Saiga 5.45 feeding issues

[warriorbob]

I recently bought a saiga 5.45 that had the rear converted by century and I'm assuming the bullet guide was also installed by them. It feeds fine with tantal and circle 10 polymer magazines but with my russian bakalites the rounds will hang up on the edge of the of the chamber. These are good mags and have worked perfectly in my tantal. I'm suspecting the bullet guide installation and was wondering, if this is the issue, if it can be straightened out. Let me know if anyone wants better or more detailed pictures to figure it out.
Here's the pics:




And the bullet guide

 

[warriorbob]

Also just noticed while hand cycling that even the rounds that do load in the chamber are having the bullet recessed and the tip slightly deformed

 

[Clay]

Is that bullet guide welded in?

 

[warriorbob]

That's what it looks like.

 

[knutty]

I have heard of these conversions using the wrong bullet guide resulting in FTF issues. Looks like the bullet guide may need to be replaced, which will be a PITA since they welded it.

 

[Clay]

yeah that's my thought as well. No surprise with Century from my experience.

 

[warriorbob]

Well Damn. Any recommendations on who to take it to to get her straightened out? I was going to contact allen about having the barrel threaded and a gas block front sight combo installed.

 

[Clay]

Allen is a sharp cookie and has the tools so he might be able to do it. Depends on how good of a job they did welding. I've had them where you could knock it with a punch and hammer and they would fall right off. If they got good penetration then it's going to take more than that to get it off of there, like mill. If you're near the Haute I could take a look at it as well.

 

[tradertator]

Yikes, why would they do that? ..........oh yeah, Century had their hands on it.
If that weld is decent at all, it's going to be a real booger to fix.

Have you contacted Century about it? Their customer service is pretty legendary for being awful to deal with, but you never know. There are people out there preaching that they've "turned over a new leaf", but I have my doubts.

 

[warriorbob]

No I haven't contacted them as I am the second owner. I just can't figure out why it feeds the polymer mags perfectly but not the bakes. Maybe slightly different geometry? This is the first century rifle I've had a problem with.

 

[DEC]

Probably the wrong bullet guide on incorrectly installed.

In the 5.45 version you often do not need a bullet guide. The 7.62 and 5.56 yes you need one.

I did a full front and rear conversion on my 5.45 and elected to NOT install a bullet guide. After several thousand rounds down range over the past few years I have never had a failure.

 

[warriorbob]

Just got the word back from AllenM. They did install the wrong bullet guide. They used a curved guide while the rifle has a flat trunion. So hopefully he'll get that straightened out and while it's therein having a jmac front sight gas block combo installed and the barrel threaded.

 

[Clay]

i wondered about that but I really couldn't tell from the pictures if it was flat or curbed. Glad it's figured out!

 

[warriorbob]

Looking into some century's other work this seems like a simple fix. But seriously, how hard is it to use the right bullet guide?!

 

[Clay]

this is century we're talking about. I'm pretty sure they could screw up a soup sandwich without even trying

 

[AllenM]

Well it didn't come out with a punch unfortunately, but I was able to get my dremel in there.





Replaced it with a Dinzag arms bullet guide




It runs now

 

[kb66]

Well it didn't come out with a punch unfortunately, but I was able to get my dremel in there.

That's some dremel.