Sensitive SKS trigger!
- Thread starter gunnoob
- Start date
- Location
- Surrey, BC
Mine is fairly heavy, and I've never encountered an SKS trigger pull that was lighter than 5 pounds or so. Is your SKS new or used? If it's used, take the trigger group out and look at the hammer & sear interface surfaces, if they're polished and shiny then chances are 1) the gun has seen a lot of trigger time, in order for those parts to wear off the bluing and burnish each other that much, or 2) the former owner got a trigger job done on the rifle. A trigger job (a professional one, at least) will have polishing done on more than just the hammer & sear though, there will probably be polishing on the disconnect bar where it touches the sear and on the sear guide rails. You'd have to knock a couple pins out to check this.
In case #1 mentioned above, there's a chance that the hammer and/or sear surfaces are worn right out, in which case you have an unsafe gun!! As outlined on one of the many SKS trigger job info pages, most SKS's have negative or neutral engagement from the factory, and with wear this only gets worse (ie; more negative engagement) to the point where the hammer will slip off the sear if the rifle is knocked around. To test if your hammer/sear is worn, #### the gun (without a round in the chamber, obviously), put the safety on and bang the butt of the gun on the ground. Bang it from different angles, and bang it good (not to the point of breaking the stock, of course!). If the hammer falls, you need a new hammer & sear. If not, it's something else. Hope that helps!
In case #1 mentioned above, there's a chance that the hammer and/or sear surfaces are worn right out, in which case you have an unsafe gun!! As outlined on one of the many SKS trigger job info pages, most SKS's have negative or neutral engagement from the factory, and with wear this only gets worse (ie; more negative engagement) to the point where the hammer will slip off the sear if the rifle is knocked around. To test if your hammer/sear is worn, #### the gun (without a round in the chamber, obviously), put the safety on and bang the butt of the gun on the ground. Bang it from different angles, and bang it good (not to the point of breaking the stock, of course!). If the hammer falls, you need a new hammer & sear. If not, it's something else. Hope that helps!
The sear has a LOT of travel, and a heavy spring. Polish will smooth it, and possibly lighten it some, but I'd suspect you've either got a trigger job done, or some debris wedged in there somewhere.
I've played around inside the trigger assembly, and don't see how wear could account for it. There's a LOT of material in there.
I've played around inside the trigger assembly, and don't see how wear could account for it. There's a LOT of material in there.
- Location
- Surrey, BC
You're right, there's almost 1/8" of travel on mine before the hammer drops off the edge of the sear, but picture that nice clean edge being rounded off from lots and lots of trigger pulls, y'know? I dunno how much it would wear in a typical lifetime (1000, 2000, 3000+ rounds?), but the bluing would surely be gone and the mating surfaces lapped/burnished to match each other's profile, don't you think? I'm just speculating (aka; talking out of my ass!!), basically I haven't got a clue why mr. gunnoob's trigger is extra sensitive, it could be one of many things.prosper said:
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
gunnoob said:
First off, not by any means a benchmark in smoothness, just pretty usual
And second, this is likely for you a don't try this at home activity. You'd be well advised to have a gunsmith do this rather than bubba it yourself.
- Location
- Surrey, BC
Sound advice, for sure. If you read through this thread (sks trigger job) you'll get a better picture of what's involved with a trigger job and what the risks are, it's definetely not something you just wanna start hacking at (ask michealsabre about his trigger job experience!). You could also try sending your trigger group across the border to Kivaari for a full-meal-deal trigger job, it costs $50 US but it's apparently well worth it, and then you can feel confident that your trigger is truly safe and done right. Just a suggestionArdent said:
Mystic Precision
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Summerland, BC
I think he asked if ANYONE had one. haven't seen such an animal on an SKS.
Don't think I would want one anyways. With use, mine have smoothed out the first stage and if lucky, the second isn't all that bad. Kind of like a double stage revolver trigger with a stop in the middle somewhere.
Jerry
Don't think I would want one anyways. With use, mine have smoothed out the first stage and if lucky, the second isn't all that bad. Kind of like a double stage revolver trigger with a stop in the middle somewhere.
Jerry
GOT MY NORINCO SKS TODAY!!! It its actually mint. Smooth metal and the stock is shiney and knick free. The guys at the Edge even thought it was very clean. They kept talking about it. My parents lost it when they saw it hahahahahha. So I had to go buy a 450 dollar membership from the shooters edge to store my gun there. But now I can't shoot it there because I have AP ammo. So now I have to buy a handgun. Darn. ...But yeah I wont mess with the trigger.
I wonder how much steel I can shoot through.
...But yeah I wont mess with the trigger.I wonder how much steel I can shoot through.
- Location
- Surrey, BC
Your ammo is not AP, it's steel or more likely lead core FMJ (full metal jacket). There's a HUGE difference. Indoor ranges don't allow FMJ ammunition because it has a tendency to ricochet off the backstop. I don't have to tell you what a hazard this is, especially in a 50-yard indoor range!
