaither were the russians' first ak-74 military hanguards...they also melted.

i find this sad, as the russians have long ago mastered injection molded thermoset resins that have very good hear resistant properties.

to install military style handguards on a saiga or vepr, the bbl. must first be stripped of the frnt sight base and gas block. the a proper lower handguard reater can be fitted and the bbl. slotted for the catch lever.

a pain in the ass job just to replace a substandard part with the good stuff.

Speaking of horrors, a few years back campybob got our first big gun job making parts kits for
several distributors. I would line the ak rifles along a curb and Bob would run over them with a single cylinder John-Deere tractor.  In  just a few minutes we would have a days worth of shipping kits. Sad I know but it kept us drinking money.