Got the SKS pistons in early

[kingjoey]

These got finished a bit early, but our new composite SKS piston is in. We designed this piston to be tougher and more durable than the usual TAPCO pistons available on the market currently. These pistons are made with a hard 416 stainless piston head which is heated and pressed onto a hardened drill rod shaft. The piston is designed to accept two steel piston rings to ensure a positive seal regardless of temperature or gas tube tolerances. The piston is designed to work with or without the rings. We make two versions of this piston, the KA-SK01 for the regular SKS's and the KA-SK01A for the SKS-M (takes AK mags) models that have the shorter gas tube and piston.

 

[HJ857]

That's cool, though I am not sure there's any real problem with the Tapco pistons.

If you're thinking of getting in to the SKS compliance parts market, I'd really like to see fully USA made and upgraded trigger groups for five compliance parts, and the left side charging handle bolt carrier for another part.

I'd consider a revamped USA TG at a $250+ price tag a deal if I can count on it's compliance.

I use the DC trigger group now, but it's compliance worthiness is sketchy. It does work great though. If there were a competitor, I'd switch and never look back.

 

[kingjoey]

Murray's Gunsmithing is making a US-made hammer, sear, and trigger currently. We thought about doing those parts but it would take a lot of tooling jigs and we already have too many projects going right now. The pistons were fairly easy to tool up for. Also the SKS-M's can be really tough on pistons and no one was making a 922r piston for them. We may tool up for some US-made SKS trigger housings next year though.

 

[HJ857]

That's a great update. Thanks for the info.

 

[briansmithwins]

You guys should make a AK piston. Peasants in Eastern Europe turn out a product that vastly superior in fit and finish to Tapco's crap.

BSW

 

[kingjoey]

You guys should make a AK piston. Peasants in Eastern Europe turn out a product that vastly superior in fit and finish to Tapco's crap.

Coming soon. We'll have improved Saiga pistons in a couple weeks and AK pistons probably in August.

 

[DMK]

How many US made parts do you need on an SKS to play the Ten or Less 9.22r game?

 

[kingjoey]

For a 'factory' configuration it should only take 6 US-made parts, but if you add a brake/suppressor or pistol grip that number could bump to 8.

 

[DMK]

Thanks. I also googled the answer here:

http://www.victorinc.com/SKS-FAQ.html#_Toc167103936

I'm still trying to figure out a way to get my SKS-D around 9.22r, but still use my real imported AK mags.

It's still the HTS that's the holdup. That's what makes this so much easier to do with AKs and FALs

I'll have to check Murray's

A made in the USA trigger housing and/or bolt carrier would be nice.

Does your gas piston have "made in the USA" anywhere on it?

 

[kingjoey]

Does your gas piston have "made in the USA" anywhere on it?

No, we debated whether to mark them or not but no imported piston is 2pc so stamping is sort of redundant

 

[kingjoey]

BTW, I heard that TAPCO is working on a US-made bolt and carrier

 

[MD_Willington]

Improved Saiga pistons?

in what way... will they look like a regular piston?

 

[HJ857]

Tapco's bolt is overdue and ought to be available soon. Their bolt carrier is still well off in the future as I understand.

 

[fletcher]

We designed this piston to be tougher and more durable than the usual TAPCO pistons available on the market currently.

I'm just curious, as I didn't have my SKS with the TAPCO piston long enough to notice anything, but are there durability issues?

 

[kingjoey]

Improved Saiga pistons?

in what way... will they look like a regular piston?

Longer cycles between cleaning, and less fouling. It will hopefully be more or less self-cleaning for most loads.

 

[Newton]

Is there some problem with the OEM piston?

 

[kingjoey]

'm just curious, as I didn't have my SKS with the TAPCO piston long enough to notice anything, but are there durability issues?

The TAPCO pistons are pretty good, but I've seen some mushrooming where the piston rod contacts the op rod when tolerances are a little loose. That is why we opted for the hardened shaft. We primarily wanted to make a piston for the SKS-M rifles which use a shorter piston (no one else makes a 922r replacement) and with the hi-cap mags there are heat issues outside the scope of the original SKS design. As a side benefit, the SKS makes a good test platform for this composite piston concept as well. If it works well in the SKS, it should work fine in more loosely-fitted designs. We still have a lot of testing to do with this, its still in the prototype phase. We're going to beat the hell out of a couple of them and see if we can break something.....gawd I love my job sometimes

 

[kingjoey]

Is there some problem with the OEM piston?

Generally, no. However, for doing any modifications to these guns (i.e. pistol grip, etc) you have to play the 922r game. The piston is one of the parts on the list and replaceing it with a US-made piston is an easy step towards 922r compliance.

 

[pbhome71]

Kingjoey,

This is cool. Tag.

-Pat

 

[Roz]

I've got a SKS M and I would love to get my hands on US made replacement parts. This is great news. Tagging for future reference.

 

[MD_Willington]

Yep the OEM Saiga piston works fine, looks like a metal shop project though.. basic piston with threaded end, it doesn't need to be much, it does the job as intended...

922r, yep the numbers racket...

actually with US mags now widely available you can run on down to your favourite gun shop
grab a Saiga
take out the bolt carrier
work some WECSOG mojo
pop out the Russian piston
pop in the US piston

and plant any full capacity US made magazine into your Saiga rifle and you're totally compliant !