Stripper Clip Guide Wear.

[Sanholo]

Hello folks,

New to the forum and somewhat new to the SKS. I have a /26\ paratrooper and recently picked up a /636\ That is neutered of the bayonet.

So the 636 is getting some finish wear and some slight scratches/gauges in the operating rod housing from the stripper clip guide going over it during shooting. My paratrooper shows nothing like this.

I know it's an SKS and can take the abuse but is there something I can do to remediate this or is it just something I have to deal with? Is it common?

I'll try to post some pics soon.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

[carls sks]

hi, good to have you here.  the stripper clips I'm use to are used to load the bullets into the mag and then removed. are you talking about something else? 

[Sanholo]

The stripper clip guide is part of the bolt carrier. It is the two hook looking things that you insert your stripper clip into.

[Power Surge]

So you're saying the front of the bolt carrier is hitting the rounded top of the rear sight block where the operating rod comes out? It should go over it, but not hit it. Have you pulled the rifle apart to see if it's all matching or not? You may need to Dremel the underside of the bolt carrier hood a bit to stop it from hitting.

[Sanholo]

Gun operates fine and is all matching.

The inside of the hooks of the stripper clip guide are scuffing the housing as the bolt moves forward to chamber a round and backward to eject the round.

It's simply a cosmetic annoyance just wondering if anyone has experienced this before and if there are remedies.

[Boris Badinov]

If you are referring to where the bolt carrier fore-end and op-rod meet...this is a common spot for wear. Won't affect rifle function. If your rifle is NIB or nearly NIB it's gonna be noticeable--

I exprienced similar with my 100% bluing (no longer) as issued, almost NIB 11mil /26\. But it's a rifle, not a Ming vase.

If you've ever seen a slo-mo video of sks in action (or any rifle for that matter) you'll see that there's lot of elastic-like movement in the metal every time a round is fire-- barrel resonance for example. Extreme heat and intense pressures do that to rifles. You might not have gotten any wear pattern cycling a cold, empty rifle, but once you start putting rounds down range minor wear is inevitable.

Sounds like you got a pretty cool rifle.  Plenty to be happy  about.

[Sanholo]

Left side:



Right Side:



Looks worse in person. The left side actually looks like a very small amount has been gauged as in there is a grove when you run your finger nail.

Right side is smooth just paint/finish removed

[Power Surge]

That is definitely not normal. The bottom corners of the stripper clips guides are usually ground rounded in those areas to give more clearance. Maybe they forgot to do that on your bolt carrier. Just radius the lower inside corners on your carrier and that will solve that.

[Sanholo]

Yeah I have been lightly polishing it basically taking nothing off just getting rid of any sharp corners. I'll see how it does. Like I said it's not hurting performance just causing eye sore. The right side is not bad it's just that left side that is getting messed up.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Seen this on many sks over the years.