SKS and light primer strikes

oppy

oppy

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Sherwood Park, AB
Hi all,

With spring almost on us, I pulled out my trusty SKS and headed to the range. Today was unusual in that I had a lot of FTF due to light primer strikes (10 rounds out of 50). I'm not all that family with the SKS. Any suggestions as to what I can do to try and correct the issue?

Thanks!
 
oppy said:
Hi all,

With spring almost on us, I pulled out my trusty SKS and headed to the range. Today was unusual in that I had a lot of FTF due to light primer strikes (10 rounds out of 50). I'm not all that family with the SKS. Any suggestions as to what I can do to try and correct the issue?

Thanks!
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The first thing I'd do if I was having light strikes with an sks would be take down the rifle and inspect the bolt.

Corrosive ammo can cause rust in the firing pin channel and cause it to hang up. Also cosmoline stuck in the bolt can also cause light strikes especially if it's cold out.
 
p.Rundle said:
if it's not cleaning it's probably a weak spring. I think Wolff makes a few replacement springs. Might be worth a look.
Click to expand...

People in the past have tried weaker springs in an attempt to lower the trigger pull. Might get away with it on modern boxer primers, but milsurp berdan primers are much harder, and need that stronger spring.
 
Thanks for the tips! I'll strip the bolt and see what happens. The ammo is (IIRC) Czech surplus (but it could also be Norinco). Worse comes to worse, I guess I just get new springs. Any suggestions as to where they can be found in Canada?
 
I usually use Chinese corrosive with no problems but bought Czech ammo on stripper clips at a good price. Nice to have the clips but more FTF with the Czech ammo but not as many as you, about 1-2 in 50. You can see clearly that the primer has been struck but nothing comes out so it could be bad ammo as well as what other folks have suggested after a long winter.
 
Geoman said:
I usually use Chinese corrosive with no problems but bought Czech ammo on stripper clips at a good price. Nice to have the clips but more FTF with the Czech ammo but not as many as you, about 1-2 in 50. You can see clearly that the primer has been struck but nothing comes out so it could be bad ammo as well as what other folks have suggested after a long winter.
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I must be lucky.

My brother and I have been shooting our sks rifles for years with all different kinds of ammo. I've never had a failure to fire of any kind.
 
The standard SKS hammer spring is 34 + lbs. Poundage could lessen with shooting or could be weak from factory. Wolff makes a 27.5 and a 31 lb. hammer spring. I replaced mine with a 27.5(no problems shooting with it), but I read that sometimes it caused a weak strike, so I put on a 31 lb. It is a little tricky to replace, so go on youtube to see how it is done. A clean bolt and pin are a must. I also replaced the free floating firing pin with a Murray spring loaded firing pin. That way no chance of slam fire.
 
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