My buddy has a Russian SKS and at the range, the trigger bar snapped in half.

He replaced it today, but he has a question.

When the bolt and receiver are removed from the rifle, he cocked the hammer, pulled the trigger, and it will not release the hammer.

Is this normal?

When he has it fully assembled it will dry fire just fine.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Possibility #1 - you have to have the safety on to remove the fire control group. Possibly it was still on.

Possibility #2 - the disconnector on these fire control groups (FCG) disengages the sear when removed from the rifle. Removing the bolt and carrier essentially does the same thing as removing the FCG as far as the disconnector goes. Pushing the disconnector (diagonal "bar" in front area of t/g) about midway down should engage it. Dry firing a FCG removed from an SKS is not recommended.

My bet would be #2.