RIGHT: Some of the most difficult details to attend to for this build are not evident from an external inspection of the rifle. In my quest to create a very realistic copy of an AK-103, I decided that I would not only try to make the external (visible) rivet heads correct in size, shape and appearance, I'd do the same for the interior (not visible) rivet heads.

To form the rivets accurately and consistently, I built a rivet jig which (when combined with a 20-ton hydraulic press) allowed me to reach and press all five rivets used to attach the rear hinge block. The upper rivet is a single long “through” rivet, and the other four are smaller single rivets.

As can be seen in the upper photo, I used a 'ball-shaped' mandrel to form round interior rivet heads. I did this to model the interior rivet head size/shape originally found on the Saiga rear fixed-stock trunnion. Even though the round interior formed heads look nice, I later discovered that on a modern AK-100 series rifle, the correct formed interior rivet head is flat! Ooops!

On the left interior of the receiver (lower photo), the forward rivet is unique. It's a longer single rivet which not only holds the rear hinge block, it also is used to attach the side rail optics mount common to all AK-100 series rifles. This interior rivet head is actually not the formed head – the formed head is on the outside, and is set flat to allow optics to slide over the optics rail. This is the only rear hinge block rivet which should have a round interior head.

To lend authenticity, I tried to retain the 'dimpled flat' head which is specific to these correct Russian rivets. In the upper photo, you can see that the center of each flat head contains a very small dimpled recess which is apparently a result of the process used to manufacture the rivet. When setting these rivets, I considered it an important detail to leave this dimple intact, which visibly proves that I didn't file the heads flat to 'simulate' flat Russian rivets. I have collected a photographic library of real AK-74M and AK-100 series rear rivets, and in most of the photos, the dimple is obliterated during the rivet forming operation. However, I have seen photographic examples which retain a very slight centered dimple in the finished rear exterior rivet heads.

As can be seen in the lower photo, only the upper “through'” rivet should be formed with a rounded/domed external head (on the right side). This is correct for all AK-100 series rifles.

The final detail to mention here is that the bare zinc-phosphate pivot pin and hinge latch mechanism are correctly finished. These should not be painted. Also, the particular style of the latch mechanism is important, since the AK-100 series uses the 'small hole' variant of this part, as opposed to the 'large hole' variant used on the earlier AKS-74 design.

LEFT: Before setting the rear rivets, I first had to make the angled cut for the rear of the receiver, as well as the “D”-shaped cut on the right side of the receiver, and the accompanying round hole on the left side. When making these cuts, it's important to “creep up” on the correct dimensions by making a purposely undersized initial cut with a drill and dremel cutoff wheel, and then hand file and fit to the finished size. The difficult part about all of this is getting the contour of the “D” to correctly match the latch mechanism part – any sloppiness or inaccuracy will become obvious (and ugly) when the latch part is placed into the hole.

Again as mentioned earlier, the latch part for the AK-100 series rifles is unique: If you compare the part in this photo to that used in a standard AKS-74, you'll see that the AKS-74 part is nearly hollow, whereas the AK-100 part is nearly solid with only a small hole drilled through it. I can imagine that this change was a result of a the overall improvements made to the rear hinge mechanism to increase strength and rigidity as compared to the AKS-74. Remember that the AKS-74 fires the 5.45x39 round, and with the substantially heavier recoil impulse of the 7.62x39 round, the Izhmash factory obviously recognized that the AK-103 would require a strengthened rear hinge block and latching mechanism.

RIGHT: To set the front latch mechanism, I had to locate and drill a hole for the front latch pivot pin, and also cut a rectangular hole for the latch part.

The pivot pin hole goes though the receiver sheet metal and into the bottom of the front trunnion. Care must be taken to not drill too far into the trunnion, otherwise one might drill into the barrel chamber as well. The pin should be installed only after painting the rifle, since the pin head needs to retain the bare zinc-phosphate finish to achieve the correct appearance for an AK-103 clone.

The rectangular hole for the front latch was carefully cut with a dremel cutoff wheel. I purposely cut it undersize so that I could finish it to the correct dimensions with a hand file. A very specific detail can be seen in this photo: To be correct, the corners of the rectangle must have a slight radius to the cut.

Additionally, take note of the so-called “third rivet” which is a feature of all modern AK-100 series rifles. This is a hardened, replaceable pin which assists in bolt locking/unlocking.

