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1st thing I would look at is the mag....are you using the factory 10 round or an after market mag?????

i use 10 rnd original mag.

if it's a Yugo SKS, the gas switch needs to be down and to the right to cycle the action.. ie: the launcher site needs to be locked down.  Are you getting any gas blowing past the tape you put on there?  A little masking tape around the area should tell you clearly whether you're losing gas (it'll be shredded after a few rounds).

Is it Chinese - Russian - Albanian - or Yugo ?

sounds like a Major gas problem!

The Yugos have a Gas cutoff for launching grenades BTW



Here are links to info about the SKS--- www.simonov.net/information.htm
                                                       
                                                       www.surplusrifle.com/sks/index.asp

Romanian SKS btw. yes the tape breaks up after a few rounds. i taped it where the gas block and gas tube meets that has a little gap there where i can wiggle the gas tube a little. my gun is clean inside and outside. not much grease is on the op. rod. piston is clean, no scratchs. when i shoot the first round, the bolt is locked onto the empty case inside the chamber (bolt moved upward towards front of rifle, abnormal)while the carrier is moved back a little from its original state, then theres a jam and i have to pull back the carrier handle very hard to extract the empty case and then next round will do the same. it cycles very well with dummy rounds. its very clean. what could be the problem??

Quoted: Romanian SKS btw. yes the tape breaks up after a few rounds. i taped it where the gas block and gas tube meets that has a little gap there where i can wiggle the gas tube a little. my gun is clean inside and outside. not much grease is on the op. rod. piston is clean, no scratchs. when i shoot the first round, the bolt is locked onto the empty case inside the chamber (bolt moved upward towards front of rifle, abnormal)while the carrier is moved back a little from its original state, then theres a jam and i have to pull back the carrier handle very hard to extract the empty case and then next round will do the same. it cycles very well with dummy rounds. its very clean. what could be the problem??

Sounds like the piston is giving the carrier a half-hearted whack.  I've got a little wiggle in my gas system too, but I've got a little wiggle in just about everything and mine's good to go.  If you're sure the gas port is clear (ie- try one of the gasport reamer tools) you might try a new gas tube.

Yeah, what he said.  Gas leak.
Although i must confess my first thought was dirty/rusty chamber.
Maybe bent piston rod?  Did you try the magic marker trick to see if it binds?
Wow, that's a doozy.

The SKS i have does the exact same thing.

At first i thought it was that the bolt was wore and was wedging itself between the bolt carrier and the locking lug in the reciever.  I tried a things to fix that problem and it still wouldnt work. I tried by layering some tape on the bolt carrier to push the bolt down further when it is locked. I maybe ended up putting 4 layers of packing tape on the bolt and after I shot the bolt was able so be cycled by hand with little resistance. (I made absolutely sure that the bolt was locking and was in battery before I fired it)

So i was out at the range one day and a guy a few benches down was also shooting an SKS so after talking about my not wanting to cycle problem he let me borrow his gas tube and gas block selector. (We both have yugo SKS's). Well he let me put his gas selector and gas tube on and the gun cycled the rounds fine.

What you would need to do is keep your eyes open for a place selling SKS gas block selectors and gas tubes or just take a dremel and grind out the corosion on the gas tube where it meets up with the gas selector and make a new gas selector that would fit the new diameter of the gas tube. I plan on doing that for myself once i get my SKS back from a friend I let borrow it for deer hunting.

If you have any questions feel free to IM me and I can try and explaine more.

im going to clean the chamber very well and check it with a flashlight to see if there is anymore gunk and burr. probably buy new gas tube, piston, rod and springs for my gas assembly. if that doesnt work, im selling my romanian. ive spent about 300 dollars so far on that gun, its gotten me nowhere. hinking.gif