rifle, gun-safety, military-surplus, sksI’ve heard that SKS rifles can slam fire due to the free-floating firing pin. How do I avoid this? Is there a simple modification that can prevent it from happening? How concerned should I be about this?
that free floating pin can get gunked and stuck in the ‘fire’ position becuase there’s no return spring. The best way I’ve found to prevent this is to take the bolt out after a day at the range and clean and lube the hell out of it - really make sure that it easily floats back and forth. I haven’t had a problem with mine yet.
No need for modifications.
Just clean it when you buy it (in case there is some cosmolene in there). And from then on, clean it like any other rifle (every time you get it really dirty, plus also from time to time whether it needs it or not).
Problem with free floating firing pin solved. Murray has the answer with a spring that y ou install. This does not allow your sks to slam fire He has a video and for $50 he will install a new pin and spring. The first SKS’s came with the spring and the then they made them without the spring and slam fires became prevalent Look at this address. http://www.murraysguns.com/sksown.htm
The fact that the pin is free floating is what’s causing the issue, not the dirt itself. The pin slides forwards and backwards and if there’s enough inertia, the pin sliding into the primer is what causes the discharge. In order to prevent this, you would need to modify the bolt or pin or trigger or something else to either have the safety lock the pin down or to add a spring to the firing pin to force it in a direction away from the round currently chambered. A hammer will still be able to hit the pin and that will hit the round, but rough handling of the gun would not affect the pin like before modifications.
In short, you would need modifications to the action in order to prevent this. These modifications would more than likely cost more than the SKS itself.
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