light primer strike on sks

[captain awesome]

I am getting light strikes on my primers with my romanian sks. Any Idea what the cause could be? I haven't purchased any replacement parts yet, I have disassembled the bolt and firing pin and trigger group and cleaned and oiled everything and it is still happening.
My first thoughts were new hammer spring, possible a new firing pin. hopefully not a new bolt assembly those aren't cheap.

Any of your input or knowledge about this or the gun in general would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rcmodel]

Failure of the bolt to completely lock can cause misfires.

Clean the locking lug recess in the receiver real good.
It may still have Cosmoline packed in it.

rc

 

[greyling22]

my brother's old norinco had an issue with light strikes. I put a spacer under the hammer spring and they went away. then the misfires started. I tracked it down to a firing pin that was covered in crud and was not moving freely in the bolt. It was being locked in either the forward and rearward positions. When I stripped the bolt I had a piece of pierced primer fall out. Then I noticed the firing pin and firing pin retainer pin were worn, causing excessive play. Replacement parts are on order.

as always, RC's options are good too.

 

[Bentonville]

I know that all of my SKSs needed to have the bolt disassembled and cleaned. I also sent my Yugo to kivarii from the sks survival board and had a trigger job done to be certain of a safe sear that wouldn't allow the gun to fire when banged around. It's really a smooth trigger now. Anyway, if you haven't, I suggest that you clean the fp channel and the pin itself. Just knock out the retaining pin with a punch. I use a wooden block with a hollowed out recess to put the bolt over and to catch the retaining pin when banged out. Sometimes they fit very snugly. Then I use non-chlorinated brake cleaner to clean out the bolt and the firing pin. HTH.

 

[captain awesome]

Hey thanks for all the replys guys. I took it apart and cleaned out the firing pin channel and pin itself and it still does it. Like greyling said it has a lot of play and is pretty worn. I think that may be the answer. I am pretty sure the bolt is locking fully in place is their a way to tell if it isn't?

 

[greyling22]

whack it with your hand and see if it moves any further forward? (empty of course)

worst case scenario, you can make a spacer and put it behind the hammer spring and see if a bit more oomph gets you where you need to be. I made mine out of a dime. It's a terribly difficult thing to take the hammer out and put it back together. here's a great video of tearing the trigger group apart and how to do a trigger job. It really works too. http://sailorcurt.blogspot.com/2009/02/drum-roll-please.html

I bought a replacement firing pin off gunbroker for like 8 bucks.

 

[EMT40SW]

What about a firing pin upgrade?

http://www.murraysguns.com/sksown.htm