LEFT: In this photo there are two details often lost on many AK-103 style conversions.:

Firstly, the Saiga sporter is imported in a “sporting” configuration, and as such, does not have a correct trigger guard. Properly adding a correct trigger guard is a difficult endeavor, and can be accomplished either by retaining the Saiga's stock magazine latch post and welding on a trigger guard hoop, or by completely removing the latch post and riveting in a new trigger guard. For this rifle, I chose the latter. To accomplish this, I built a trigger guard rivet jig, and a mandrel which would accommodate the fact that the bolt carrier rails are in place (something that the factory doesn't have to deal with when setting the trigger guard rivets). For authenticity, I machined-in the correct Russian 'cloverleaf' trigger guard feature as seen in the photo.

As for the second authenticity detail, I won't mention it specifically, but there is a “uniquey” feature which is present in this rifle, and not present in 99.9% of the other Saiga sporters imported since 2001.

RIGHT: In this photo, there are several details that are somewhat unique to this AK-103 build. The first is the most obvious – the presence of a factory magazine well “dimple”. This is a fairly uncommon detail for Saiga rifles, as this feature is typically omitted for semi-auto export-only sporting rifles. Although this is a subject of controversy, I tend to believe that the primary function of the dimple is to stiffen the large unsupported sheet metal area above the magwell during full-auto fire (which of course is an action this rifle is incapable of performing).

Also, notice that I removed the western 'S'afe and 'F'ire stamps but retained the Cyrillic selector markings. Additionally, I preserved the real Russian sector lever by welding over the incorrectly positioned offset dimple (as is common on all Saiga rifles), and pressing in a new selector dimple in the correct centered location. I also added a correctly-sized semi-auto selector stop divot in the proper location.

Lastly, take note of the 'double-hump' trigger pin boss which is very unusual for a Saiga sporter. I also welded closed all six of the holes that remain after performing the “pistol group conversion” process on a Saiga sporter (one of the holes was just forward of the trigger, but it's no longer there!)

LEFT: Perhaps one of the most challenging tasks in this entire build was creating the tooling and procedure necessary to press the recessed rivet that attaches the bullet guide to the trunnion. Saiga sporter rifles do not contain a bullet guide, so every Saiga conversion must add this feature in order to use common doublestack AK magazines.

What makes setting this rivet a challenge for the home builder is the fact that the bullet guide is usually riveted before the front trunnion is riveted to the receiver. Since I didn't want to remove the front trunnion, I had to devise a method to properly form both the top and bottom of the rivet without bending the floor of the sheet metal receiver. This sounds like an easy task, and some have accomplished this by simply shoving a bucking bar into the void between the trunnion and the receiver – but this method may not correctly form the bottom of the rivet and properly 'squeeze' the rivet into the trunnion. After some thought, I devised a press fixture and method which correctly set the rivet without the need to remove the front trunnion from the receiver (which would have necessitated the destruction of the “third rivet”).

RIGHT: Yet one more detail which is easy to overlook on an AK-103 build is the use of the correct trigger guard rivets – specifically the rear “anti-slap” rivet.

When combined with a correct modern fire control group (like the US-made copy offered by K-Var), the anti-slap rivet prevents the disconnector tail from rotating too far backwards during the bolt cycling process. It is this moment of force applied to the disconnector (during cycling) which translates into a slapping sensation likely to be felt on the trigger finger when firing any Kalashnikov weapon. I do not know the heritage of the anti-slap feature, but I have seen it on demilled AK-74 rifles so I presume this feature was in existence prior to the AK-100 series evolution. I do not know for a fact that the AK-100 series rifles support this feature, but I made an educated guess that it would have been retained from the AK-74 rifles that we know have supported it prior to the AK-100 series.

To set this rivet, I created a custom press mandrel which preserved the large factory rivet head during the rivet forming process. To get this tooling correct required several modifications to my original tool design.

LEFT: Among the more difficult parts to find (at the time of the build) was this correct modern AK-100 series 1000-meter “half-tick” rear sight leaf. I was lucky to acquire the very last specimen of this part that Tantal had. This part is finished in zinc-phosphate and is identified not only by the half-tick marks (which are different than the full-tick marks used on the AK-74 and AKM sight leaves), but also by the Cyrillic P. For correctness, this part should not be painted, so I installed it as one of the final steps during the build.