Hi gang new to AK world. Just took delivery thru Davidson's of a new arsenal SGL21-71 Rifle.  The fit and finish seem top notch.  But I do have a couple of concerns.  The safety lever is very stiff when trying to take off of safe.  Is this something normal that will loosen up thru firing, or do I have a potential problem?  Secondly underneath the Russian circle arrow proof mark is an "09"  If this denotes year of manufacture where has this weapon been for two years?  Why could they not sell it till now.

Any thoughts or comments on these issues will be greatly appreciated.

P. S. don't when I'll get to shoot it.  right now all my spare change is going into the gas tank?  Thank you Obama " You ASS Clown."

The safety should loosen up a bit after the "break-in" period.  I had a really stiff safety on my Arsenal "Classic" that worked fine after a couple of hundred rounds.  As far as the "09" I have no idea.

09 is when the saiga rifle was made in Russia.  So sometime between then and now is when Arsenal converted it.  All the 21's and 31's I've seen have been marked 09.

The safety lever on my SGL21 was tight, also. I remedied it by taking the top cover of, flipping the lever up, then pushing out on it pretty hard to bend it outwards.
Works a lot better now.

Thanks I'll give that a try

Yeah, you gotta keep in mind it's a fairly long process to import the rifles and then convert then, then ship them to a distributor whole finally sells them to a dealer... and then it finally gets to you.

Don't dick with it, it came from the factory that way for a reason.



 

 It is tight to thepoint where I have to push on it with all my might and then it finally gives way.

Not really, the SGL31's I have are not terribly well fitted. It sounds to me like the safety needs a bit of loosening, they aren't supposed to be immovably tight


Z

Wow Joe, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today  You could be a little more polite to the guy he is new to the forum.

Mine are tight too (not that tight though), but I leave them that way... I find manipulating the safety to be a very rare thing on my AK's, mostly because I carry them on a empty chamber with the hammer down. This allows me to tilt the weapon to the left and see the hammer resting on the carrier and I know its clear. When I need it all I have to do is pull the bolt back and let go, and I usually don't have anything left over

Dukeydog, there are several minor modifications you can do to make your SGL21 A better rifle -  Simple things that should of been done at the factory/Arsenal.

I know there's some that are afraid to work on their own guns, and if you are, don't... but if you feel capable, don't let anyone tell you you can't, or shouldn't.

Besides the safety lever mod I did to mine - that makes the manual of arms much easier to manipulate the safety with your index & middle finger without your hand leaveing the grip.
There are several other other things that I did to my rifle that have been beneficial.

The two stage trigger was terrible - all I did was pull the FCG out, grind off & polish the raised back edge of the hammer ear where the trigger hook disengage's. The trigger pull is much better now.

The muzzle brake was loose, and needed to screw in another quarter or so turn, to be tight against the front sight base and engage the detent pin. All I did was file and polish the base of the brake to make fit like it should.

Evedently, my front sight base had a little cant.
After having to push the front sight over more than I liked when zeroing, I wasen't satisfied with it not being centered between the protective ears... so I used a rubber mallet to move the FSB.
With several hard strikes to the FSB, - while at the range & shooting in between (adjustments) to check for progress, my sight post is now perfectly centered.

IMO, Just because it came from the factory the way it is, doesn't mean that's the way it's ment to be, and nothing should be done about it.