SKS Firing out of battery

M

maritimer

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Just received a new refurb SKS and took to the range to try it out. At least one time in 10 rounds it would double fire. I figure that I hadn't cleaned the bolt well enough so when I got it home I disassembled it and gave a good cleaning. The firing pin rattles freely in there and it's nice and dry. Took it to range again and it double fired. Shot 20 rounds with it, and rounds 1 and 2, and 19 and 20 went off at the same time. So on a full mag and an empty mag it'll fire out of battery.

Some tests I did at home were: I pulled the trigger and then racked it a bunch of times, never once did the hammer fall. I also racked the action a bunch of times with the trigger depressed thinking the hammer might fall on the release of the trigger but nothing.

Has anyone else noticed this happen where it wasn't a stuck firing pin? I've never had any problems with my Chinese or my other Russian. One difference is that this one has a painted black bolt where the others were silver. Could there be gobs of paint in the bolt that sometimes catch the firing pin?

It's a 1954 rifle with an earlier trigger group, one without the trigger bar as shown in curtton's sticky. What does this do anyway?

I was firing the milsurp ammo in the green box that everyone uses.

Anyone have this happen to them? Anything else I can check? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
"Shot 20 rounds with it, and rounds 1 and 2, and 19 and 20 went off at the same time. So on a full mag and an empty mag it'll fire out of battery."


sounds a little bit illegal. isn;t your mag pinned to 5?!?!?
 
mardig88 said:
"Shot 20 rounds with it, and rounds 1 and 2, and 19 and 20 went off at the same time. So on a full mag and an empty mag it'll fire out of battery."


sounds a little bit illegal. isn;t your mag pinned to 5?!?!?
Click to expand...


I think he means out of a total of 20 rounds (One box).


Try lubing your firing pin. I had a few slam fires before and haven't had one since I started lubing my firing pin. The best way to fix it though is getting the firing pin spring, as mentioned earlier
 
It could be the firing pin getting gummed up by the black paint. Try stripping all the paint off your bolt inside and out.
 
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You're not firing out of battery; doing such, your firearm would pepper you with gases and brass pieces and gas ballooning your magazine would crack the wood.
You're simply doubling.
I would suspect a gummed up trigger group with a hammer following instead of staying where it should. Also check functioning of the disconnector.
Good luck!
PP.
 
Juster: So school me :) Firing out of battery is anytime the action is not fully locked up and the round is capable of going off. That is what I understand anyway.

How could you tell that my bolt had fully dropped down into the locking recess when it fired the second time on its own? I couldn't tell and I was there.

Not all out of battery firing result in a boom that destroys the rifle, spews gas into face and other suggestions PP made, just the most serious ones which will no doubt happen if I let this thing continue to fire out of control. One pull, one boom is the only safe way.

I'll clean out the firing pin hole in the bolt with some solvent and give it go. The trigger groups seems to function properly, the disconnector works, at least in my hand anyway. I did the series of dry firing tests I described and the hammer never fell on it's own.

Yes, 4 mags of 5 rounds makes 20.

Thanks for the suggestions. Where can you get the spring loaded firing pins? I saw on sksman that he'll sell a retro firing pin and spring kit for the later bolts but $35US is a little steep.
 
Go to the hardware or auto supply store and purchase a package of six springs for $4.00
Cut off a couple of coils.
Century Spring Corp. Part #C-580
3/16 x 1 3/8 x 0.028 (4.775 x 34.925 x 0.711 mm)
 
If your SKS fired out of battery, yes odds are you'd experience the fallout of a failed case. A 7.62x39 out of battery would not be fun, as it's high pressure enough to do some serious damage. My guess would be that if the bolt had not locked, you'd be holding a destroyed rifle, and be lucky not to have pieces of the bolt in your face. With a rifle cartridge, even the little 7.62x39, we're talking massive amounts of pressure and energy. Without a locked bolt in a rearward moving bolt, semi automatic action I don't see how this could possibly be handled well by the firearm.

Your case was definitely not one of firing out of battery, but rather slam firing, or more vaguely doubling. Firing out of battery in a 9mm subgun is one thing, and completely another in a semiautomatic rifle. Your gun by all odds would be ruined by an out of battery ignition.
 
Thanks Ardent, I hear what you're saying but by your own account you can't be sure. You said yourself "My guess ..." "..odds are .." but you're "definitely" sure it wasn't out of battery; I don't see how.

Like I said partly locked up is not fully locked up and just because I've been lucky so far doesn't mean that luck will hold out forever. It's semantics at this point anyway, was it, wasn't it, fact is it's unsafe. I think we can all agree there so it's a dead horse issue now.

So what do you think I should check next that I haven't already?

A thought, would a sticky chamber cause the issue? We all fire the steel case surplus with the lacquer finish. Would enough heat cause this stuff to melt off and adhere to the chamber walls? That would cause a hard feed of the casing and possibly a slam fire as all the inertia of the carrier comes to a stop sooner and faster. The free floating firing pin could continue forward and strike the primer.

I used a little solvent in the chamber and lo and behold there was actually a little black paint there too. It's nice and clean now.
 
StoneHorse: Does the spring go on the front section or rear section firing pin? I'm assuming between the retaining pin and the bolt face. Next time you have it apart, you mind snapping a pic of it for me?

Many thanks.
 
maritimer : ardent explained it best so i need not go further into it .

i would try PP suggestion of cleaning the trigger group , many member are afraid to disassemble it but its real easy if you use a cleaning kit container (from the buttstock), slide the hammer in at 90* and push down , the hammer will pop out really easily.

if that fails the try the murray spring firing pin .
 
I've never had any problems with my blued Russian or the Chinese SKS I had. Could all the paint everywhere be causing an issue? I'll try the suggestion of taking apart the trigger group and cleaning off paint where I see wear spots. I'm still holding this thing far away from me the next time I fire it!

curtton: Sorry, the murray spring firing pin? I must have missed something.
 
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