Attention all SKS owners/experts, need your help

T

Turok

Inactive
My friend just bought an SKS at a gunshow(ya I know:rolleyes:). It is his first gun so he didn't really know much about it. It is a norinco that looks to be in about 80-90% condition. There is some minor rusting on the finish, but overall it seems to be a solid gun. Except for the barrel. It looks like somebody took a bandsaw to it and didn't bother to recrown the muzzle. The barrel was shortened to 16" and there was no front sight assy. on the gun. Now had I been with him when he bought it, I would have steered him away from it but he didn't know any better. When he took it out and fired it, the action won't cycle. Sometimes it is enough to unlock the bolt but not eject the empty shell, most of the time however, it won't even budge the bolt carrier. I looked everything over and the gas piston is not loose in the tube, the action cycles smoothly by hand, and the gas port is free of obstruction. I have a hunch that the shortened barrel is not allowing enought pressure to build up in the gas tube to cycle the bolt. But I'd like any and all opions as to why this might be happening and possible fixes. Also, the barrel is the thread-in type so could it be concievably rebarreled?

P.S. The fellow he bought it from told him he could return it if he didn't like it or had problems. Should he get his money back or not?

Any help greatly appreciated
 
Let's see.......shortened barrell, no front sights, does not cycle...get that gun back to the seller and help your friend find a gun he can shoot without having to worry about it working.

bob
 
Definitely, TAKE IT BACK. With that short of a barrel, it won't develop enough pressure at the gas port to cycle, and any conceivable fix you could do to it is going to cause reliability problems elsewhere.
 
That rifle sounds like a good candidate for use without the piston as a "straight throw bolt action" ... if it was REALLY cheap, then it might be worth recrowning and keeping in that configuration, but if it wasn't dirt cheap I return it in a heartbeat!
Saands

ps ... the above comment only applies if the barrel is not chromed and I don't know enough about these yet to know if they are chromed or not. I have heard that chromed barrels don't re-crown well.
 
"My friend just bought an SKS at a gunshow"

This might be your friends nightmare of buying unknowingly from a gunshow. Not that gunshows are bad, but allot of booths are set up by private persons selling and it is a "Buyer Beware" enviroment there.

This wouldn't be the first time I heard of this happening.

But I do have a question concerning the overall length of the SKS with the barrel cut down to 16", your friend may have a good out.
 
Yes, he did buy it from a private individual and the stock is such that it meets the OAL requirements. He really doesn't know much at all about guns so he no idea what to look for when buying. I think I will recommend that he return it unless a spare threaded barrel can be found somewhere. Know any place that might have some? The price was decent but not a steal. He paid $185 for it but it came with a zytel Draganov stock which, if I remember, costs about $60-70. So in the condition it's in with the original stock it would have cost about $100. Which seems reasonable for a fixer upper gun. So my question is this: Is it feasable to try and find a threaded barrel and install it ( I know I can do this if I could get one ) or should I just tell him to return it?
 
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