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[SKS Carbine]
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| Author | Comment | ||
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 matm0702 |
Major Failures with AK or SKS |
Lead | |
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Posts: 44 (01/06/09 10:31 PM) |
Have not heard of any, but has anyone here heard of major failures with AK or SKS type rifles? Just a curiosity
as I've rebuilt a SKS using a Barreled action. It passed the tire test and several dozen rounds of wolf but I still wonder if everything is right. Mike |
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eb in oregon |
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Posts: 608 (01/06/09 11:51 PM) |
If it ain't blown up yet and the cases look fine, don't sweat it.
Eric
"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776 |
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SA58 |
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Posts: 599 (01/07/09 02:43 AM) |
The little bit of money spent on a No-Go gauge is worth the piece of mind.
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eb in oregon |
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Posts: 609 (01/07/09 08:28 AM) |
A set of head space gauges is a relitively inexpensive purchase, however if the rifle has already been fired, and the primer hasn't started to back out (
and it will back out if the head space is excessive) I'm thinking that the purchase can be avoided, this time.
However if this caliber of firearm is going to receive even more additions, I'd either buy a set, or find somebody in the area with a set. matm072, any "Parallaxer's" in your neck of the woods? Might be handy to ask. Eric
"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776 |
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matm0702 |
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Posts: 45 (01/07/09 01:41 PM) |
I appreciate the input guys. Have been load testing this rifle for a while now and no issues with primers backing out. Your right on the headspace guages
but was tight on funds at the time and my dummy rounds chambered okay at the time.
Mike |
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jwr747 |
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Posts: 103 (01/07/09 03:45 PM) |
if you zip over to the AK and SKS sites and check out the "trouble shooting" section,you'll notice not usually much there.only problems I can
recall were caused by Bubba tweaking the rifles. jwr
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bamasurp |
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Posts: 2053 (04/06/09 09:53 PM) |
I have never had a failure to feed or a failure to fire with my chinese sks and that is with whatever kind of ammo I purchased and fired. It is in original
configuration. I've only had the rifle for about 15 years.
Bamasurp 
Soviet who?
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gpschmidt |
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Posts: 607 (04/07/09 12:28 AM) active member |
I've had issues I've had to work through, but no major failures. SA58 has good advice, get some gauges.
Greg |
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tep0583 |
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Posts: 480 (04/08/09 08:04 AM) active member |
I'm always the lone stand out on this, but I've owned two SKS rifles that required chamber cleaning after every range session or they would not extract
reliably.
Both of these did this with steel-cased lacquer-coated surplus and Wolf ammunition. I don't recall having to do this with any other SKS I have owned, but both the last one I owned and the Yugo I currently own require it. I catch a lot of flack over this, depending on where I post it, but that's my experience. It doesn't seem right to me, either. |
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Mountain Doctor |
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Posts: 3422 (04/09/09 02:05 PM) Forum Site Moderator |
tep0583 wrote:What's to give flack over? Guns are guns. They need cleaning to work well, even SKS's and AK's. Plus, your observations are your observations. That's that! 
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gunslinger586 |
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Posts: 1903 (04/09/09 09:18 PM) |
tep0583 wrote:Yugos have issues with gas leaks. I own a 59 that the tube was WAY out of spec. Got a replacement and it runs like a clock. All other genres I own have been drop dead reliable. The SKS is one of my favorite guns to shoot. My cousin bought a chi-com in 1994 during the big rush on guns (AWB #1) and it has been cleaned twice since then and has never malfunctioned in any way. |
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ThePitbullofLove |
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Posts: 6512 (04/09/09 09:49 PM) Forum Site Moderator |
I thought I had an AK problem once, but it was a mag causing the feeding issues.
Other than that my SKS's and AK's have been close to 100% , 100% of the time. (I've jinxed that for sure....) Life is the crummiest book I ever read, there isn't a hook; Just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up... |
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Plevna |
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Posts: 331 (04/10/09 02:49 PM) active member |
My experience in this area is resticted to the three Norinco SKS rifles I've owned for about 15 years. After firing several hundred rounds through each of
them, the only problems I've encountered (and this but infrequently) were attributable to ejected cases jamming between the bolt and forward portion of the
receiver on the two rifles on which I had mounted after market scope mounts. The SKS without a scope mount has not had this problem. Through the years, the
only major problem with an SKS which I witnessed at the local range I use was one gentleman who experienced a head separation using steel case ammo. As luck
would have it, I had a 7.62x39mm shell extractor in my range bag and within five minutes he had been spared a trip to a gunsmith and his rifle was once again
fully functional.
My worst experience with an SKS failure resulted from my installing the gas piston backwards in the tube resulting in it being instantaneously converted to a single shot rifle. I think it would be unfair in the extreme to fault the rifle's design for a problem resulting from my own carelessness. Granting that personal experiences always vary, my own impression of the SKS is that it is a rugged and dependable rifle. It is pointless to complain about its finish or lack of "match" accuaracy -- it was meant to be a "ride it hard and put it up wet" service rifle and I have every reason to believe that if kept clean and oiled on a regular basis it will serve very well in that capacity. Considering that I paid $100 each for my Norinco SKS rifles when they were still available at that price, I thought then -- and continue to think -- that they were worth every penny. I have no hesitation in recommending them as a durable, easy to field strip and clean, fun, and economical to shoot rifle in its power range. |
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m1 talker |
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Posts: 6656 (04/10/09 03:36 PM) Veteran member |
I have a dozen SKS rifles of varying flavors. Out of thousands upon thousands of rounds fired thru them, I have had only one failure. That was a Yugo 59/66A1
that suffered a bent firing pin. It shot good, but then would misfire once in a while and finally quite firing alltogether. Close inspection of the firing pin
revealed that it was no harder than a stiff piece of coathangar wire. It obviously had missed the heat treating process when the rifle was made. I ordered a
replacement pin from SARCO and the rifle has never hiccuped since.
Curt |
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Alexei |
SKS Failure | ||
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Posts: 16 (04/21/09 08:37 PM) |
I had a Chinese mil-surp SKS about 15 years ago ( Factory 66 I believe ) that had one of the trigger assembly pins snap clean thru during live fire. No tragedies, just a derailment took a little while to figure what had gone wrong. It appeared as though the pin had been cast; I leapt to that conclusion because the ragged break area looked "crystalline", but that was just an assumption. New pin, and I was back in business. |
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NC Cruffler |
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Posts: 563 (05/21/09 05:44 PM) active member |
I have an Albanian SKS which went postal on me. Glad the magazine only holds 10. Fixed it so no visits from big brother, please.
Dave
Dave Green, NRA Life Member since 1973
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usernamehasbeentaken |
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Posts: 527 (05/24/09 11:52 AM) |
no failures, major or minor, with the ones I have owned down thru the years
of course, with the price of milsurp 7.62x39 being what it is today I don't get out as much w/ the peasant rifles lately ask me again in a year, or two 
Bob |
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glock40man |
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Posts: 193 (05/31/09 11:43 AM) |
Only one.Went out shooting with a friend a few years back,who had just bought a SKS from China.He had given it a through cleaning,but installed the fireing pin
wrong,witch resulted in a slamfire.Scared the devil out of us both,but live and learn.
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m1 talker |
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Posts: 6770 (05/31/09 01:11 PM) Veteran member |
That was a potential problem with the Chinese SKS. The firing pin can be installed upside down where it jams in the forward position and results in what you
saw. I have gotten into the habit of always checking to make sure the firing pin rattles when the bolt is shaken in any SKS rifle, regardless of nationality.
Curt |
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