A rare bird indeed showed up at this weekend’s match: An Adkal MKA1919, customized by Firebird Precision for shooting 3 gun.
Judging by the few rounds I put through it after the match was over, it’s a viable alternative to the Saiga for a Open Class gun. Aside from a non-reciprocating charging handle on the left side of the forend, the controls were in all the right places compared to a regular AR-15. It also FELT like an AR to shoot, albeit one with a lot more kick than one that shoots .223…
I’ve RO’d two all-shotgun stages in a row at the Mystery 3 Gun, and one thing I’ve noticed is that Saigas are tricky little devils. When they’re good, they’re very good, but when they’re bad, they’re horrid.
The problem is, I’ve seen very few Saigas that were very good. Out of the dozen or so Saigas we saw on our stage over the course of three days, only two were able to shoot 31 rounds without problems. The Adkal? Well, see for yourself.
It’s a sample size of one, but given the fact than an Adkal MKA1919 is a full thousand dollars less than an equivalent AK-pattern gun, I’d say the Saiga has some stiff competition ahead of it when it comes to box-fed auto shotguns.