SKS Bolt Poll

[Shrinkmd]

Reading old posts is fun, but the scientist in me loves numbers. I'm curious to know what people have actually done with their SKS bolts prior to shooting them and feeling comfortable.

Personally, I'm a chicken (and my wife would kill me if I didn't do everything possible to shoot safely) and will likely send it to Murray's for the new safe-spring as well as trying to headspace it first (assuming I can dissemble the bolt without smashing it!)

 

[TrafficMan]

Disassembled it myself...put it back together. Sent it to Murray's anyways.

 

[orangeninja]

Anyone got a link to Murrays? I just soaked them in brake cleaner then WD40. I considered boiling it once since that will DEFINANTLY get the cosmo out since it melts at 110 degrees....then let it dry and WD40 the snot out of it.

 

[White Horseradish]

I boiled it in a cofee can. No cosmo, no problems.

M-m-m... SKSoup!

 

[Exposure]

I took all three of mine apart. It is easy to do if you have a vise.

Open the vise enough so that it will just allow the pin to come through the jaws.

Use a fairly large hammer and good quality punch.

Be prepared to smack the pin pretty darn hard. You won't hurt anything. It just takes a fair amount of force. A press would probably be a lot easier but not many of us have them in the garage!

When I attempted to take my first SKS bolt apart I supported it on blocks of wood. All that did was make nice indentations in the wood with the pin staying firmly in place! I finally got ticked and decided that pin was going to come out or the bolt was going to break! All it took was one good hard blow with the bolt supported by my vice and it broke free. The two others I have were exactly the same.

The bolts are really quite tough and I would think it would take a MASSIVE beating to do any damage to them. Imagine how hard they get slammed by the gas piston extension on every round!

 

[R.H. Lee]

Cleaned without dissembling, rattles nicely

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Technosavant]

I have a large vise in the shop. I set the bolt on the vice, held between two blocks of wood (wood clamped in vise, bolt not clamped but held above my wood) to keep it from moving around.

I took a punch and a large hammer and had at it. A few good whacks (hit it like you mean it), and the pin came out. Cleaned it up; it works fine.

 

[iamkris]

Can of carb cleaner, small diameter plastic tub thingy, squirt liberal doses into bolt...let crap run out...repeat. Use up to 1/2 of can and bolt rattles nicely.

 

[Kurush]

I soaked it in brake cleaner twice about 10 mins each time in a sealed container. No mo' cos mo'.

I think the first option should be "It's still stuck forward, so I have a destructive device"

 

[albanian]

"I just soaked them in brake cleaner then WD40. I considered boiling it once since that will DEFINANTLY get the cosmo out since it melts at 110 degrees....then let it dry and WD40 the snot out of it."

That is what I do. Break cleaner and then WD-40 and I have never had a issue with about 6 Yugos.

I did boil one once and I was not impressed with the results. It still had cosmo in it and it was still costed in cosmo. It really didn't seem to do much that I could tell. I was expecting it to run out but it didn't. Boiling is a waste of time in my book.

 

[Kurush]

I have also been unimpressed with boiling. The cosmo does melt, but that doesn't automatically make it come out. Spraying hot water under pressure works, fast.

 

[DMK]

I have about a dozen SKS. Every one I disassembled the bolt completely, soaked in mineral spirits to remove any cosmo, wiped dry, lightly oiled and reassembled. None have any firing pin springs (except a 1st gen Russian that was built that way).

I have never had a slam fire after many thousands of rounds. IMO that Murray thing is a solution to a non-existing problem. Of course, I've only shot steel cased Russian or Czech ammo and only will.

 

[Murphster]

Never head of Murray. Soaked mine in Texaco's best 87 octane SKS bolt de-gunker for about 10 minutes. Let 'em dry (have owned several) and they were good to go.

 

[mcshot]

Never head of Murray. Soaked mine in Texaco's best 87 octane SKS bolt de-gunker for about 10 minutes. Let 'em dry (have owned several) and they were good to go.

Same here. Although I may have used a different brand.

mc

 

[armoredman]

I boiled mine for a while, and the cosmo ran out. I also disassembled it, and thoroughly cleaned the sucker after boiling, which did get rid of 99% of the cosmo. I want to get a Murray spring kit, BUT, I have fired civilian ammo, reloads with standard rifle primers, and reloads with the CCI#34 milspec primers, and have had no issues so far with the Yugo. If I can, I will get another Yugo by years end, and we'll see how that one goes....

 

[Kurush]

Most military semiauto rifles have floating pins and dent the primer slightly on chambering. There is no need to get a firing pin spring for the SKS unless you're using ammo with unreasonably sensitive primers.

 

[.45Guy]

I cooked my bolt on one of my wife's new cookie sheets... It worked really well, but not all parties involved were happy about it

 

[mcshot]

I cooked my bolt on one of my wife's new cookie sheets... It worked really well, but not all parties involved were happy about it

Cost you more than a cookie sheet too eh!

mc

 

[albanian]

"I cooked my bolt on one of my wife's new cookie sheets... It worked really well, but not all parties involved were happy about it"

So would you recommend that method in the future? Which makes the bolt taste better, boiling or baking?

 

[silverlance]

i know this is crazy dangerous, but

what if you deliberately mucked up the firing pin so that it would slam-fire full auto? you couldn't be held liable for making desctructive device, and nobody could argue that you intend to go on a rampage with a an essentially unaimable machine gun fed from fixed magazine that only holds ten rounds..

hehe

but no, dont try this, like i said it's crazy dangerous.

 

[Kurush]

Great idea, and if they did send you up you'd get a really cool prison nickname, "stubby" or maybe "potholes"

ETA: Just so nobody misunderstands, deliberately fixing the pin is making a machine gun, and will get you prison time as well as hospital time.

 

[Exposure]

what if you deliberately mucked up the firing pin so that it would slam-fire full auto? you couldn't be held liable for making desctructive device, and nobody could argue that you intend to go on a rampage with a an essentially unaimable machine gun fed from fixed magazine that only holds ten rounds..

hehe

but no, dont try this, like i said it's crazy dangerous.

If you DELIBERATELY screwed with the firing pin then you are guilty of making an illegal machine gun not a DD. 10 Years in the pen for that stunt!

You also run the risk of an out of battery ignition which can at best serisouly damage or destroy the firearm and at worst maim or even kill you!

Not to mention the fact the action of simply closing the bolt would initiate the firing sequence.

 

[Lonestar.45]

I soaked my bolt in mineral spirits for a few days. It rattled. But I got carried away and scared after reading all the admonishments over on the SKS Survivor Forum about how you absolutely need to take it apart, blah blah blah. So, after beating on it a while and finally driving out the retaining pin (which I broke in the process), I removed the firing pin, only to find the channel and pin clean as a whistle anyway!

So, a couple of bucks and a few days later my new retaining pin arrived from Numrich, I installed, and no worries. I think it is overblown to say you have to disassemble the bolt/firing pin to clean out the cosmo in all cases. Soak it a few days in mineral spirits like I did, maybe used some compressed air, and you won't have any problems. I have a Yugo 59/66 by the way.

 

[Wedcopan]

I bought one of those tubs you use to change your cars oil, filled it with mineral spirits and let all the removable parts sit in their for about 24 hours. Then I just flushed out the firing pin channel as best I could with CLP and it has rattled ever since.

 

[Commissar Gribb]

where's the option for "I detail stripped the bolt and completely cleaned it and have no problems with the military issue parts that have worked for decades in other rifles."? Sometimes I think if people would spend a little more time learning to take apart their bolt, they wouldnt have to spend extra money on new pins and extraneous springs.