sks stock fit: barrel and receiver moving forward and rearward (bedding job?)

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brutus101

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When I push or pull on the barrel, the barrel and receiver moves quite a bit inside the stock which is not good at all for accuracy. All the sks I had did this.
So the whole thing is going to move between each shot.

I'm thinking about doing a basic bedding job to tighten the receiver to stock fit.
Did you get a big improvement after bedding the stock?
 
I found that on the internet it's pretty much what I found when I examined the stock to receiver fit. The bedding should not go on the top it must go where the rear of the receiver make contact with the stock. There is also another point to bed but it's pretty hard to explain on the internet. Basicaly you put bedding where it stop the receiver from moving backward or forward there is two point of contact that matter.


sks%20bedding.JPG


Canada tail said:
question is where do you need to bed ?
Click to expand...
 
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brutus101 said:
When I push or pull on the barrel, the barrel and receiver moves quite a bit inside the stock which is not good at all for accuracy. All the sks I had did this.
So the whole thing is going to move between each shot.

I'm thinking about doing a basic bedding job to tighten the receiver to stock fit.
Did you get a big improvement after bedding the stock?
Click to expand...

The stock fit on refurbished rifles is sometimes quite poor. The wood has also been exposed to moisture and 70 years of fluctuating temperature and conditions. There is also fairly substantial wood fibre compression in some cases. You'll get a massive improvement after bedding.
 
So, what stock do you have? If it's the original one, you need to tighten up the the cross pin to receiver fit (your "what to do here") and bed it. If it's any other stock, I'm not too sure what all keeps it from moving back and forth. I'm guessing that's why mine in an ATI stock shot so crappy.
 
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Yeah I see that the crossping is there to stop the receiver from moving forward. The two points on my photo are there to stop the receiver from moving backward. If I bed those two point the receiver won't be able to move forward or rearward.

weasel1 said:
So, what stock do you have? If it's the original one, you need to tighten up the the cross pin to receiver fit (your "what to do here") and bed it. If it's any other stock, I'm not too sure what all keeps it from moving back and forth. I'm guessing that's why mine in an ATI stock shot so crappy.
Click to expand...
 
What kind of accuracy improvement did you get? I shot consistent (4 x 5 shot groups) 4 moa with another sks that had the same poor receiver to stock fit. If I can get 2 moa to 2.5 moa that would be awesome.

bp2626 said:
The stock fit on refurbished rifles is sometimes quite poor. The wood has also been exposed to moisture and 70 years of fluctuating temperature and conditions. There is also fairly substantial wood fibre compression in some cases. You'll get a massive improvement after bedding.
Click to expand...
 
Shimming should be done at the
rear of the receiver/stock area so
that it forces the receiver up against
the cross bolt.
 
You could also cut up a pop can and fold it until it is the right thickness to be used as a shim at the rear of the rifle. Did this to mine and it made a huge difference.
 
I use JB Weld and some old left over car wax as a release agent in my SKS. Mine went from 6-8" down 2-3" after bedding and crowning plus a trigger job. My SKS was the worst of the worst as far as refurb Russian rifles go. It shoots pretty good now but I put a lot of time into fixing it up.

I bought a non refurb from a guy on the EE here and it shoots just as good without me having to do anything to it.
 
Well it's not the easiest rifle to bed... I got it ok but I wanted a very tight fit and now it was so tight that the crosspin became loose just trying to put in back together. So I'll need a new stock. What release agent do you use I used turtle wax and it still stick somewhat.
 
Now I know the picture I am posting is a plastic stock but the same principle applies. The recoil lug on the sks is the big square pin that you see on the side of the receiver. As well you have a deep shoulder on the bottom of the receiver that transfer the recoil to the stock aka recoil shoulder (OK maybe I made up the name but it applies). Its the area in the grey epoxy to the left in the picture with the deep step. Neither the plastic or the wood stock made any contact with the shoulder so all recoil forces were applied to the far back of the receiver. I bedded with PC 7 high strength epoxy, grey stuff in pic. To bed the sks, remove all bits a pieces leaving just the barrel and receiver. Several polished coats of turtle wax are needed and you could plug any places you don't want epoxy going into with hot glue. On the stock rough up the inside with a dremel cut off wheel to give the epoxy someplace to grip. Apply epoxy, place receiver into stock, use a couple of clamps to secure receiver into stock. Lightly tap the butt of rifle on floor to set receiver into stock. Leave it for min 24 hrs. Remove clamps and you will need to use a hammer to separate the parts. I have put about 2k rds through the rifle with this stock and no degrading of the epoxy and the fit is still snug.


The amount of space in the stock is incredible and by bedding it helps to even out the transfer of recoil and can't hurt on the accuracy. You can see how much epoxy was needed just on the plastic stock, the same is needed on the wood stock. I can post pics later if anyone is curious. I also made sure that the fit/bedding of the trigger group was also bedded to ensure a solid fit. I found the PC 7 at Home Hardware.
 
I didn't do a bedding job, but if you take some aluminum tape (muffler tape :) ) yes I know...LOL and apply it to the back side of the rear tang,the one the trigger assemble would hook to when you assemble your SKS. All it does is take up the play between the rear tang and front pin, and it will tighten it up very well and stay put.
And what can I say...it works great, tightens up the barreled action nice and after a couple shots if it compacts...just disassemble and put a couple more layer on. The good things...it sticks very well and is cut-able to size, and you can return your SKS to "as bought" condition when your done.
Just a thought , bedding jobs are nice, but not much area to bed on an SKS.
Cheers
Brian
 
esque said:
Shimming should be done at the
rear of the receiver/stock area so
that it forces the receiver up against
the cross bolt.
Click to expand...

This is the general consensus, and it worked well for me.

What I did was grabbed some waxed cooking paper, folded it repeatedly until I got the right thickness, then shimmed behind the tang behind the trigger. Worked well, cut groups down from about 6" to roughly 3" with decent ammo.
 
You can bedd so the cross bolt is engaged but the cross bolt itself has "0" to do with recoil. IMHO it is just a flat surface for the barrel to rest on. In a way it acts as a fulcrum point between the front most contact and the rear when the receiver is locked in position by the trigger group. During recoil the receiver is moving away from the cross bolt. I have added pics of the bedding I did to my wood stock with profiles of the receiver showing the recoil lug and the "recoil" shoulder". These are the areas that need stability as this is where the recoil is transferred from the locked bolt.





After bedding you could add some shim stock between the cross bolt and the barrel if needed but just enough to make contact. Too much would apply pressure to the contact between the front of the stock and the "plate", can't recall what its name is. Or you could add epoxy at the front where the wood slides in to take up some space.
 
Got a brand new chinese sks stock. Fit much better it's almost a perfect fit just need a tiny bit of jbweld. I'll be more carefull this time. Btw 25$ for a replacement stock it's just the perfect gun to learn how to bed a rifle...
 
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