first cleaning of sks

Northern Bandit

New member
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Location
Edmonton, AB
I just got a Russian SKS with the hardwood stock and silver bolt.I was wondering how to clean all of the oil off of it and how I should go about oiling the internals. I am a gun noob as this is my first rifle, any tips would be great.
Thanks
 
Youtube is your friend. Watch/replay/pause as you are cleaning it. Search for cosmoline to get ideas about cleaning the shipping grease.
 
Brake cleaner works the best for stripping Cosmo off of the metal parts. (DON"T use it on the wood). Make sure you put a light film of CLP or gun oil on the metal afterwards, because the brake cleaner removes ALL traces of lubricant.
 
I don't know squat about the SKS, but CLP works as a pretty darn good metal lube. In my research on the SKS, lots of folks seem to use it all over the rifle, assuming the sludge oil coating has been cleaned off.
 
i'll tell you how i cleaned my SKS first time i got it, by the way i shoot amazing groups with it.

1. disassemble all your part (remember how hehe)
2. i put all of my steel pieces (eg: springs, rods, bolts etc) into a giant pot and boiled them for a little while, this will melt off all of the cosmoline and float to the top
3. take the parts out of water and dry them with towel, don't worry about them rusting the pieces are so hot that all of the water evaporates anyways but still try to do whatever you can to get them dry.
4. the barrel was too big to put in the pot so i just did this by hand, rags rem oil etc
5. add your rem oil nicely to every part and put them back together reapply if neccessary
6. once your gun is all put together do touch ups on cleaning, remember some of the cosmoline may be on your stock so clean that before hand

Sure there are other methods i read things such as gasoline eats up cosmoline and other things but water is free and works mighty fine. Do a good cleaning this one is most important i took my entire evening to do it, well worth it :) enjoy
 
why not? i disassembled the entire bolt, my gun works perfectly you need oil so the pin doesnt get stuck which can cause unwanted auto bursts with one trigger pull
 
why not? i disassembled the entire bolt, my gun works perfectly you need oil so the pin doesnt get stuck which can cause unwanted auto bursts with one trigger pull

Poor idea. If you get a primer pierced, the soot will blow back into the oil, immediately turning it to black concrete. After that, if you didn't notice the pierced primer, you'll get slam-fires.

It should be dry as a bone in there.
 
Chances of the firing pin sticking from no oil is far greater than piercing the primer all the way through, thats why you have that little device that checks the firing pins protrusion to make sure that doesn't happen because the spring punches the primer good just like all russian guns thats why they are harder to get jammed. I'm not saying cake on the oil but you NEED at least a small film to lubricate. You would only disassemble the bolt during the first cleaning of the sks after that you dont touch it unless its just surface cleaning.
 
I've never oiled a firing pin yet, been shooting SKS rifles for over 10 years. I've seen LOTS of SKS's slam fire, usually with older chicom ammo with brittle primers. In all cases, it turned out the owner oiled the pin.

Do as you like. Personally, I'll avoid the slamfires - thanks.
 
I just read as many links about sks slam firing as i could, not one of them mentioned anything of a cause being the oiling of a firing pin. If your firing pin is not clean it will cause slam fires due to sludge and grime. Upon first cleaning you should clean and lubricate all the pieces together, after that its just simple gas tube cleanings, bolt carrier, etc. You don't pour any oil in the bolt/firing pin area. When you boil steel it super cleans them and they sort of stick to one another, thats why you have to lightly lubricate the firing pin when it is disassembled during first cleaning the metal almost absorbs it completely, you wont get any sludge or grime due to the oil with a light lubrication indefinitely.. make a new thread about this topic and prove me wrong>?
 
Strip it.

Brake cleaner on all the metal parts to get the cosmo off, then a heavy-ish coat of CLP on all the metal surfaces. Haven't seen a slamfire yet in about 2500 rds fired.
 
Back
Top Bottom