8/25/2011

I didn't get to my desk until 1655 h yesterday. I was stuck in the Bored Room with the programmer while he tried to finger out why the AMX system wouldn't control the curtains that they controlled just fine the night before. Anyhoo, he finally did get them to work and all is well in there now. So that is why there was no rant yesterday. Sure, I suppose I could have opened up the laptop and written a rant while sitting there... but I didn't so suck it. OK, back to the weekend’s tale. Remember how I mentioned not being able to remove the safety on a Saiga with the factory trigger group? Remember also how I said something about trying to grind off the offending metal to make it work? Well, I went to the shop on Sunday with the shotgun’s trigger group in hand thinking I'd disassemble it, grind away on the disconnector, or sear, or whatever it is called, then install that in the 7.62x39's trigger group. Well the Russians, in their infinite wisdom, swedged the ends of the bushing which holds the trigger group parts together. I mean, I can understand why they did it that way, so the bushing won't slide out of alignment, but it is a pain in the ass when Juan wants to take the trigger group apart. I bent and pried and whanged and ground on it until I got it out but there was no way I was going to be able to do it to the 7.62x39's trigger group at home. I decided I'd burn that bridge when I came to it. I ground off the offending metal and polished the part with a file. I think it turned out quite nicely. I looked around for a replacement bushing to no avail and decided that I could re-swedge the old one. Then I looked around for something to swedge the old one with. I found a pair of round-headed screws which I used as dies and smooshed them in the vice. Voila! It was swedged. I took the parts home and installed them in the 7.62x39. Yeah, remember why I decided to do the trigger conversion on the shotgun? I'll wait while you go back and look for it. Doot dee doo. Tra la la. Dum dee dum. Hmm, hmm, hmmmmmm. Oh, you’re back. Yep, I changed the trigger group because the shotgun’s trigger SUCKED! Have you seen enough Hentai to know where this is going? Yep, now the 7.62x39's trigger sucks. I decided then that I'd buy another Tromix trigger group and either swap the sear to the 7.62x39's hook, or grind the trigger off of the Tromix hook and use the complete, mostly, trigger group. Yes, it is almost sacrilege to buy a trigger group and not convert the gun, but I like the skeleton stock I have on there and don't really want to convert it. So, Monday at work I did a little research, looking for the best price on a Tromix FCU. Guess where I found them for almost twenty dollars less than we paid. Yep, Dairy Queen! No, Blood Bath & Beyond. I could have been buying them locally... no, I'm not going there. I'm going to hang my hat on the fact that the ones they sell are actually AK-47 trigger groups and not Saiga trigger groups, the difference being a little modification here and there to fit a Saiga. So, after work, I went to BB&B and bought an AK trigger group. Since it didn't come with the sear spring, I knew I was going to have to disassemble one or the other Saiga trigger groups to cannibalize that part. I had a look at the 7.62x39's old trigger group, the one I liked the feel of before all of this started. I managed to mangle the bushing out of the part, not worrying about it since the Tromix kit came with a new one, and got it apart. I decided to go ahead and install the Tromix sear in the Saiga hook rather than cut the trigger off of the Tromix hook at this time. I reassembled everything and gave it a try. Meh, it is slightly better than the shotgun FCU, but not as nice as the 7.62x39's used to be. I think what I'm going to do next is go ahead and cut off the trigger from the Tromix hook and install it. Worst case, it won't work. Second worst case, it won't be any better than I have now. Best case, it’ll have a nice crisp Tromix trigger feel like the shotgun. Oh crap! I'm supposed to be across the street for a Marketing Town Hell right now! Gotta go, talk to y'all later.