The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I'm trying to temember a time when an SKS failed to eject, to load, got all jamed up..... I can't. Not My first Norinco in the early 80's, or any of the others I've bought in the last 10 yrs, a dozen or so. I can't remember an SKS not firing. What's your experience been?

My M59/66 had issues when I got it due to leakage around the adjustable gas valve (it was worn). Put a new one on and it works fine.

Sunday 17 October 1993, it was a cool fall afternoon on my range as I test fired the Chinese "paratrooper" SKS with AK47 magazine alteration. One round fired, magazine fell out of the well and landed on my foot. The air turned a hazy shade of blue as I expressed my considerable displeasure with the proceedings.

The only problem I have ever had was an occasional "double-tap", an issue my SVT-40 shares. The SKS is more reliable than the god of vintage military rifles, the Garand....

I had a squib fire in my Chinese Norinco when using Tula ammo. The projectile went a short way into the barrel and the chamber was filled with propellant. This necessitated field strip and a solid cleaning rod to clear the barrel and a thorough cleaning of the chamber to get all the unburned powder out. I don't have much of the Tula ammo left, so I intend to expend it and never buy the stuff again. My rifle likes Wolf or Golden Tiger and I have never had a malfunction with any of that ammo. Except for this one episode, my Factory 138 Norinco has been a solid performer with over 2000 rounds fired.

Every 10th round of my 1950 Tula SKS. The round will either fly out of the rifle when chambering or it will simply fail to feed. Other than that, it's a great rifle. All previous 9 rounds in the magazine feed just fine.

spongemonkey wrote:

Lotema wrote:Every 10th round of my 1950 Tula SKS. The round will either fly out of the rifle when chambering or it will simply fail to feed. Other than that, it's a great rifle. All previous 9 rounds in the magazine feed just fine.

Could that be a mag issue? Sounds like maybe the feed lips or the follower of the mag need a little tweaking. I am just taking a guess, I dont know for sure. Have you tried just loading 8 or 9 rounds to see if it does the same on the last round? Might be worth a try just to see.

Compare it to another one empty. .......How it sits, spring tension, ? ?? Come to think of it, I did the same thing JYD did on my first one.

spongemonkey wrote:I have been "lucky" so far and have not had an issue with the one I shoot regularly. No double taps, failure to feed, failure to fire or failure to eject even with a "junky" 30rd aftermarket duckbill mag.

I have six Russians and one Chinese type 56 and I'm really trying to think of a problem that I had with any of them.

Now my head hurts because I was thinking to hard.

But really...I never had any problems at all.You feed them and they go bang.

I've have a few, lets say They do work, most of the complaints stem from operator malfunction, a backwards recoil spring is always a biggie.. Or cheap duckbills...the maggot masher at the landfill loves'em

Got a Chinese the gas tube leaked, acted like a Yugo with a leaky valve and wouldn't cycle, had a Chinese with a bent firing pin out of the box, an Albanian, it will almost fall out of the stock if you shook it upside down hard enough, and even have had an Albanian with a bent barrel....that was a fun one, slide the rear sight slider to 5, that would put you in the ball park for a 100 yards Took a while to get that corrected. One Romanian I had would pop primers at random, a pin replacement fixed it, no problems since.

I cant blame a squib like someone posted above on the rifle, I had the same thing with a Chinese Norinco round, had to beat the bullet out of the bore and clean the powder out.

Out of all of them, I've never had a slamfire or a commercial Ak mag version spit out a mag. I have 2 commercial ones, a Type 84 and a SKS NR both have performed flawless actually. One day I did a trial and error just to see out of curiosity, what I've found if the magazine is not seated in fully and latched, the magazines will just fall out when the first round is fired like clock work.

spongemonkey wrote:

Lotema wrote:Every 10th round of my 1950 Tula SKS. The round will either fly out of the rifle when chambering or it will simply fail to feed. Other than that, it's a great rifle. All previous 9 rounds in the magazine feed just fine.

Could that be a mag issue? Sounds like maybe the feed lips or the follower of the mag need a little tweaking. I am just taking a guess, I dont know for sure. Have you tried just loading 8 or 9 rounds to see if it does the same on the last round? Might be worth a try just to see.

