SKS malfunction

Major Sights

Major Sights

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So I was out with my father in law yesterday shooting (yes, to those in central Ontario, in the pouring down rain. If it ain't raining it ain't training.) He had just recently purchased a Russian Refurbished SKS. This was its first time being fired (by us anyways). I received the honors, in celebration that my PAL was approved on Friday, and hopefully shipped out tomorrow.

I loaded up, and prepared to charge it, as I let go of the handle, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM!!! A. Safety, wasn't working.... B. Slam fire..... almost needed new pants as I was not expecting that. Thankfully, every round went down range and into a massive hill at the end.

Question, what would cause this? We took it apart once we got home (we stopped using it after the incident) and everything looks fine, but we are no experts on the red rifles. The pin seemed to be able to move easily forward and back. He (FiL) fixed the safety, I didn't actually see what was wrong there.
 
clean the bolt very well make sure you take it totaly apart. clean everything. run a pipe cleaner through the firing pin hole. im just north of you if you want to take a look at it.
 
i had a murry firing pin put on just in case that happens because my firing pin was stuck in the forward position
 
Surplus, not sure which country though. We did take it apart and cleaned it EXTREMELY thoroughly, and oiled around the pin, lightly, so that if I tip it up or down the pin moves.

Needless to say, next time we test it- one round in the mag....
 
Major Sights said:
Surplus, not sure which country though. We did take it apart and cleaned it EXTREMELY thoroughly, and oiled around the pin, lightly, so that if I tip it up or down the pin moves.

Needless to say, next time we test it- one round in the mag....
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Have you actually removed the firing pin from the bolt to clean everything? Using a punch, you drive the retainer from the bolt and then you remove the firing pin and the extractor too btw to give a good cleaning. You must pay attention how the firing put was assembled to be sure when you put it back, she will move freely, there's a notch on the firing pin to let the retaine pass in. Once you removed all the grease,oil or whatever dirt, do not oil the firing pin, will attract dirt and ####.... keep it dry.

Jocelyn
 
svt1940 said:
Have you actually removed the firing pin from the bolt to clean everything? Using a punch, you drive the retainer from the bolt and then you remove the firing pin and the extractor too btw to give a good cleaning. You must pay attention how the firing put was assembled to be sure when you put it back, she will move freely, there's a notch on the firing pin to let the retaine pass in. Once you removed all the grease,oil or whatever dirt, do not oil the firing pin, will attract dirt and s**t.... keep it dry.

Jocelyn
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Yes. And I wish you had told me that yesterday, would have made the process go quicker.
 
Major Sights said:
Surplus, not sure which country though. We did take it apart and cleaned it EXTREMELY thoroughly, and oiled around the pin, lightly, so that if I tip it up or down the pin moves.

Needless to say, next time we test it- one round in the mag....
Click to expand...

If you do not feel comfotable taking the bolt apart, get a metal container and fill it with acetone or lacquer thinner to cover the bolt. Let it sit for a few hours and blow out with compressed air. Repeat a couple of times, it will be clean......
 
In short, it's probably the firing pin. My advice would be to carefully disassemble it and do a proper thorough cleaning. Make sure it's free floating of coarse and it's not sticking to any oil. Should be very clean, dry and non-stick.
 
bjs7293 said:
If you do not feel comfotable taking the bolt apart, get a NEW GUN...
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Fixed it for you!

...seriously, if you can't get the bolt apart on an SKS, maybe guns aren't the thing for you...

Strip the bolt, clean it, shoot it...

And FWIW, the safety has nothing to do with a stuck firing pin slamfire... so don't jump to that conclusion until you actually test it... (close bolt on empty chamber, safety on, pull trigger...)
 
Knock out the retaining pin on the bolt and remove the firing pin. Scrub the tunnel that the firing pin sits in and the firing pin itself, and then re-assemble WITHOUT any oil or any other lubricant. They attract dirt and make the firing pin stick eventually. The other part of the gun that must be cleaned thoroughly after firing and NOT lubricated afterwards is the gas piston and tube(top forward part of rifle). All other parts I recommend a light lubing with G96 silicone spray. I don't shoot that corrosive ammo that starts eating the steel of your SKS immediately on firing, I shoot commercial ammo with soft primers. That allowed me to replace the floating firing pin with a Murray's pin that has a spring that holds the pin back when not firing...and eliminates any chance of a slam fire. The Murray's pin is too soft for extended use with corrosive surplus ammo, so if you want to shoot hundreds of rounds out of your SKS of that corrosive cheap ammo then it's not recommended, as the surplus corrosive primers are harder. You might want to check out internet articles on the SKS trigger and polish it with 400 and then 600 grit sandpaper as shown, it'll make the trigger much smoother. I painted the contact points with moly, allowed it to dry, and then lubricated sparingly with lithium grease, after polishing. You wouldn't believe the difference! Enjoy your SKS!
 
autocrash said:
Fixed it for you!

