SKS and surplus ammo.

dave9252

dave9252

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Have been to the range today, one of the rifles I took was my SKS. On a previous trip I decided to put my ammo into a sealable Tupperware dish. Now it seems I have to 'pre fire' the ammo, it fails to fire on the first attempt but leaves a mark on the cap, when I load it the second time it fires.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem, or is it just my storage method.
 
seriously how is that everyone forgets these things are coated in cosmoline, we don't need another automatic fire thing going on because some one forgot to clean there bolt and firing pin. I have had in happen to 2 bullets out of thousands, its not because you stored it in a upper ware container, you could drop these bullets in water and they will still fire, its an sks. Now if you did clean your bolt my apologys but i have seen so many retards at the range with an sks still covered in cosmoline and they can't figure out why they won't fire
 
Originally the ammo was kept in the boxes it came in, and only had the odd round not fire first time. Now its every round, plan to take and try different ammo next time and see if it helps.
 
Have you used the same ammo before with no problems? What make ammo?
Have you disassembled the bolt for cleaning (just asking as some shooters don't do this - but good idea to do once in awhile).
Did you oil the bolt - maybe lube gummed up (not sure how cold it was in your area today)?
 
Welders...
Anyways, the next thing I'd check is to make sure your trigger group is locked in properly as that can cause light strikes. Is the rifle stock or modded?
 
You have to completely disassemble and clean the bolt block. I use ZEP orange cleaner to de-grease everything, then really hot water to rinse. Clean/dry the firing pin channel with a q-tip and reassemble.

No need to lube anywhere (you could put a little oil where the bolt carrier slides).
 
I agree it sounds like there is some oil in the firing pin channel. I took my bolt and swished it around in a pie tin of gas. let is soak for awhile.

The hammer strikes are very hard. Should fire 100%.
 
I haven't stripped the bolt down recently, I did originally strip and clean it with brake cleaner, but from then on just used gun oil to clean and lubricate it. Was 3 or 4C today so not cold, have used the same ammo as before, the only difference was the ammo storage that's why I asked if others have had this problem. I will dissemble it again and use brake cleaner and see what its like next trip out.
It is modified yes with a Tapco stock.
 
dave9252 said:
the only difference was the ammo storage
Click to expand...

that's not the only difference.. you are shooting surplus ammo.. it's corrosive and leads to rust easier.. the firearm was cleaned since the last time you shot it (I assume) so the firearm itself has changed.

1) problems with re-assembly
2) rust in trigger group
3) rust in firing pin/bolt
4) too much lube from last cleaning

also .. do you use oil or grease? grease is affected more by temp then oils.
 
what ammo are you using ?

i shot some really old russian ammo from 58 and 51 in my sks and cz and i never got any bad round same for the romanian and sellier bello stuff ,

check the fire pin , and the spring in the trigger
 
yeah, I would also say the firing pin protrusion is not sufficient enough for whatever reason, I can't see it being a weak hammer spring, that thing is pretty darn stiff...(took the hammer off once, it was really hard to get it back on)...I've fired a lot of different surplus (Chinese, Romanian, Czech, Russian) and never had any problems in any of my SKS's.
 
Yup, its most likely a worn firing pin. I have seen this problem first hand.
I have heard that different primers and ammo lead to different wear on the pin itself. Try replacing the pin.
 
mrbeil said:
If everything is clean, and the ammo is fine then I would say it's a worn firing pin
Click to expand...


this^^^
if you can shake the firing pin assembly when apart and the firing pin moves freely, then its clean, you should hear a distinct tick, tick, tick, when you shake it, it typical means the pin is travelling to its limits, also look close at the pin itself and if you have 2 sks's or access to another one check similairities on the pins to see if anything is irregular
 
dave9252 said:
I haven't stripped the bolt down recently, I did originally strip and clean it with brake cleaner, but from then on just used gun oil to clean and lubricate it. Was 3 or 4C today so not cold, have used the same ammo as before, the only difference was the ammo storage that's why I asked if others have had this problem. I will dissemble it again and use brake cleaner and see what its like next trip out.
It is modified yes with a Tapco stock.
Click to expand...

Did you lubricate the firing pin? A mix of lube oil and powder residue will cake-up the firing pin and channel. Primarily the where the pin strikes behind the bolt face shortening travel distance. Could and will lead to light primer strikes.
 
I have a TT-33 pistol that does the same thing. Found a worn firing pin. It was so minute it only acted up with the hard primers on surplus ammo. May be unrelated but I noticed ammo exposed to cold weather was worse.
 
I had it apart this morning to clean and inspect the bolt and firing pin, used brake clean and only got a slight smudge of 'gunk' on the cleaning cloth. I'll pick up some different ammo next time i'm in town and give it a try, I no longer have the box the original ammo came in. But I remember being packed in slim blue boxes with x2 10 round rails.
The firing pin isn't a free floating pin, it has the spring.
 
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