That's my guess. If I just put one round in, it chamber fine. More than one and it'll fly off when the previous one ejects. 1-9 are always just fine, just the 10th one that has issues. I just have to spend some time with the mag arm and see what I can do to tweak it just a bit.

Just another idea it could also be a random short stroke, 8 or 9 rds heating something up that on the last round causes an issue. This issue could vanish due to cooling in the time it takes to clear the jam or reload even a single round.
Along with checking the mag, follower and follower arm, give the gas system a good look over for any issues like gas leakage, the gas piston binding up or even a slightly restricted gas port.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Sunday 17 October 1993, it was a cool fall afternoon on my range as I test fired the Chinese "paratrooper" SKS with AK47 magazine alteration. One round fired, magazine fell out of the well and landed on my foot. The air turned a hazy shade of blue as I expressed my considerable displeasure with the proceedings.

Jim same here, every SKS I have ever seen with a magazine modification failed to work reliably, the AK look on a budget.

That converted piece of shit was not something I set out to buy, it was included in a package deal for something else I wanted. People are always doing that to me, they know I want something they have so they figure that's a good time to unload some piece of shit they couldn't otherwise find anyone to pay them money for. All or nothing deals, and the extras are usually fifty or hundred dollar items or less that maybe I can use for parts. Sometimes it works out, yesterday I bought a nice K98k and the seller dragged along a filthy old double barrel shotgun. The deal for the K98k was very, very good so I didn't want to monkeywrench the deal over the hundred bucks extra he wanted for the shotgun. On later inspection it turns out I now own an early Winchester marked Birmingham English made Class A double 12 bore. These are very rare, very expensive, Winchester imported them 1879-1884 and under the layers of filth it looks like a nice gun, barrels ring true, no dents, locks work and it locks up tight, no cracks in the stock. The seller insisted I buy both as he can't sell guns out of his antique shop, fine, now by chance I own a shotgun worth more than my car, or an M1 Garand sniper platform.

etprescottazusa91 wrote:

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Sunday 17 October 1993, it was a cool fall afternoon on my range as I test fired the Chinese "paratrooper" SKS with AK47 magazine alteration. One round fired, magazine fell out of the well and landed on my foot. The air turned a hazy shade of blue as I expressed my considerable displeasure with the proceedings.

Jim same here, every SKS I have ever seen with a magazine modification failed to work reliably, the AK look on a budget.

Thankyou, I failed to mentioned when I asked the original question, Which is about function with Unmodified Original magazines. Properly closed.

I have a 54 Tula bbq paint refurb that has been 100% since I got it about 8 years ago. Mine is one of the ones that were called East German refurbs. I think this has been proven wrong since then. Still shoots great, though.

Erik, I love that SKS. My Russian Tula looks almost like it except my bolt is also painted black.

Sent from my SM-T337T using Tapatalk

1. '56 Chicom F 43XX. 1. "59 V.C. ghost 1. '51 Russian and, two Yugo's . I shoot them all, they all perform alike very well. NC Star strippers (10'S) won't fit in any of them. Check the one's you have.

I've got a few Some I dont/won't shoot, a long barrel Yugo M59, Soviet Sino, Public Security, Egyptian/Israeli capture, maybe a few others. Some have been shot, just to test function, the Public Security had a rough few months, it's been retired. Now the commercial SKS NR and Type 84.. I will show them no mercy. They take the brunt of the firing now, my poor M59/66 I've had and beat on for 20 years, can rest now.

SA1911a1 wrote:The only problem I have ever had was an occasional "double-tap", an issue my SVT-40 shares. The SKS is more reliable than the god of vintage military rifles, the Garand....

Steve was the double tap on yur Ruski? I think mine did once, I thought it was my doing somehow?

No, the double tap rifle was a Norinco. It happened too often and I no longer own it. I have two reasonably new (to me) Russian rifles that I have not shot enough to comment on, but I have another nice Chinese rifle that runs flawlessly after a lot of ammo down the pipe.