Problems with Chinese SKS

Gortez

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Ever since I have purchased my SKS it has not fired properly. The rounds are cycling just fine and the firing pin strikes the primer but it seems that only 10% of my rounds work, almost like the firing pin does not strike hard enough. The ammo I have works just fine in other SKS'. I have stripped and cleaned my rifle many times over and over, I even changed out the springs. Now I am stuck.

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
 
Did you detail strip the bolt itself?

There may be some build-up stopping the firing pin from protruding as far as it should.

It is also possible that you just plain got a short firing pin and it needs replacing. :(
 
i'm gonna go with cosmoline in the firing pin channel gumming up the pin...

That's my guess as well. And before I started replacing stuff like springs, I would make dang sure it was cleaned properly & had all the cosmoline removed.

When I got my Chinese SKS, it was absolutely poluted with cosmoline! I took it apart & soaked ALL metal parts in a bucket of Varsol. It took several hours of soaking before the firing pin 'floated freely' and even then, I had to work the firing pin back & forth in the Varsol several hundred times while being submerged in Varsol. It FINALLY 'rattled' when you shook the bolt after this treatment in Varsol...

Let us know how you make out!

Cheers
Jay
 
soaking is wasteful on time, stripping it (the bolt) and cleaning the channel with a q - tip takes minutes of your time, just knowck the firing pin retainer pin out and have at it

after cleaning the channel, do not soak in oil, just let the pin run dry
 
I did detail the bolt itself several times and soaked the pin in brake clean to get all the cosmoline out. I even used fine sandpaper to smooth the edges on the pin. Short pin might be an idea, cheap to replace to just try it out. Any other suggestions?

Thanks
 
i have the same problem. it works well with brass ammo and the soft primers but with surplus it shoot one out of 5 bullets. I solved the problem bu going out and buying a russian sks.
 
Man that would scare the pants off me to have a 10% fire rate not knowing if its the ammo or the gun to blame. Never had any problems with my Chinese SKS not firing and the only problem I've had is when I first got the rifle every so often(rather often)a case would get caught and crushed by the bolt while ejecting. To remedy this problem I figured to oil the hell out of the guide rail in theory making it easier for the bolt to cycle and it seems to have worked but now I think it's just the recoil spring is a little bit worked in(less stiff) therefore making cycling easier. I'm very anal about keeping the firing pin clean and rattling around in the bolt and will check before each outing to the range. Hope you can get this sorted out and if that means getting a new firing pin so be it. Let us know how she turns out. Safe shooting and happy holidays.

Jonny
 
If after a good cleaning the concern is still there, try some different surplus ammo. I still have a 1/3 of a case of early surplus ammo that has hard primers and does not go bang the first time. If you run the same ammo that did not go bang the first time through a second time and it goes bang.......hard primers. The same Russian SKS that had this problem with ammo has not had a problem since with a differnt lot of ammo.
 
If after a good cleaning the concern is still there, try some different surplus ammo. I still have a 1/3 of a case of early surplus ammo that has hard primers and does not go bang the first time. If you run the same ammo that did not go bang the first time through a second time and it goes bang.......hard primers. The same Russian SKS that had this problem with ammo has not had a problem since with a differnt lot of ammo.

I have actually done this, I put the ammo through a second time and they almost all worked.
 
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