EyebrowZing
Member
So yesterday I finally had a chance to go up to my friends ranch and try out my Yugo SKS I bought last month, only there was some disappointment. The entire day it failed to fully extract the shell. I checked the obvious, the gas lever, as that seems to be the primary solution for SKSs that wont cycle. But that checked out, and the bolt was cycling about halfway, just not enough to eject and load another round. So I worked it as a bolt action, and man I wish I had a two-by-four, because now I've got a monster bruise from slamming my hand against the bolt carrier to get it to cycle.
This morning I finally figured out what my problem was. The spent cartridge was becoming stuck in the chamber requiring quite a bit of force to remove. After a thorough clean and oil, it's still sticking, though not quite as much, and I can now cycle spent shells out of the chamber without too much exertion, but ti's still sticking. I'm hoping that it was just a little bit of cosmoline I missed that is the cause of my woes and that next weekend I'll be able to have some fun with minimum interaction with the bolt. I'm just wondering if a sticky chamber is something to be worried about and if there's something actually wrong instead of just a shoddy first cleaning job of mine.
It shot nicely though. I used 122gr Wolf FMJ copper jacket, and by the time I decided to give my hand a break there was a nice hole missing from the center of the cardboard box that served as one of my targets. I was also impressed by the light recoil, I few times I even fired it one handed and didn't have and problems with the recoil, though with the SKS being front heavy it was tough to hold it up even long enough to make sure I had it leveled at the targets.
All in all, it was a fun day.
This morning I finally figured out what my problem was. The spent cartridge was becoming stuck in the chamber requiring quite a bit of force to remove. After a thorough clean and oil, it's still sticking, though not quite as much, and I can now cycle spent shells out of the chamber without too much exertion, but ti's still sticking. I'm hoping that it was just a little bit of cosmoline I missed that is the cause of my woes and that next weekend I'll be able to have some fun with minimum interaction with the bolt. I'm just wondering if a sticky chamber is something to be worried about and if there's something actually wrong instead of just a shoddy first cleaning job of mine.
It shot nicely though. I used 122gr Wolf FMJ copper jacket, and by the time I decided to give my hand a break there was a nice hole missing from the center of the cardboard box that served as one of my targets. I was also impressed by the light recoil, I few times I even fired it one handed and didn't have and problems with the recoil, though with the SKS being front heavy it was tough to hold it up even long enough to make sure I had it leveled at the targets.
All in all, it was a fun day.
