SKS Failure To Fire

ShotgunNut

ShotgunNut

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I was getting some FTFs and noticed my hammer spring was old and rusty. Since replacing my hammer spring I am still getting failure to fires. My roommate has an SKS too and while we we're cleaning them I thought to manually #### the hammers with my thumb just to see how the spring pressures felt and they feel identical. So I don't believe the FTFs were from weak hammer strikes after all. Cleaning inside the bolt nearly fixes the issue but I notice the first FTF happens about 50 - 60 rounds in on a clean gun. Can you think of anything else I should look into? Bolt? firing pin? Ammo? Using BragGear corrosive ammo. The primers have pin strike dents but usually go off on the second try. I'd be grateful for any feedback. Thank you.

1951 - free floating firing pin. I also had one failure to eject today too. The brass was extracted from the chamber but was laying loose in the feed path on one shot. I'm thinking/hoping this may not be the best ammo to buy.

That being said, I just ordered a 1320 round crate of Romanian x39. Its a different type than what I'm using now but did I just order a crate of unreliable garbage? What are your experiences with this ammo and should I be canceling the order? It hasn't gone into processing yet.
 
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when you buy this sks didnt you remove the firing pin to clean the cosmoline ? , romanian stuff is very nice stuff to shoot , never had trouble in my sks or cz , never heard about the brand you are using , it maybe just your actual ammo , never had a missfire with russian , romanian and sellier bellot stuff ,

if the firing pin is gummed in the cosmoline that might be why yuo have some light strike , might be your actual ammo too
 
If its clean and operating properly with good strikes, I might want to suspect the ammo. Try a few rounds of another make or some czeck stuff that runs flawless.
 
Super clean that firing pin and firing pin channel. No oil in there! I learned that the hard way. Give that a go and report back.
 
I agree with Dad003...

You will need to beg, borrow or buy a small quantity of ammo made by another maker to see if it solves your problems - maybe you and your friend can do a swap?

If it does, you'll know that the problem was inconsistent primers (excessively hard military primers)
 
Don't guide your breach carrier to a gentle closing, It is a rugged weapon, let it fly right in to close the breach. It happens to me with military surplus ammo even if with commercial ammo it doesn't matter. You don't need to be gentle with it. it won't break.
 
Nope, I pull back and let it snap closed hard. No cosmo, I've disassembled and cleaned many times. Clean healthy bolt rattle. I'll try the Romanian ammo I guess, and do a swap with the roommate. I've used the Czeck stuff and I don't remember having any issues. As far as I recall it's only been this BragGear stuff so I'm starting to blame ammo but the only problem there is that the roomy uses the same stuff and hasn't had one FTF yet.

I wonder if its possible the firing pin has worn dull with use but there is no visual difference that I can detect. This is strange. I'll report back after the bolt swap test.
 
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ShotgunNut said:
Hey just in case, which of these websites up there have a selection of SKS parts? Bolts, fire pins, trigger assemblies and that kind of thing...
Click to expand...


I doubt its a part problem at this point. These rifles can be run over by a truck and still function. Only Dirt and Babba can screw up an SKS. I'm thinking its ammo.
 
There is one other thing I can think of is maybe a sticky chamber could have something to do with it. Sometimes I use brush to clean the chamber as its wider then the rest of the bore. Maybe I forgot to do that last cleaning... might explain the poorly extracted casing sitting in my feed path on the last mag... or probably ammo... crap ammo doesn't explain how my roommates gun runs the same stuff with no issues though...
 
33ax7cg.jpg
 
ShotgunNut said:
I was getting some FTFs and noticed my hammer spring was old and rusty. Since replacing my hammer spring I am still getting failure to fires. My roommate has an SKS too and while we we're cleaning them I thought to manually #### the hammers with my thumb just to see how the spring pressures felt and they feel identical. So I don't believe the FTFs were from weak hammer strikes after all. Cleaning inside the bolt nearly fixes the issue but I notice the first FTF happens about 50 - 60 rounds in on a clean gun. Can you think of anything else I should look into? Bolt? firing pin? Ammo? Using BragGear corrosive ammo. The primers have pin strike dents but usually go off on the second try. I'd be grateful for any feedback. Thank you.

1951 - free floating firing pin. I also had one failure to eject today too. The brass was extracted from the chamber but was laying loose in the feed path on one shot. I'm thinking/hoping this may not be the best ammo to buy.

That being said, I just ordered a 1320 round crate of Romanian x39. Its a different type than what I'm using now but did I just order a crate of unreliable garbage? What are your experiences with this ammo and should I be canceling the order? It hasn't gone into processing yet.
Click to expand...

Take a steam cleaner and blast it through and around the firing pin to clean out any dirt and cosmoline as well a good cleaning solvents. Your firing pin should aubily rattle and move freely in your bolt carrier when shaken.
 
Sounds like you have done everything right. And more thorough than Ive been with my sks rifles, yet mine dont have your problem. Bit of a mystery for sure. Curious to hear what the problem is if/when you figure it out.
 
If you need parts Lever Arms in BC has some.Not the best people to deal with[rude] but if you're stuck..........Harold
 
Thank you. That may come useful. They got firing pins and bolt bodies too.

So no one is familiar with the ammo I posted the picture of? That's the stuff I'm hoping is to blame and not so much my rifle.
 
I would lean towards a ammo problem as well
If you have a nice bolt rattle and you have fully stripped and cleaned then these are as reliable as they get
I believe I have ever only had one FTF and it was a faulty round no primer
 
Well its a good thing I got 1320 rounds coming in the mail because this troubleshoot will take a few. I will start with a whole action assembly swap and try her rifle with my action assembly and see if anything happens. The first FTF should happen within 100 rounds. Then I'll go to my rifle with her action assembly, test and work from top down through the components one by one replacing each of hers with mine. Spring/Carrier/bolt/firing pin/extractor. I'll find that either one of these is the culprit or I'll at least know by the end weather or not it is in fact the ammo. I'll use the Romanian ammo for the testing and I'll save my last 100 rounds of BragGear stuff for the end to conclude on the ammo. Hopefully a bad ammo brand is exposed.
 
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