With the field stripping completed, it was time to remove the stock and the
forearm. The stock would be replaced and I wanted the forearm out of the
way.
On the lower side of the stock, adjacent to the trigger guard,
remove the screw hold the stock in place. The screw was tossed into the
spare parts bin as it is not used again.
The two remaining screws that secure the factory stock in place are located on top at the rear of the receiver. Remove both of them. These two screws can also go into the spare parts bin.
The fit of the factory stock to the receiver was quite tight.
I used the heel of my hand to repeatedly knock it back and forth a bit to work
it out of the receiver. I've read that some folks resorted to a rubber
mallet but I didn't find mine to be quite that "stuck". The stock was not
put into the spare parts bin as it was too big, but none the less, it was not
needed during reassembly.
I finally removed the forearm by removing the screw (as detailed earlier) and set the forearm and screw aside as they would be reused.
At this point, I had the Saiga stripped down to the bare
essentials. Much of what was left now was pretty much going to be removed
and replaced. Time to get the pieces and parts out of the receiver.....and
this was the point where I was committed to going through with the conversion.
I was going to be making changes for which there was no easy "undo" button.
The two shouldered pins shown above secure the trigger and a
transfer arm in the Saiga. To remove the trigger and hammer, both of the
pins must be removed. To do that, I drilled the pins using a 1/4" drill
bit to remove the shoulder of both pins.
I got just a little too deep on the left pin. I learned on that one. The pin on the right was drilled just right. Note the think piece of wood under the trigger guard. This was used to help support the receiver so it did not wobble around while I drilled the two pins.
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