shotguns, misfeed, jamming, saiga-12So I have a registered SBS (Short Barreled Shotgun) Saiga-12 that I was attempting to fire for the first time the other day and it would repeatedly fail to cycle. I tried multiple different types of shells (low-brass birdshot, high-brass birdshot, buckshot) with the gas system opened to both the ‘1’ (partial open) and ‘2’ (full open) position. In almost every case, the shell contained would eject but a new shell would not be fed into the chamber. On occasion, the ejected shell would be caught halfway out by the bolt returning forward. Occasionally it would cycle correctly.
Does anyone have any idea as to what might be causing this and things I could do to fix it?
Since this is a new gun, one possibility is that the gas port is undersized. This is a particular problem with SBSs since shortening the barrel changes the pressure curve at the gas port. Changing the barrel length often requires a change in the size of the gas port. I would suggest going back to whoever converted it to an SBS, explaining the problem, and asking them to fix it.
I’m told that you need to fire 3 dram equivalent or higher shells to get these to cycle properly. There is a similar problem with the Mossburg 900 series semi-auto shotgun. I shoot 3.25 dram equivalent shells in my gas-operated semi-auto shotguns. This solved a similar problem that I had.
Paraphrasing from the guys on the Saiga-12 forum.
Use heavier loads to break it in on gas setting 2. Check your gas regulator and make sure you actually have 4 ports and that they are clean. Check the action by pulling the charging handle all the way back and easing it forward, see if it hangs anywhere before the very end, the rails can be rough and may need to be polished or at least worn in.
Okay, thanks for the suggestions guys, but it looks like the answer was quite a bit simpler. It seems there are a pair of small metal rods near the trigger assembly that operate independently but need to be in sync. They were out of alignment, which is really easy to cause, and it seemed to be causing the failure to feed. I will try to come back and post a picture - it will show the problem in much greater detail than I could ever describe.
EDIT: Haven’t gotten the picture yet (my camera is broken), but I do have a better description. These two metal rods are actually part of the same metal coil that, in an AK-74 at least, appear to stop before reaching the trigger assembly, but in the Saiga-12, they seem to both need to rest on top of part of the trigger assembly. What actually seems to be happening is that the trigger was failing to reset because of this - a new shell would be chambered, but the trigger would not reset so you could not fire without a manual cycle. Again, I will work on getting pictures. Supposedly getting a new camera as an early Christmas gift, so that should help. :-)
I haven’t seen your follow up regarding the “pair of small metal rods” yet, but the first place to start when diagnosing a problem of this nature is to see if a single shell will cause the bolt to lock back. Repeating this process multiple times (perhaps 5) will indicate whether the problem is a lack of gas / over-retardation (bolt fails to lock back) or an unrelated issue (mag feed position, extractor failure, etc).
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