US banning certain AK's from Import?

Beretta686 said:
Can someone confirm that this does prevent Saiga-12s from being imported?
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It seems clear from the press releases that all products of the Kalashnikov Concern are subject to sanctions, presumably including the Saiga-12.
 
All Saiga products would be prohibited from import, including the shotguns.

Amusing that after all the hoopla with the ATF and the sporting purposes bit with the Saiga 12 a couple years or so ago, it's the state department that actually turned off the tap.

And yeah, I can't imagine this will affect the AK pattern rifles much... only the Saiga ones would have been involved and those weren't a huge piece of the market. The Saiga shotguns, those will see prices skyrocket. It appears the Russian ammo is still unaffected, but we'll have to see if it stays that way- you may be able to get a US made AK, but it may become more expensive to feed it. That, however, has not yet happened.
 
There's no chance it has anything whatsoever to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine or its continued intransigence in the face of escalating economic sanctions.
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That's certainly the logic, but hey...if it hacks off gun owners, all the better.
 
I would almost like to see our side start a spin campaign along the lines of "US stops receiving AKs from Russia. Stockpiles of excess weapons building up and are spilling over to the separatists. US responsible for excess number of arms possessed by invaders." ...but we're not MSN or CNN.
 
I've never been terribly impressed with the basic capability differences between a Saiga and many shotguns already on the market, so it doesn't seem like much of a loss to me.
 
I've never been terribly impressed with the basic capability differences between a Saiga and many shotguns already on the market, so it doesn't seem like much of a loss to me.
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I had one. HAD.

While (even in these higher priced days) the price was rather better than a semi auto from Remington or Benelli, the fit and finish was pretty variable (the term "vodka special" got thrown around a lot) and reliability wasn't quite what one would expect from something based on the Kalashnikov design. It sure looked cool, especially converted to the pistol grip configuration with the trigger group moved forward, but there was nothing that Saiga would do that existing designs couldn't do better. IMO, with them it's more the cool factor than it is the S12 being that good a gun.

But even so, I'm not too thrilled when the fed.gov closes off import taps a little more- even though I understand the reason why (and am not unsympathetic to it).
 
There are US made receivers for AKs and VZ. 58s among other firearms. Is there any reason the Saiga design couldn't be produced here also and boost a few manufacturing jobs in America?
 
Is there any reason the Saiga design couldn't be produced here also and boost a few manufacturing jobs in America?
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We're actually seeing that with Century's C93 builds, and parts builds from companies like Black Forge.
 
Willie Lowman said:
Everybody take two deep breaths and START PANIC BUYING!!!!

Wait. No. Don't do that.
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Someone's hoping that folks aren't listening. :rolleyes:

I've posited in the L&CR thread that the State Dept. pulling the plug on the Saiga 12 has handed MOLOT a de facto monopoly on "tacticool" box-magazine semi-auto shotguns with the VEPR 12. It seems that the price hikes hath commenced- $1,299 "cash discount" for a shotgun that was selling for ~$900 a few months ago:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/...s_id/411552723/Shotguns/Home+Defense+Shotguns

Let's see how long they stay in stock...
 
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obviously we will still be able to get our AKs(for now), but the concern for me is #1, the price hike. And that molot/vepr made some very high quality barrels and aks in all kinds of different configs that you just dont see from other countries(ie 762x54r in 22in BBL:eek:). but obviously the biggest thing is the fact that instaed of coming up for actual solutions for a world on fire, instead we have an administration that just sees a way to further retrict our 2A under a crisis, we all know this will do nothing to make Putin back of of his agenda. im not even close to the smartest guy in the room, but wouldnt we make better ground by arming ukraine rather than keeping rusian guns in russi

yes, saiga and kalish aks are not the greatest guns on the planet, and its not going to keep us from having suitable weapons, but isnt this is just a stab in the eye to US and a totally pointless ban

and whats next?

personally i would like a KSG over a saiga, but the saiga WAS the only available and affordable option, theres going to be some happy saiga 12 owners out there, when their 600 guns are worth 3k in a couple years

the really unfortuneate thing is an executive order cannot be appealed, and only lifted by a president, dont care who is in office, this order will NEVER be lifted, no president will ever bring this up again

any word on if this will affect nagants?
 
A panic is a panic. If you didn't have one before - why is it so necessary to get one.
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I don't know where HuffPo is getting their data. I'm not seeing a panic, or even an upsurge, in sales. There was a gun show in town last weekend, and the Saiga-12 shotguns were running about 20% high there, but everything else was normal.

I have received email from some online distributors who've been trumpeting panic and raising prices, but I don't deal with them.

The salient point is this: outside of the Saiga-12 and a few sporter rifles nobody wanted, this doesn't affect anything.
 
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