by crbutler on Fri Nov 29, 2013 4:08 pm
Its a shotgun, so no formal special permit needed, at least not yet.
I will say that I haven't shot a VEPR, but the Saigas I have the one that is dead reliable it was heavily customized for 3 gun; the stock guns were all rather (very) picky about ammo. The custom one still needs a bit more gas pressure than a benelli for example. Cheap wally world promo loads are not that reliable.
There are more folks doing customizing work on the Saigas than the Molot, and Surefire makes an after market mag for the Saiga that works, they are better than the factory mags.
In my experience, the drums are pretty much worthless. They are all picky, require a lot of TLC and are heavy and get in the way of proper hand placement on the forearm. I suppose if all you want is crowd control, it would be OK.
In my experience, they work for getting a lot of rounds down range in a short period of time. The factory chokes are a joke, the style of magazine makes it rather difficult to effectively shoot birds with because (at least for me) the magazine is always bumping in to something, and the biggie, the dang thing is heavy. Fully loaded, it weighs more than a Mag 10. I know some guys who like to hunt with them in combat slings with over 10 rounds stuffed in it, which seems kind of a waste of time and venison, but its their life. They are good for gun games, and home defense, and maybe cleaning pigeons out of the barn, but in any case, you either need to spend a bunch of $$$ getting it reliable, or need to be a pretty good home gunsmith and do it yourself. Seems like the guys who don't pay the $$$ have the guns puke at any 3 gun I see them at.