SKS Ammo:

[momsworry]

I've read, maybe on this forum, maybe elswhere, you should not shoot modern brass ammo in an SKS.  Danger of slamfires.  Has anyone experienced this or is it a wives tale?  Just curious.   :shock:

[Robert357]

There are documented cases of SKS slam fire, so one needs to be careful and know ahead of time what to do if it ever goes full auto.  The fatal slam fire accident I heard about had to do with comoline still being in the bolt and the person setting it down while it was still firing.  A buildup of crud in the bolt might also cause this kind of thing as well as various mechanical problems.  A slam fire event could be a long few seconds holding on (for dear life) until the magazine is empty.  Which is a darn good reason not to have anything bigger than a 10 round mag.

Actually, some folks feel that "floating" firing pin semi-auto's should not be used with typical "soft" US boxer style primers.  Sounds like what you may have read somewhere.  Some feel that using such a firearm with certain CCI hard primers is OK.  

Others, like me, load up 7.62x39 ammo using winchester brass, Remington 123 grain bullets and soft winchester large rifle primers.  

I have two SKS's and got them for my sons when they were younger and wanted deer hunting rifles.  The short stock fit them and gas cycling system combined with the 7.62x39 round kept the recoil down.  I worked up accurate hunting rounds.  But for hunting, I made sure that the magazine only had four rounds max in it.  At the range, I just load one at a time (range rules for all rifles except 22's).

After using my SKS's I completely clean the rifle after each use and spray a good "crud cutter/lubricant" in the firing pin hole of the bolt each time and flush out anything that is there.  I don't expect to encounter a slam fire condition, but they can happen.

[1911crazy]

I've never had a slam fire in any of my sks's or semi-auto's. There are two problems that cause slam fires. ONE;  I have noticed frozen/sticky firing pins in Yugo and Albanian sks's.  We must disassemble the firing pin and clean out the slide from all cosmoline and dirt/grime in used sks's.  It can't be cleaned from the out side as some will do, no matter what we use to clean it, there is no way it can be done without taking it apart.  I did it once then took the firing pin out and you want to see the crud that was still in there? TWO;  The use of modern american made ammo or reloads with thin primers.  I have shot PMC 8MM SP mauser ammo in my Hakim with no slam fires a few times.  I have also heard of slam fires happening with just closing the slides on sks's with a few accidents being reported of course its pinned on the gun, its the guns fault??  But the news paper articles never said anything about improper cleaning or the wrong ammo used which one most likely caused it.  I've only shot the russian and chinese made FMJ ammo in my sks's.  We must be very careful to prevent this from happening.                          BigBill

[His lordship.]

In 1994 I bought some Remington and Winchester brand 7.62 X 39 ammo to try out in my Chinese SKS instead of the usual steel cased Norinco brand.  I usually let the slide close on its own, but when I did that with the Remington brand the rifle went off due to the softer primer before I could sight it.  I was careful to ease the bolt closed after that with the commerical ammo.  Fortunately, the rifle was at a range and facing toward the target, so I simply wasted a round.

I talked to a fellow shooter who chambered a commerical round in his SKS while in his parent's basement and the rifle discharged putting a hole into the ceiling and up into the next level of the house.  Fortunately, his father was understanding and told him to be more careful, some folks would kick their son out, or tell him to get rid of the guns. :shock:

I have seen a Russian SKS go into full-auto with 2 shot bursts, as it was in need of a good cleaning, the problem was taken care of with a teardown and lots of Hoppes #9 solvent.

[jgalar]

I have a chinese sks that will sometimes slamfire when closing the bolt and will occasionally shoot doubles. It will do this with reloads, commercial, or steelcased rounds. The bolt is clean. The inertia from the freefloating firing pin is my guess.

[Robert357]

I thought I would do a little web search since this seems to be an interesting topic.

A discussion on risks in taking apart a bolt/firing pin assembly if you don't put things together carefully.
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/wwwboard/board3/messages/26.html

A discussion on various types of SKS firing pins and some of the issues:
http://www.simonov.net/uberpin.htm
(Some good pictures to explain different firing pins.)

Some more pictures of how to take things apart to clean an SKS firing pin.
http://will.mylanders.com/shot/sks/action-detail.php3

Another theory on SKS slam fire  corrosion
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/wwwboard/board6/messages/351.html

More theories and the use a certain CCI primer theory
http://members.aol.com/dbrewer842/SKSAK47.html

Actually, I remember a manufacture of a aftermarket retaining spring for the SKS, but couldn't find anything in my initial search.  There are lots of different and fairly common military semi-auto's that have a floating firing pin.  If someone stubles across the aftermarket firing pin retaining spring, please post a link.

Thanks