Are slam fires really that common with the SKS?

Since picking up my 54 Tula, I've been doing some research and everyplace I find info has a big warning about slam fires and doubling.

Did you take about your bolt apart and clean the FP channel?

I've shot a couple of thousand rounds through a variety of SKS and only saw one firing mishap. A firing pin broke, stuck/wedged in the forward position, and caused a round to fire as it tried to come into battery. It squibbed a round about halfway down the barrel, and failed to eject. Dropped the magazine, used the cleaning rod to tap out the squib, and that was that. The firing pin was replaced and as far as I know the rifle was fine thereafter.

I think the slam fire phenomenon came into play way back when all the SKS rifles came into country coated in cosmoline. Folks would just clean the surface and load up.
I was warned of this when I bought mine back in the 90's.
As long as you do a good job cleaning the internals, its probably not going to happen to you.

I have never seen one personally in an SKS.

I have witnessed a couple slam fires in an AK, but it was do to poor maintenance on my part. (I let it go a few thousand rounds without cleaning, firing pin got jammed forward in some gunk)

I can easily see this happening if you buy a gunked-up SKS and don't clean the firing pin channel. Cosmolene in the channel could make the pin lock forward, especially if that particular SKS model doesn't have a spring (IIRC some models have a return spring and some don't, right?).

Thanks everybody you pretty much summed up what I thought. I could see where a bolt and fp gunked up with cosmoline could cause issues. Mine is nice and loose and I don't foresee any issues.

Of the Dozen or so that I have owned and thousands fired I've never had a slamfire or runaway..... but I clean my mine.

Don't clean out the cosmo or shoot corrosive and let the firing pin rust in place and I can see it happening.

The other possibility, is the origin of the firing pin. From what I understand, they're not all the same and one from one country may not quite fit right in another country's gun. I think there are also more than one variation in Chinese firing pins (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been years since I read about it). I believe it's also possible to install some of them the wrong way, which would also be a problem.

You are correct bout some of the Chinese firing pins. I have no reason to believe mine is a mismatch of different country parts. I'll just make sure to pay particular attention to that area when I clean the rifle.

Edit for spellung

Most likely. All the Yugos that have come into the country over the last decade certainly revived it.

A young guy was shooting an M59/66 next to me at the range a couple of years ago. He was having all kinds of FTF/FTE issues. I offered to take a look at the rifle since I am quite familiar with SKSs. The internals of the rifle still had quite a bit of cosmo on them. I explained to him that was the problem. It was his first rifle. I doubt he even knew about the cosmo.

I have had it once with my Yugo. First time out I had soaked the bolt in mineral spirits thinking "good enough". Needless to say it wasnt. Gunk held the fireing pin forward. Went home and totaly disasembled the bolt after that one.

I've fired many 1000's of rounds thru SKS's with zero slam fires.

Only slam fire/double I've seen was someone who picked up the rifle at the store two hours before hitting the range. Cleaned the bore with gasoline and called it ready to go. Slamfired like a mofo!

I can easily see how it could happen but have never seen it myself.

The thing that scares me is thinking of the guys likely to buy the SKS as a first rifle (because they are/were cheap)

I can also see this first rifle guy loading it up ant cycleing some rounds through it in his condo (never a good idea but you know it happens)

The yugo I bought (unissued I believe) had plenty of soft grease like cosmo in it and the fireing pin wasn't exactly free (didn't rattle) but I think
it would have run ok once I uncorked the bore.
I was temped to give it a go on my club range but wasn't sure if slam fires would tend to harm the gun other than the being pointed at a safe backstop
type issues.

I chickened out and cleaned it first but still had poop running out of every crack and crevase as it heated up .

The SKS lends itself to mag dumps so I would think most any rifle that didn't slam fire with the first mag load would get hot enough to self clean itself

A friend of mine bought his russian sks back in the early to mid 90's (the $125 days) and his would often double fire when we'd go to the range. There was even a small bit about it in the news which I think was going for bad gun publicity. My friend never found out the real problem but ended up replacing his trigger group with a chinese one he bought from Centerfire (back in the day). So yes, I have heard and seen of this problem.

edited to add: forgot about another friend who bought a Yugo SKS (the "new" ones swamped in cosmoline for $100 ish). His had problems too but he fixed it by disassembling the bolt and cleaning it out. Cosmoline had caked up in the bolt causing slamfires

Mine did multiple times. I put it up for a while got some new bolt parts, installed them and haven't had a problem.

I own four sks rifle and have never had this happen, but my buddy buys one and it slam fired on him.Found out that he did not clean the rifle very good.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'll be sure to pay close attention to the bolt and firing pin when I clean it.

I had a ton of slam fires when I first shot mine at the range...went home, went on arfcom..........problem solved lol...The firing pin channel had some gunk in it

My BIL had a slamfire with his SKS when he tried some brass case domestic ammo with soft primers in it.

Just make sure you totally disassemble the bolt. Driving out the pin that lets you remove the firing pin can be a bit tough and most people don't do it. There is no way to clean out baked on or old cosmoline without doing it.

About 15 years ago, i had a couple friends talking about a Chinese SKS that they needed to repair due to slam fires. At that time I knew even less than I know now about SKS's, but it was my understanding that there was a worn hammer pin that needed to be drilled/pressed out and replaced.

ETA: Purely anecdotal, I am not familiar with SKS rifles, not sure if this applies to your situation at all.

As a summary, any firearm with a free floating firing pin can have an issue if the channel is not kept clean.

I've got a Chinese, Russian and Yugo SKS and none of them have had any problems. Then again, complete disassembly and getting any cosmoline and/or gunk out of the firing pin channel may have had something to do wtih it.

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.