Armor Piercing ammunition has a sharp, hardened steel or tungsten/tungsten-carbide core that is exposed when the copper jacket peels back upon impact, allowing the remaining mass of the bullet to punch through body armor or light vehicle armor. Steel-core FMJ is not considered AP ammo. Same with lead-core FMJ. To my knowledge, there is no AP ammo in 7.62x39 available in canada. It's not illegal, there's just none around for civilian use.
To make a long story boring, you can't use your FMJ surplus ammo at any indoor ranges. You'll need to either shell out $15/box for Federal SP ammo or get into reloading, either of which is going to be more expensive than finding a different place to shoot (surplus ammo costs an average of 14 cents per round, it's tough to match this cost even with handloads). I'd start looking for an outdoor range that's close by, and call ahead to ensure they allow FMJ surplus ammo. Some may not, dunno about the outdoor ranges in your area.
Armor Piercing ammunition has a sharp, hardened steel or tungsten/tungsten-carbide core that is exposed when the copper jacket peels back upon impact, allowing the remaining mass of the bullet to punch through body armor or light vehicle armor. Steel-core FMJ is not considered AP ammo. Same with lead-core FMJ. To my knowledge, there is no AP ammo in 7.62x39 available in canada. It's not illegal, there's just none around for civilian use.
To make a long story boring, you can't use your FMJ surplus ammo at any indoor ranges. You'll need to either shell out $15/box for Federal SP ammo or get into reloading, either of which is going to be more expensive than finding a different place to shoot (surplus ammo costs an average of 14 cents per round, it's tough to match this cost even with handloads). I'd start looking for an outdoor range that's close by, and call ahead to ensure they allow FMJ surplus ammo. Some may not, dunno about the outdoor ranges in your area.
Some of the less informed ranges refer to all steel cored ammo as 'AP' anyways, and are under the mistaken impression that it will damage the backstop. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Mild steel will do no more damage than lead. This has been tested before, and steel cores offer no additional penetration. They do however spark pretty impressively, and there is the ricochet hazard
or cosmiline, or worst case some rust..
I will say i have seen steel core turn a rubber mat to swiss cheese at a range before.. @ 50 yards it CAN go strait though. Czech isn't likely to cause this damage often but the Norcy yellow stuff certainly will~!
I beg to differ prosper.
I will say i have seen steel core turn a rubber mat to swiss cheese at a range before.. @ 50 yards it CAN go strait though. Czech isn't likely to cause this damage often but the Norcy yellow stuff certainly will~!
I beg to differ prosper.
- Location
- Surrey, BC
I've wondered about this before, from a physics perspective. Wouldn't steel projectiles do less damage than lead projectiles, due to the difference in density and the harder (read; inelastic) nature of steel? Steel being less dense would not be able to retain as much energy as lead, and when impact occurs the inelastic nature of steel would not allow it to transfer its energy to the target (the backstop, in this case). It would ricochet instead, like the physics demonstration of two billiard balls hitting each other, representing an inelastic collision. Lead on the other hand is roughly twice as dense (11.something grams/ml) as steel and much softer and more malleable, therefore even a FMJ lead core bullet would smush and deform when impacting a hard concrete backstop and transfer more energy, causing greater backstop erosion (while still probably retaining enough energy to ricochet, just not as bad as steel). Am I completely off-base here? I would imagine some parallels may be drawn between shotgun pellet materials (like bismuth, bronze, tungsten, etc) and rifle bullet materials, just scale up the shotgun pellet characteristics to provide a picture of what a 7.62 cal bullet would behave like. Yes/no?prosper said:
You're describing the SD. But regardless whether you're using a longer steel or shorter lead core (of the same weight) the SD is the same. The only difference is the length of the projectile. The point has the same amount od weight behind it, and thus, the same momentum & energy.poweredbybeer said:
Sure it would. Density aside, the weight is the same, and terefore the energy is toopoweredbybeer said:
Yep.poweredbybeer said:
Depending on angle of impact, the difference may be negligable. A steel core at a 90 degree AOI will still deform and transfer 100% of its energy. Plus, not all lead is easily deformable. Hard cast bullets, for example, tend to shatter and ricochet rather easilypoweredbybeer said:
poweredbybeer said:
- Location
- Surrey, BC
Lol, good pointprosper said:
Which weighs more, 123 grains of lead or 123 grains of steel? I concede the point, density makes no difference if bullet weight is the same.True 'nuf, mild steel and hard-cast lead are probably roughly similar in hardness/malleability. I don't know what type/grade of steel is used in surplus 7.62x39, and same with the type/grade of lead, so there's no way for me to compare the two. That being said, assuming a mild steel wire core vs. a standard cast lead core of the same weight, I think the steel core would deform less and tend to ricochet more. Not only that, the energy transferred at impact in lead core bullets also tends to melt the lead, does it not? Not that it means anything to the concrete backstopprosper said:
I think I'm beating a dead horse here...
