Problem with sks???

H

hoosierboy

New member
I wne to out to the range finally on sunday. I go to an outdoor range, and it's been too cold for my pampered body. Anyway, I boutgh an Sks used from a guy for about 50 bucks. It was rusty when I got it, but i cleaned it and oiled it real good. Whne I fired it It would fire 4 or five rounds at a time, and then stop. It would jam and then when I let the slide go, it would fire. It only did this a few times, but every so often it went back to doing the full auto.

After some inquiry, I was told it was my firing pin gettin stuck, which would explain to auto fire, but after inspection is was fine and loose. I was also told by someone that the sear is bad and I have to get a new trigger group. Anyone else maybe know the problem or want to confuse me more???

Thanks in advance.
 
I would try replacing the firing pin first. And then carefully test to see if it slamfires. Load the mag with 1 round and shoot. Then 2, 3, etc... until you build up to a full mag. If the new firing pin doesn't fix the problem, you could try replacing the sear (cheaper than the whole trigger group).
 
SKS slam fire

Dear Hoosierboy;

First of all I'd take the bolt apart and remove the firing pin. The problem could easliy be that the pin is in upside down. It can only go in one way, period. If you put it in upside down it will still "float" but not properly. If you look at the pin as you pull it out, you'll see that the rear of the pin is "flatted" on both the top and bottom. The longer flatted area is the top. The shorter "flatted" area is the bottom.

Secondly, make sure you make the inside of the bolt where the pin slides into perfectly clean. Use a couple of pipe cleaners with good solvent. When you go to reassemble the bolt, the firing pin will easliy clink up and down in the assembly. Don't use any really heavy grease in there, just good gun oil.

This seems, at least to me, to be the biggest problem with SKSs. Their owners clean everything but the bolt because it requires a little work to take it apart. (Watch you don't lose the tiny spring that holds the ejector!) When you've done it once, however, it will be easy the next time.

If all that fails, and you need a new trigger assembly, then you can easliy purchase one from a bunch of places including "Cheaper Than Dirt.com". Maybe the original owner fiddled with the original trigger trying to "convert" it. At any rate, when you've done that then follow Falconer's suggestion and only load one round first, then two rounds, then three, and so on until you've fired a full clip without any problems.

These rifles are really straightforward and easy to clean and fix. I'd also recommend that you do a good search on the internet (I use google,com), and do a lot of reading. Being educated about the SKS will help you a lot in diagnosing your problems but I'll lay odds on the bolt being either really dirty inside or having the pin incorrectly. The trigger group would be second. Let us know how you turned out.

OH YEAH! One more thing. DON'T LOAD THE GUN IN YOUR HOUSE!! ONLY LOAD IT AT THE RANGE. If it slam fires, at least you'll be pointing it downrange instead at your ceiling.

Rome
 
Thanks alot guys once again I have been educated. As for the guy saying the SKS is a POS, I would agree, but for $50 you can't go wrong.
 
hoosierboy:
I think that you should give the bolt a good blasting with Brake-Kleen. Use the nozzel and squirt it right down the place where the firing pin goes into the bolt. This is what I do with mine when it starts getting grungy.
P.S. Whats your 10-20? I'm in madison county.
 
What kind of ammo are u using? I know some ammo like UMC use a soft primer [The sks was designed with military hard primers in mind] and slamfires can occur with soft primer ammo.
 
one more thing you might try, it's cheap. The sear (or is it disconnect) spring on most SKS' suck, this is also the magazine catch spring. I had the same thing happen to me when I changed mags on mine. I just put a little longer US made spring in there and it worked just fine.
 
SKS

Let me start off by saying that I feel the SKS surplus rifles have represented one of the best dollar values enjoyed by the American shooting public in the last several decades. I grew up during the era where you could buy nice Mausers, Nagents, and Springfields for chump change. Add to that the price of cases and cases of CHEAP surplus ammo. All of my friends and I shot to death more than one good bolt action in those days.
The wave of surplus SKS rifles and thier dirt cheap ammo reminded me of those heady days of yester year. I took a lesson from those days and stockpiled a bunch of primo Russian and eastern European SKS's and a ton of steel jacket/steel core Chi-Com ammo as well as many cases of steel core hollowpoint Russian stuff. There is also a large tool box filled with spare parts out the Ying-Yang. I did all this and did not have to morgage the house to do it.
I have some SKS's that are my everyday shooters. I drag them around in the pickup and my fishing boat ect. Others, guns from the same case, have never even been cleared of cosmoline. One SKS that I purchased as a junker at a gun show had a broken stock and a bent gas tube. I installed a new gas tube and a folding zytel plastic stock and handguard. I also drilled and tapped the receiver and put a Weaver type-quick disconnect scope mount on it. With a rubber armored 4X scope it will shoot 1.5 inch groups at 100 yards with Chi-Com ammo. By the way it is a Norinco SKS. I also opened the ejection port a little, stoned and angled the ejector and polished and smoothed the trigger group. Sweet, ultra reliable gun for less than $100.00 total. Try to do that with an AR.
There are some junk SKS's out there built after the Chi-Coms ran out of military surplus guns. These guns were built via the cottage industry network in China and all have pinned barrels and ROUGH triggers. Still even these guns are worth the $90.00 to $135.00 most people paid for them.
As for them being a suitable weapon for war? Ask any GI that faced them on the battlefield in Korea or Vietnam. A squad of warriors each armed with the SKS and a belt full of ten round stripper clips is a force to be delt with. They are just lose and simple enough to be a joy to maintain in the bush and tough enough to depend on. what more could you ask?
 
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