Post by Dave_M » Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:23 pm

First and foremost let me say that I did not come up with this idea. Some innovating fellow over at Saiga-12.com did. That being said I did the process and am posting my experience with this for your knowledge and use.Anywho, on with the post.While a Saiga-12 sounds ideal for home defense (I mean hell, who doesn't want 10+1 of 12ga on semi for HD?) there are some limitations that have to be overcome first.Unfortunately, you can't just leave a loaded magazine in the shotgun for an extended period of time. Due to the construction of shotgun shells and the mechanism in which a magazine is utilized in the Saiga-12, this can be problematic.Shotgun shell hulls are generally very weak and can deform. This is especially true in the S-12 because the top most shell in the magazine is pressed up against the large bolt in the gun when the magazine is inserted. Long periods of time (or short, sometimes after only a few days) will deform the shotgun shell and cause a misfeed for the first shot. This can be avoided by replacing the topmost shell in the magazine with an all-brass shotgun shell (which are relatively rare and expensive) or by doing the following modification.First we're going to drill a very small hole in both sides of the magazine as shown below. Start out small and gently increase it to size (more on exact sizing in a minute)Although you're drilling a hole in the magazine you can always fill it with JB weld or similar and paint over it if you desire.Next, make a trip to the hardware store and purchase a 1.75" cotter pin with a 3/16" diameter and a 1.25" split key ring. Cut one leg off of the cotter pin (so you don't need a huge hole) but leave enough so that the eyelet is intact.I added some gutted, braided 550 cord to the ring to allow the pulling of the ring to go smoothly.Gently size up the holes in the magazine so that the cotter pin fits. We don't want to make the hole larger than it needs to be.Fill your magazine with the desired number of shells. With the AGP 10 round mags I'm using you can only insert nine shells and still install the pin. Install the pin like so:Yes, it looks like you can add a 10th shell above the pin. Don't do it though because this will cause a misfeed.So when you have a home invasion, you just grab the gun, pull the pin, and rack the slide and you have 9 shots in semi-auto (or in my case, I keep one in the pipe, so I just pull the pin and go on with 10 shots)Mounted on my bedside rig (referenced here: http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22568 The pin can be inserted from either side of the magazine, but I chose the left side as I am a right handed shooter:Another option that you can use besides the above or using an all-brass shotgun shell is to lock the bolt to the rear if your S12 has a bolt-hold-open function. I did not do this for two reasons:1) A large smack with send the bolt home2) My S12 doesn't have a factory BHO anyway.Another advantage to this modification is for guys that use the S12 competitively. Inserted a fully loaded magazine on a closed bolt is a helluva lot harder than inserting a mag on an open bolt. With this mod it's easy as hell to insert the magazine on a closed bolt and simply pull the pin away. There are guys developing modifications for this already (a shout out to Mike Davidson of MDArms and his magazine well) but they are not currently available on the American market.Anyway, 7+1 rounds in my 18.5" 870 with a pump between each shot, or 10 rounds out of my S12 as fast as I can pull the trigger... the S12 wins every time. Either way, you have to practice to make it work for you. (I'm just hoping I don't have a flashback and pull the pin on the mag and throw it down the stairs