Can’t afford a California-legal M1A, at a couple grand by the time you add sales tax? Well, you can pick up this baby instead. No pistol grip, so it can accept detachable magazines. Ultra-reliable Kalashnikov design, shoots the fine .308 round, and costs under $400.
And it’s technically California-legal. You just have to be prepared for an over-zealous DA to possibly charge you with possession of an eeeevil prohibited AK-series assault rifle. Never mind that it’s a Saiga, not an AK. You will likely get the charges dismissed, but only with an equally-zealous lawyer by your side fighting for you, and that costs money.
So, as long as you factor in the cost of the retainer you should pay to keep Trutanich-Michel (by all accounts the top pro-gun lawyers in California) on your side, go ahead and buy that “cheap” .308 Saiga.
Boy, I’m thisclose to buying one some days. It’s like an upscaled version of my .223 Kel-Tec and would go so nicely next to its little brother in the gun safe.
Then the I get cold feet and look wistfully at the M1As again.
Um, I did have to pay alot for the M1A loaded that I recived this last easter, but I think that it is well worth it and not as expencive as court costs and getting on the evil list of some cops and all that. Incogfuckingneto is the name of the game for me.
Plus it is a beauty to behold and hold
My 10(binary) cents worth
Ack. Ugly!
That said, if you do go and get it, be very prepared for ultrastupid Kalifornistan cops and lawyers and fellow shooters, for that matter.
That said, I am almost considering forking over the few hundred for a lever-action .22, considering current prices… And this after getting the M1A already!
Been there, got mine, live in OR. If I could get by my local COP (Chiefess, commie, doesn’t like ordinary joes with Class III), I would procure a sear and conector and selector and make it C3, since it is actually a de-C3’d M14. It is the consummate heavy battle rifle, thankew very much, John C. I also like the Valmet seventy-series in 7.62X54, and the RPK, which is also CA-nono. For a bit more moolah you can get a PTR91 (I have the CETME it was derived from), and the FN-FAL is also a fine heavy battle rifle.
Got an idear for youse Kalis: buy a cheapo piece of property in So. Oregon (up in the Mts somewhere, a lot of land has been subdivided there), maintain an OR. addy, and you can have all of these you want. Or Idaho also, or Utah, etc, anyplace but CA or WA (which bans C3).
BTW, cockles-of-the-heart warmer of the day: As I am RSO-ing at my range today on the last weekend of Public Sighting-In Days, a dad brings his kid (who gratefully accepts the double ear protection I offer him and Dad). Dad sights in a .300 WIN Mag boltie, then Junior, all 4’5″ and 65# of him, gets behind his youth-sized TeeCee in 7mm-08, and lays down a 2″ group for the record. Each time he fired the rifle, it moved the rifle rest AND him backwards a good four inches, but his breath control and trigger squeeze was perfect, and he NEVER flinched, not even once. No flyers at all out of 10-12 rounds he shot. He was maybe 10 years old.
The RSO cadre gave him the Brass Balls of the Day award on the spot, even more so than many other manly men who stood up to their 375 H&Hs and various high-caliber Weatherbys which they were sighting in for Roosevelt Elk.
I still can’t figure out why one of the AR makers out there hasn’t been selling trainloads of 22LR AR’s to the good folks in California. With a 22LR upper and the magazine insert that lets it take 22 magazines, and yet comes out if you wanted to use AR magazines, it would be CA legal. The eeevil black rifle ban excludes rimfire.
Now, if you owned one, you might not want to go buying an upper that used centerfire cartridges. Even though you could do such a thing through the mail, as they say.
You could sell them things for ridiculous amounts and people would be clamoring for more.
GunGeek, I’m guessing the market is already being satisfied with the centerfire Off-List-Lowers and the free state rifles that are being imported to CA with a Bullet Button or similar mechanism pre-installed so that you can’t remove the mag without use of a “tool.” No need anymore to buy a rifle that will be in the records as a rimfire if what you really want to do is fire centerfire.
There are threads on Calguns about .22 uppers such as those from Spike’s Tactical:
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=72075&highlight=.22
GunGeek, turns out there’s a thread on Calguns discussing this very topic. Somebody’s working with Spikes to have them develop a .22LR-marked lower receiver (at, presumably, a lower price than a centerfire-marked one).
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=72331
Kewel!