How common are slamfires on an SKS?

was at the range awhile ago and one guy was having lots of problems with his sks, so the guy next to him went to help him out and the problems persisted. so i offered my help to the two guys and looked at the sks, it was full of cosmo and grease and had never been cleaned and they could not figure out why it would not work... handed it back and told him its done for the day take it home and clean it...total slam fire canidate.
 
screwtape said:
I think the SKS 'slamfire issue' is very similar to the 'skidding issue' with Japanese/Korean cars that I have also heard about: Apparently, you should never ever buy a Japanese or Korean car model to drive in Canada because they aren't safe in wintertime. We know this because a lot of people who have driven them on icy roads while equipped with bald summer tires have experienced uncontrollable skids ... :runaway:
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yes all imports are unsafe in Canadian winters they belong in the country they were designed in sorry I have a hatred for imports and front wheel drive cars. but yeah keeping the guns cleaned is very important just like putting on winter tires
 
I see slam fire and problems quite often with new shooters and the SKS at the range, it is usually not clean or the guy buggered it up taking it apart and putting back together for the initial cleaning of cosmo. The retailers selling these firearms are either not warning people or the customer just brushes off what the guy tells them and goes straight to the range.
 
PoFF said:
I did experience many slamfires with my Norinco SKS, while using soft-primed commercial ammunition (namely Federal). Stopped using that brand and never had a problem since, showing that it was ammunition-related rather than rifle-related.
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My Norinco SKS slam fires the Privi hunting ammo, but never the surplus ammo.
 
SKS slam fires are super common on the interwebs, not so much in the real world. Keep the rifle clean like whats been mentioned and you shouldn't see any problems.
 
Clean all the cosmoline out of the rifle, disassemble the firing pin clean it out and you should not have an issue. I have shot a few thousand rounds thru mine with no slam fires. You can also purchase a Murrays firing pin if you need more piece of mind they do work well.
 
How common are slamfires on an SKS?

I've been collecting and shooting them regularly since the early eighties. I have never had a slamfire, nor has anyone I've known. I've personally fired 20 or 30 thousand rounds in a dozen different sks rifles.
 
Dsiwy said:
Its a very bad habit

It holds the FP against the FP hole which can help it rust in place, also it slams the FP into the FP hole which can peen it in place too. Relieving the hammer spring is complete BS and having it cocked does not wear out the springs.
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In Soviet Army soldiers had to dry fire and turn safety on after unloading SKS. And all SKS were stored that way, i.e. with dropped hammer. So I guess this habit doesn't do any damage to the gun. Same with AK by the way.
 
.223Rem said:
I think that's what a slam fire is...
Also full auto is whenever 1 trigger pull results in more then 1 round being fired.
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Slam fire (as I understand it) is when you close the bolt for the first time and it fires. Mine never did that.

I was getting 2 round bursts when I pulled the trigger. It never emptied the magazine with the trigger pulled. 2 rounds only.
 
dmv said:
Slam fire (as I understand it) is when you close the bolt for the first time and it fires. Mine never did that.

I was getting 2 round bursts when I pulled the trigger. It never emptied the magazine with the trigger pulled. 2 rounds only.
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That's a slam fire , bolt pushes the next round into chamber and the firing pin pops the primer without the trigger being pulled for that round.
 
scan said:
In Soviet Army soldiers had to dry fire and turn safety on after unloading SKS. And all SKS were stored that way, i.e. with dropped hammer. So I guess this habit doesn't do any damage to the gun. Same with AK by the way.
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On a clean gun its not bad and am sure you would get jail time for a dirty gun in the soviet army. Problem is alot of shooters do not clean their bolts after shooting surplus ammo and firing the hammer can force the FP to rust to the FP hole. Plus there is no good reason to store a SKS with the hammer released, its stupid army traditions "Canadian army is the same"
 
Jäger said:
At least 4,000 rounds through mine....never an issue. It has a free floating firing pin but the cheap ammo has hard military primers.

By comparison an AR-15 has a free floating firing pin and most of the stuff I've put through mine and others have put through theirs is new commercial production with softer primers. Does a problem with slamfires in AR-15s exist? No.

The myth of the SKS being "prone" to slamfires is only as true as gun owners are "prone" to being lazy and/or ignorant of the effects of corrosive ammunition. If you shoot corrosive ammunition and do not clean the gun, the firing pin may rust into place and cause a slamfire. Maintain the gun and there will be no problems.
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X2 very well said. 2000 rounds thro mine not a single issue. the gun will perform flawlessly if you clean it after every use.
 
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