Hiya folks--

I've been lurking on this board for a couple weeks.  I love the discussions here.  This is the 1st post I've initiated.

A little bio--growing up I loved plinking in the woods with my pellet and BB guns, but I just recently bought my first "real" gun.  I figured I just wanted something politically incorrect and fun, but not a lot of cost, so I bought an SKS.  Well, as soon as I walked out of the gun show with my SKS in hand, I knew I had to have more guns.  I'm saving up for an AR-15, but that's not the point of this message.

Since I'm rather new to firearms, I have a couple really basic questions.

Rifle 1:
When I take my SKS to the range, I'll chamber a round and 8 times out of 10, when I pull the trigger, I get "Click" and it doesn't fire.  So I eject the round and look at the primer, and it's not dented or anything.  I can even reload the same cartridge, and it fires no problem.  This only happens in the first round of the day; after that, the gun fires reliably.  What's going on here?  Is this something a gunsmith should look at, or is it more likely caused by my cleaning methodology or what?

Rifle 2:
I recently bought a brand new Marlin 70PSS.  This is their semi-auto .22 "take-down" rifle that you can detach the barrel for a compact carrying package.  I'd say, every 50 rounds or so, after I fire it, the bolt will try to close and will lodge the spent casing between the bolt and that front of the ejection port.  Is this acceptable, or should I take it back to the store and tell them that it's under warranty and I want it repaired?  Sometimes, what also happens is that I will fire the rifle and the next round fails to feed into the chamber, so I pull the trigger and get a "click."  So then I open the bolt and it turns out the next cartridge didn't get fed, but I can see on the bullet that it has been scratched a little bit by the bolt travelling over it.  Again, this happens every 50 rounds or so.  Are these Marlins just unreliable by nature, or should I take the gun back and tell them to repair it?

Welcome to the board!  Where bouts in NY are you from?  There is another LI AR15.com shoot planned for August 18,2002 at the Calverton shooting range.  If you are close and can make it you'll be able to check out and shoot a variety of AR's and many other cool guns and meet some really good people.

WELCOME! Ditto on the ammo & cleaning, both in 7.62x39 and 22LR. 22LR is especially, because the primer is literally painted on to the rim, so if the stuff goes on uneven you could get a weak fire and they are all dirty after firing, but that is typical, no problem since you are only plinking, just clear you gun, and away you go.

Welcome. GR8 board here. I have to say with all of my experience w/ 22lr good ammo is the key. I have an old Marlin semi-auto that has seen more than it's fair share of ammo through her. I to prefer CCI. 22ammo is so cheap there's no reason not to get some quality for a few cents more. In my experience, if they still make it, remmington "thunderbolt" is crap. But thats just my opinion. Welcome and enjoy.

Hey don't be so nice to the  




Welcome aboard.

BTW I have nothing constructive to add to this thread. Thebeekeeper1 has it covered.

Thanks to Beekeeper and all the others.  I appreciate it.

Here's a question I have brought about by the following advice:

"Don't "ride" the bolt-handle forward, load the mag, and let the bolt slam forward on its own. Like Bee said, prob gunk inside the bolt body, or bad ammo. Make SURE you note how the bolt comes apart, anr re-assemble it EXACTLY the same way. Carburetor cleaner works great on cleaning things like this."

Now, as far as carburetor cleaner...I was under the impression that carb cleaner was not something to use too often when cleaning guns, because it dissolves all the oil that prevents the gun from rusting, not to mention you get no more lubrication.  I take it, then, that carb cleaner would only be appropriate to clean out the chamber, where you're not supposed to have any oil at all.

And as far as oiling...how do I know where to oil?  I put oil on all the moving parts I can find, and a little bit of wheel bearing grease in the not-so-delicate parts that look like they could use some hard-core lubrication, like the place where the bolt slides across the receiver.

Quoted: Welcome to the board!  Where bouts in NY are you from?  There is another LI AR15.com shoot planned for August 18,2002 at the Calverton shooting range.  If you are close and can make it you'll be able to check out and shoot a variety of AR's and many other cool guns and meet some really good people.

Green18--thanks for the invitation!  Except, I live in Western New York and Mapquest tells me you're on Long Island.  I wish I could join you folks, as I said in my original post, I love this board; the people on here seem to be pretty sensible and fun-loving guys with a damn good sense of humor (read that thread about the Glock that melted on the dashboard).  I live in Buffalo, but often take business trips out to Syracuse, Olean, Jamestown, etc.. so if any of you folks reading this live in those places, or know someone who does, let me know and I'll shoot him an e-mail.  I recently moved here, so I don't know many people yet.

Anyways, thanks again to all of you for your advice.

-Nick Viejo.