Pred:
I am sort of new to an interest in guns (despite my middle-age) but having read the Saiga website a few times, your description of the variety appears accurate. Know nothing about AKs, but the threats from the radical "Leftwing Loons" attract me even more to classic AKs or the Saiga versions.
My buddy on the Navy Rifle Team (Reserve) knows quite a bit about guns but had never heard of Saigas. I asked him whether a guy in a really dirty, dusty combat situation should use an AR-15 or a Russian-designed rifle.
His answer? "Probably an AK".
My impressions from reading about guns since December on five websites is that this is simply heresy for many Americans, not just sharpshooters.
Just keeping a local river protected from menacing, floating fruit.
A very late-bloomer (seldom plinked when young) who recently acquired an enthusiasm for having and using carbines: the used Mini 14, 30, SKS and MN 44 and grandfather's really ancient Savage .22 (built by the Roman Empire).
Now simply buying ammo.