If you are shooting an SKS without an upgraded spring loaded firing pin I recommend you spend $40 and buy one for safety.
murraysguns.com
“Original Russian SKS’s, Mfg’d. from 1945 to 1950, had a firing pin design that incorporated a return spring(left picture). Why “later” Russian, Chinese, and all others do not have this design, with spring, is still a mystery. The design was changed to a “free-floating” firing pin in 1951.
All countries other than Russia, that made SKS’s, copied this second design, and with it, slam-fire and uncontrollable full-auto are much more likely (even with your finger nowhere near the trigger)! Removing all the carbon, dirt, and/or cosmoline may not be enough to insure the firing pin does not lock forward. The right picture is a cutaway SKS bolt, showing vividly the firing pin taper, and the taper in the bottom of hole in the bolt, that firing pin bottoms against. This is where a mechanical “lock-up” can occur, as any tapered pin driven into a like tapered hole is likely to lock the pin in place. (check “Morse Taper” tools in any Machine Shop)”
SKS Firing Pins
SKS Firing Pins While our Firing Pin Kits always have and always will have a 100% guarantee against “Slam-Fires,” if you are interested in our firing pin because your “original” firing pin has been damaged/bent/broken, please view this 4 ½ minute video before you purchase our firing
murraysguns.com
“Original Russian SKS’s, Mfg’d. from 1945 to 1950, had a firing pin design that incorporated a return spring(left picture). Why “later” Russian, Chinese, and all others do not have this design, with spring, is still a mystery. The design was changed to a “free-floating” firing pin in 1951.
All countries other than Russia, that made SKS’s, copied this second design, and with it, slam-fire and uncontrollable full-auto are much more likely (even with your finger nowhere near the trigger)! Removing all the carbon, dirt, and/or cosmoline may not be enough to insure the firing pin does not lock forward. The right picture is a cutaway SKS bolt, showing vividly the firing pin taper, and the taper in the bottom of hole in the bolt, that firing pin bottoms against. This is where a mechanical “lock-up” can occur, as any tapered pin driven into a like tapered hole is likely to lock the pin in place. (check “Morse Taper” tools in any Machine Shop)”
