-do they have a chrome lined barrel?
-are they used in the hesse guns as a base to there ak-47?

the conversion route is something im looking into. i like the idea of having a russian ak and having it be brand new. also i prefer the modern looking saiga hand guard.

YES

and

YES!

I want ALL the Saigas!  Still working on it...

thanks for the reply. now im confused though. if they are used in the hesse guns then why are the hesse guns given bad reviews and said to have bad construction? i cant find anything good about hesse guns but ive just found another web page to confirm that they are from the Izhmash factory. are they taking shortcuts in their conversions that are really messing the guns up? also what was the final price in your conversion?

http://www.ak-47.net/ak47/hesse47.html
http://www.kalashnikov.guns.ru/wwwboard/messages/11541.html

The 308 I have has been modified by Hesse.  It's a Saiga rifle. Hesse converted the pistol grip, replaced the Saiga trigger with a standard AK type trigger and welded a muzzle attachment on the end of the barrel.  The rifle is a Saiga with a few modifications.  I have two of the 308 Saigas and they are great shooters and well made rifles.

cool thanks. i found one post in a forum that seemed to elude that hesse made their own crappy ak's before they began doing the conversions. that would explain why all the bad reviews make no mention of the fact they are saiga rifles...because they were just the hesse home grown offering.

im liking this conversion idea. it looks like a profesionaly done conversion is fetching around 900 dollors. self made will be tons cheaper

Hesse guns in general have a bad reputation because they do a terrible job of working the action, headspacing and all that.  The Hesse conversions of the Saigas seem to be okay because all they do is add a feed ramp, file the mag catch, replace the trigger group, and weld on a brake.  The biggest complaint I have heard is that the brake welds are goofy.

The 308-1 conversion gun cost me $435.00 out the door.
I don't know the prices for other custom builders, but I felt that was a good value for a rifle ready to go to the range.

Hesse got a bad reputation with their out-of-spec FAL receivers.  Like most enthusiast groups, the FAL community is extremely unforgiving when vendors don't back their products.  Hesse didn't make good on their crappy receivers and people were stuck with them.  Search on www.falfiles.com for details.

Hesse has cleaned up their act somewhat.  I have one of their late model FAL receivers and have had zero problems with it.  I also have one of their Galil/Hegal receivers and have no complaints about it either.  Friends of mine who build their own AKs prefer Hesse receivers (I haven't built an AK yet).  Where you still run into problems with Hesse (now Vulcan) is in the assembled guns as mentioned above.  OTOH, I have seen several more-than-acceptable assembled Hesse guns.