I was able to get a saiga x39 that hasn’t been converted and I was wondering who still does good work on them. I’d had one years back, but I didn’t get to keep it in the divorce.  I know tac 47 has done some decent thing, and rifle dynamics is another name I remember. I looked at krebs website, and they recommend a place called the firing line in Oklahoma, I’ve never heard of them.

It’s not something I want to invest a huge amount of money in, and I don’t want to do it myself. With Russian imports gone, and the rest likely going away soon, I want it done by someone who knows the platform well.

Check with Troy at In Range. He might be accepting work again.

I don’t think Rifle Dynamics is accepting new work, and their lead time is really long for the products that they are building.

Someone recommended Two Rivers Arms out of Oklahoma City to me for a possible re-blue job, but they weren’t taking new work as of last December.

I checked in range, it seems the gun side of the business has not been open since October. I didn’t know rifle dynamics was that backed up either. I’ll call Monday to see about them

Didn’t realize the ak market was still so hot. Anyone have a conversion done in the last couple years that would recommend a company?

Two Rivers Arms isn’t taking any new work for several months per a recent email.
POHF and AK USA are good builders to consider.

What ever happened to definitive arms?

Heard the same from Two Rivers. Wouldn’t even give me a quote for the work I needed done.

I'm getting my AK back tomorrow. I'll let you know how things look.

I chose Dissident Arms for a front end conversion. They make some really nice looking Saiga/VEPR based shotguns for competition and such. It took me 11 months, my quote was initially a 16 week turn around iirc.

I also looked at M13 Industries

It doesn't seem like there are too many fast gunsmiths right now.

I’ve heard of dissident arms before, along time ago.  Haven’t heard of m13, I’ll check them both out.

I’m not worried about speed, I don’t plan on using this a lot. I’ll probably be getting a quote from rifle dynamics, but I’d still like to see what’s out there.  I’ve just always wanted a Russian ak. Before the ban, I had wanted one in Russian red furniture, and one with a folding stock and railed front end. Probably won’t be doing the red as im not going to have one I don’t intend to ever shoot.

@captain_destro

How’d your ak turn out? I called rifle dynamics, they stopped doing saiga conversions awhile back. They recommended Mesa kinetics, who I don’t know much about. I remeber the one guy there from the tv show, he seemed pretty good, but I was going to post a thread in GD if anyone has dealt with them.

2 rivers said to call back in a month or so, too busy now. Looked into m13, they seem interesting, I’ll call them and AKUSA later.

Dissident seemed to only really focus on the shotguns, which did look great. I’m curious how the rifles look.

Front end conversion looks pretty good, but the pin and weld has issues. Waiting for a call back/shipping label so I can get this sorted out. Basically it's pinned and welded rather nicely but it's like it was indexed and never torqued. It can be wiggled left and right. There is a crush washer on it but I'm thinking since the barrel has no shoulder, the crush washer moved and the flash hider became loose as it was threaded on/tightened.


It's an annoyance but if they make it right I'm fine with it. I'm thinking a Jam nut should of been used no?


Edit: Just noticed my new barrel/front sight is slightly canted.. I'm tempted to just write them off and contact John Thomas, I heard he does really good and fast work.

Obviously, this should have been done right, but if you want to do a quick fix yourself, you can always apply Loctite 290 "Wicking Grade" locking compound to it, and it will lock it up tight.
It's acts like penetrating oil and gets down into the threads before it sets up.

Tony

I sent it out already, we'll see how things are fixed. But I'm not going to hold my breath. I might have to send it to Retro Arms Works if they don't address the Front Sight Gas Block being canted.

Might I recommend https://www.cwgunwerks.com/

I've used CW in the past and they were good quality.

Krebs Custom did excellent work on a 7.62X54R rifle I sent to them.  I would expect the same quality of work on other calibers as well.  The price, quality of work, and how long it took for the work to be returned were all very reasonable.

I got a quote from cw gunwerks to overhaul my x39 and my eyeballs about fell out of my head. Not cheap.

Im sure they do great work, but I was looking at their price list.

$40 to install an Ultimak?

Just an update: Avoid Dissident Arms with a 10 foot pole.

I did contact J.T. at retro arm works. He's super swamped right now and is only doing ARs.

I'm going with CW Gunwerks to unfuck my build, I should have from the start. CW Gunwerks I think their turn around time is 12-16 weeks and from what I hear this isn't an exaggeration. Im totally fine with waiting that long.

My total wait time combined was 1 year. Dissident Arms is fired and I do not wanna send it back to them. I'd rather pay more money vs having them do more "work" on the poor thing/making me wait. Any time they give you as an estimate, multiply it by 6 times honestly.

I've seen their Instagram and some of the work they do, but honestly I don't think my lowly Romanian got the same care and attention to detail. They were supposed to be the best in the business for tuning Saigas and such. But man am I disappointed.


I just noticed one of my trunnion pins... Holy shit. (Ignore the Gas Tube Lever missing, I was going to install a CNC Warrior Gas Tube which replaces that.)
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Probably $50-75 to fix that.

-This had to of been done during the new barrel install. Just how the hell is that possible? I am positive this wasn't like this prior to the conversion, otherwise I would of had work done to correct it....

I'm going to have CW Gunwerks take care of it either by using an oversized pin, or by welding some material back. I don't want it to get worse as the gun gets a higher round count.

-Just nitpicking. Compensator is now very tight(which is good), however they Pinned and Welded it slightly canted.  You'd think after doing it wrong the first time they would of paid extra attention to it the 2nd time around. Honestly I coulda lived with the Jmac brake being slightly canted. But that blast/concussion could be a real pain in hindsight. There is no means to use a blast shield on this brake.

Decided to just go with a flash hider regardless. The brake might not be the best thing for an indoor range. H

Probably looking at $125-150 for removal of the brake/install of a new pin and welded flash hider.

-Gas Block is still slightly canted but nowhere is bad as it was. Now its only a degree or so off. I can deal with this.

-I'm going to have head space double checked for the hell of it. I really don't trust Dissident Arm's QC at this point. It was already test fired but a 2nd opinion will be nice. It sure beats having to send it out yet again if an issue arises.

Another $50 There for a once over of the rifle, head space, test fire...

I'll probably be out about $300-ish after all this. The shipping/insurance is the worst part honestly. They might be able to save the Jmac Muzzle Brake so maybe I can flip that so it hurts a bit less. After the work is done I will probably sell that brake at a very deep discount along with the Zhukov stock that's on it now.

A few trips to akbuilder, harbor freight, youtube  and the liquor store are all it takes. I bought a couple of bone stock saigas and did some light mods.

Still need to send in my rifle barrel to get chopped and threaded for a suppressor.

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I have the press. In hindsight I should of just purchased the tools/plates from Robert Forbus and did it myself.

Another vote for  ak-usa. Also, check out circle 7 armory. He is doing mine right now. He is running about 4 5 months backlog...