Sutro
02-14-2002, 01:30 PM
SAR-3 owners have more motivation than other AK owners to replace their fire-control groups (FCG) with aftermarket American-made ones, or at least replace the hammer with aftermarket American made ones: Besides the generally questionable quality of the "Circle-C" FCG's that come with SAR's, the "Circle-C" hammer in many SAR-3's can pretty much destroy the gun. Many of these hammers do not stike the back of the bolt squarely, and over time will peen the firing pin (difficult to replace on a SAR-3) and bolt (pretty much impossible to replace on a SAR-3) to death. Until now, SAR-3 owners seeking an aftermarket American-made hammer had to buy one for a standard AK, have it ground to SAR-3 specs, and possibly re-hardened.
Red Star Arms (RSA) is now selling American-made hammers in proper SAR-3 configuration. I installed one in my SAR-3, and it strikes the back of the bolt perfectly squarely.
On the face of it, the RSA FCG group is rather wreched excess: A fully-adjustable milled FCG on an AK? The very idea sounds rather silly, but...
The RSA fire-control group is rather amazing in the SAR-3: I had presumed that AK's had inherently long, creepy triggers but that certainly is not the case: My SAR-3 now has a crisp-breaking trigger.
Fussing with the trigger adjustments is actually sorta fun, since you can watch what happens with different adjustments and gain a very good understanding of just how an AK fire-control group works. Adjustments give you lots of options, too: I like a double-pull trigger with rather short travel in the second stage, no over-travel, and breaking at about 3-4 pounds. I now have a trigger like that. Had my tastes been different, such as prefering a single-stage trigger, I could adjust the trigger to get that instead.
Rather pricey FCG, but an especially good investment for a SAR-3. On many SAR-3's it's necessary to replace the SAR-3 hammer with a properly-made American one to keep the gun's innards from bashing themselves to death while keeping one's parts count legal. And while the SAR-3 has better accuracy potential than most AK's, the long and creepy factory trigger gets in the way of accurate shooting. The RSA FCG for the SAR-3 resolves both problems.
Red Star Arms (RSA) is now selling American-made hammers in proper SAR-3 configuration. I installed one in my SAR-3, and it strikes the back of the bolt perfectly squarely.
On the face of it, the RSA FCG group is rather wreched excess: A fully-adjustable milled FCG on an AK? The very idea sounds rather silly, but...
The RSA fire-control group is rather amazing in the SAR-3: I had presumed that AK's had inherently long, creepy triggers but that certainly is not the case: My SAR-3 now has a crisp-breaking trigger.
Fussing with the trigger adjustments is actually sorta fun, since you can watch what happens with different adjustments and gain a very good understanding of just how an AK fire-control group works. Adjustments give you lots of options, too: I like a double-pull trigger with rather short travel in the second stage, no over-travel, and breaking at about 3-4 pounds. I now have a trigger like that. Had my tastes been different, such as prefering a single-stage trigger, I could adjust the trigger to get that instead.
Rather pricey FCG, but an especially good investment for a SAR-3. On many SAR-3's it's necessary to replace the SAR-3 hammer with a properly-made American one to keep the gun's innards from bashing themselves to death while keeping one's parts count legal. And while the SAR-3 has better accuracy potential than most AK's, the long and creepy factory trigger gets in the way of accurate shooting. The RSA FCG for the SAR-3 resolves both problems.