...seriously, if you can't get the bolt apart on an SKS, maybe guns aren't the thing for you...

Strip the bolt, clean it, shoot it...

And FWIW, the safety has nothing to do with a stuck firing pin slamfire... so don't jump to that conclusion until you actually test it... (close bolt on empty chamber, safety on, pull trigger...)
Click to expand...

A. Not my gun. And never played around with one before, I thought I did quite well with it. Every one else has at least had questions or some helpful advise and even alternative options (Like the one you "fixed") if I wasn't as gun savvy as they were.

B. SAFETY was ON while gun was charged and failed to stop the gun from firing, thus leading us to assume it was NOT an issue with the trigger. There was also an other issue we noticed, that the safety wasn't working at all, when we put 1 in the chamber, and lightly put the bolt down on it, took aim and pulled trigger with safety on. IT FIRED.... = PROBLEM with the safety.

C. we TOOK the bolt apart on the SKS, if you bothered to read MY posts you would have known that...

D. Maybe if you can't (or refuse to) read, then maybe being an active member on a forum isn't for YOU.

Thanks though for your "helpful" advise, will look forward to searching out all your informative posts in the future...
 
Major Sights said:
A. Not my gun. And never played around with one before, I thought I did quite well with it. Every one else has at least had questions or some helpful advise and even alternative options (Like the one you "fixed") if I wasn't as gun savvy as they were.

B. SAFETY was ON while gun was charged and failed to stop the gun from firing, thus leading us to assume it was NOT an issue with the trigger. There was also an other issue we noticed, that the safety wasn't working at all, when we put 1 in the chamber, and lightly put the bolt down on it, took aim and pulled trigger with safety on. IT FIRED.... = PROBLEM with the safety.

C. we TOOK the bolt apart on the SKS, if you bothered to read MY posts you would have known that...

D. Maybe if you can't (or refuse to) read, then maybe being an active member on a forum isn't for YOU.

Thanks though for your "helpful" advise, will look forward to searching out all your informative posts in the future...
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A not working safety is almost impossible on a sks since the safety physicaly block the trigger. You sure that you engage it properly?

safety on
IMG_1285.jpg
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safety off
IMG_1286.jpg
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On pre 1953 sks, the safety dont have spring like the post 1953 model. So as far as i know, a very loose safety lever on a pre 1953 or a broken or missing spring on the later model could cause the safety to disengage but i never seen it happen yet. I'm just trying to figure it out, dont want to offend anybody:)

Jocelyn
 
Humm ,cosmoline!!! clean every parts of the trigger group and bolt ( firing pin) ,brake cleaner work very good for that, after slightly lube the trigger group ( look at the sear to be sure it is lubed ) the firing pin should work dry!
 
SVT1040, Jocelyn, the safety on mine since I've lubed it with G96 can move from on to off, which it didn't do when I first picked it up. I guess I'll be taking the lube off the safety mechanism so it'll stay on on. As you mentioned, it must be a bit worn...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the safety on the SKS is trigger block only. If the firing pin was stuck forward with cosmoline then the rifle would slam fire whether the safety was on or not. I would be 90% certain that your problem was the firing pin. Like you said it would be wise to test with only two rounds next time.
 
+1 for the sticky firing pin
From an other web site:
12-05-08-bolt.jpg


An SKS firing pin is not supposed to stick out of the bolt face like this. It's should do this only when struck by the hammer. The pin has no return spring and is supposed to rebound from the primer after smacking it. If the rifle were loaded with the pin in this condition, there's a high probability that the gun would go full-auto the moment the bolt went forward the first time.
 
fwm said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the safety on the SKS is trigger block only. If the firing pin was stuck forward with cosmoline then the rifle would slam fire whether the safety was on or not. I would be 90% certain that your problem was the firing pin. Like you said it would be wise to test with only two rounds next time.
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Yes, safety only block the trigger.1 round in the mag its all that needed. Put a cartridge in the mag, keep the muzzle in safe direction and pull and let go the bolt by herself. If the gun fire, its a firing pin problem, if the pin and firing pin channel are clean, coulb be a small burr on the firing pin, or like others said, a bend firing pin.
 
I had a slam fire on my SKS, i was lucky it only fired the first round. that is a real eye opener to "alwasys keep the muzzle in a safe direction". Took it apart and cleaned it up and everything worked as normal.
 
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