Well, looks like it's time for me to buy a Murray's pin

[Scully714]

Hello Gents,


Finally got out to shoot my SKS today, once I had all the cosmo out and the bore glistening. 5 rounds into my second magazine, it went full auto on me. It was quite the delightful experience! And it shockingly gave me the tightest grouping I've ever had with any firearm lol (I had 5 holes on bullseye with like 1/4 inch spaces). It looks like I'm gonna get me one of those Murray's Firing pins that Telemark recommended to me before....wish I had done that first!


Other than that, the SKS is kick-ass! Very loud, but not as much recoil as I thought it would have with that much noise. Hardly any recoil at all, really. It's really fun to shoot in SEMI-AUTO mode.

 

[Scully714]

I also got a casing jammed and couldn't get the bolt disengaged till I got home and got it out with a cleaning rod...looking at the bottom of the brass you could hardly see the indentation from the firing pin. It looks pristine save for a tiny notch on the extreme far end. I'll post a pic later.

 

[tele_mark]

That casing jamming is because you still have cosmo in the chamber, probably quite bad. I had the same thing happen to mine when I first started using is, but only in "bolt action" mode, because I cleaned the chamber pretty thoroughly, or at least I thought. Firing it single shot proved me wrong and a coupe times the only way to open the action was to put the butt against the ground and stomp on the bolt handle with my foot. I think I finally got it cleaned out with either a .40 or .45 barrel brush and lots of elbow grease.

Note -- if you do this first empty the remaining rounds out of the gun and engage the safety!!!

Your slam fire shouldn't have happened like it did -- that means there's still crap in the firing pin channel in the bolt. The Murray's pins will help prevent that, but what you experienced shouldn't have happened. What probably happened is that your first magazine got some stuff in the channel heated up and it flowed around the pin and then cooled while you were re-loading. When you get a new SKS, you need to fully detail strip the bolt and soak it in solvent and clean everything with a toothbrush before re-assembling it.

 

[SKS Ray]

looking at the bottom of the brass

Wait a minute... what are you using for ammo? If you are using commercial brass cased ammo like Winchester, theres your full auto situation. I had one do it on me that had a perfectly clean bolt inside and out when I was using Winchester 7.62x39 brass cased hunting ammo.

I'm not saying the Murray's set up isn't a good idea, but thousands of people all over the country shoot their SKSs with factory bolts without problems using standard military grade ammo like Wolf, Golden Tiger, Barnaul, Hot Shot, etc.

The only SKS that had a spring loaded firing pin were the original 1949 and 1950 Russians. After those years they went to what we see today.

 

[Scully714]

I was using wolf 7.62...Damn, and I was sure I had all this stuff cleaned out! I was getting almost nothing on the patches, and the chamber looks clean...I used some Breakfree CLR...would that have gummed things up or something?

 

[SKS Ray]

Breakfree is actually good for disolving cosmolene and shouldn't gum up unless its the Collector type.
Only bad thing about SKS rifles is that because they're semi auto with many moving parts and were usually dunked in a hot cosmolene bath before putting away when they were turned in is that it gets everywhere. Often in places you can easily overlook.
The light firing pin indentation is typical on some types of Wolf ammo, especially the grey steel cased stuff.

 

[Wildweasel]

Did you take out the firing pin and manually clean the bolt and firing pin? that is the cause of the slam fires 99% of the time. Just spraying the bolt down (and even in the firing pin hole with it in there) is not enough. you MUST remove it.