Jarhead said:

Crabby, correct me if I'm wrong. If you have a Saiga-7.62x39 and want to use high capacity magazines, your Saiga with U.S. made mags will have 14 U.S. parts (U.S. mags count as 3 U.S.  parts) So if you use U.S. made mags and one additional U.S. made part like a gas piston ($12.37) you are good to go (15 U.S.parts =922r compliant) right?

Jarhead,

The BATFE parts count is 14 they are all foriegn so you need to use 4 or more USA made parts for 922r compliance.

You can buy high dollar full capacity mags for the saiga as is but converting to a USA stock/pistol grip, firecontrol group and bullet guide makes allot of sense.

The jbt at the BATFE make up n interpret their "rules" seemingly as they go but the gist of what I have read is….

922r requires that an imported sporting rifle can only be modified to a more useful configuration  IF the final result is 10 or less foreign parts on the weapon. Now the tricky part is knowing what the BATFE counts as a part.

this is a good document on that……

Parts Count on Saiga Shotguns and Rifles

In this document I will attempt to express my understanding of the current laws and how they apply to the Saiga firearms. If you have questions & concerns or disagree with what I've put together, we can modify. The scope of this is to have a post to link members to if they have parts count questions. I realize there are several posts on this, but most do not specifically apply to both rifles and shotguns. Maybe this can be stickied somewhere handy.

Before doing anything, check with your local and state laws as you may have tighter regulations than what the ATF has laid out for us.

The Saigas have a certain number of parts in their unmodified “Sporting” configuration. They are considered imported because they have more than 10 imported parts in them. As such they are held to 922 ® compliance.

If you want to use high capacity magazines, convert the weapon to pistol grip configuration or use a flash hider, it will then be considered unsporting. You will need to swap out parts so that you have no more than 10 imported parts in it. It will then be considered a US made firearm and 922® does not apply. See bottom of this post for more 922® info and some grey areas.

Parts List

Here’s a quick overview of the parts count determined by the ATF definition letter listed athttp://www.soupbowl…..ru/page12.html. For the Saiga rifles, refer to the Galil/AK parts count. The Saiga Shotguns are directly referenced.

A Saiga Rifle in factory configuration has 14 parts.
A Saiga shotgun threaded for chokes has 14 parts.
A Saiga shotgun not threaded for chokes has 13 parts.

(parts on a factory config saiga are in bold)

(1) Receiver 
(2) Barrels 
(3) Barrel extensions
(4) Mounting blocks, trunnion (rifles only)
(5) Muzzle attachments (shotguns w/ threaded barrels only)
(6) Bolts 
(7) Bolt carriers 
(8) Operating rods
(9) Gas pistons 
(10) Trigger housings
(11) Triggers 
(12) Hammers 
(13) Sears
(14) Disconnectors 
(15) Buttstock 
(16) Pistol grips
(17) Forearms, handguards 
(18) Magazine bodies 
(19) Followers 
(20) Floorplates

I'm gonna start a thread on saiga and post this there