I forgot something when putting my rifle back together after a field strip

[Phosphorus32]

I installed the Murrays spring loaded firing pin (that I won in a drawing) in the second SKS I owned. It worked great but I sold that SKS with the spring loaded firing pin still installed. Nothing against it, it functioned great, and if you're looking for extra peace of mind, buy a Murrays FP 

On the other hand, I've never had a slam fire in any of my other 3 dozen SKSs (okay, I haven't shot them all). I always remove the firing pin and clean out the FP channel in the bolt and inspect & clean the firing pin. I've had some rough Type 56s that came in from Albania with grease covering a not so healthy concoction of rust and dirt. Once I cleaned them up, which included steel wool scouring of any rust on the FP, and emery cloth deburring of any rough firing pin tips, I've never had a problem.

[Greasemonkey]

Just my opinion.... Not really needed. If it were such a great idea... Why didn't manufactures stick with it and not go away from it. A Garand has a free floating pin, as does a M1 Carbine and a M-14.   Any of them can slam fire.... Keep it clean and free moving and it's usually not a problem. 

1 SKS, an early '50 Russian, out of my pile has it cause it came with it...none have ever slam fired. Even my slam wore out, sloppy clanky Yugo hasn't.

And if you pop a primer with the spring.....where does all that high pressure hot gas go.... Right in the pin hole, melting the spring and seizing the pin.... Could be an insta slam fire on the next trigger pull cause your pin is now stuck.


Just my .00000000002 cents worth.

On that bolt and firing pin.....cleanliness is next to Godliness... 

[running-man]

I'll say this in the free floating vs spring loaded debate: anyone who thinks a spring loaded pin will never slam fire is delusional. If you have foreign matter building up in the firing pin channel of the bolt, spring loaded pins are just as likely to jam forward as free floating pins are (some would say with the smaller clearances to expell foreign matter, they are more likely.)
Popped primers wreak havoc on the springs as well, causing them to distort and in extreme cases break apart into pieces that then wedge in the channel to lock the firing pin forward.

[Phosphorus32]

I'll say this in the free floating vs spring loaded debate: anyone who thinks a spring loaded pin will never slam fire is delusional. If you have foreign matter building up in the firing pin channel of the bolt, spring loaded pins are just as likely to jam forward as free floating pins are (some would say with the smaller clearances to expell foreign matter, they are more likely.)
Popped primers wreak havoc on the springs as well, causing them to distort and in extreme cases break apart into pieces that then wedge in the channel to lock the firing pin forward.

All excellent points 

[Justin Hell]

Just my opinion.... Not really needed. If it were such a great idea... Why didn't manufactures stick with it and not go away from it. A Garand has a free floating pin, as does a M1 Carbine and a M-14.   Any of them can slam fire.... Keep it clean and free moving and it's usually not a problem. 

1 SKS, an early '50 Russian, out of my pile has it cause it came with it...none have ever slam fired. Even my slam wore out, sloppy clanky Yugo hasn't.

And if you pop a primer with the spring.....where does all that high pressure hot gas go.... Right in the pin hole, melting the spring and seizing the pin.... Could be an insta slam fire on the next trigger pull cause your pin is now stuck.


Just my .00000000002 cents worth.

On that bolt and firing pin.....cleanliness is next to Godliness...

A broken or lost spring could be catastrophic. The bolts were heavier with the design, perhaps the notion of either caused them to shun the concept as the bolt, and the rest of the gun evolved.

A bonus benefit, that may be noticed with a spring loaded pin, is that if you drop it muzzle down, with a round chambered, it would likely reduce an accidental discharge from happening as easily as it could with a floating pin.  Which, could be why it was thought of in the first place.....as one would expect the military to maintain their weapons cleanliness better than the average shmo.  It's likely they weren't considering the possibility of slam fires with dirty weapons....whereas it does seem like they might have taken running around in combat...and dropping it awkwardly as a possibility.   It could be we in the western world took the original side effect and traded it for the primary function....and brought the idea back.  When the SKS became the darling of the milsurp imports, and were cheap as dirt, slamfires were commonplace as the general SKS buying public didn't know to clean the thing properly....nor did they know about the nature of the SKS bolt and firing pin.  They just new they got a cheap semi auto, and a thousand rounds for less than the cost of an Emerson VCR....and once they got it clean enough to touch without getting all icky, were off to get their yee haw on.

[OldManBryson]

Does the firing pin and its' area require any lubrication?

[Justin Hell]

less than zilch

[Loose}{Cannon]

I put a thin coat of a THIN oil on the bolt and FP simply to make carbon removal easy.

[Phosphorus32]

I suspect the Soviets moved away from the spring loaded firing pin for one or more rational reasons.

The most likely reasons to switch a component design would be ease of manufacture, less expensive manufacture, and/or increased reliability.


This comparative picture from the poster suggests that the spring loaded firing pin is of a much smaller diameter at the "pin" end and has stress risers at the flange area. I suspect it was more prone to breakage than the simple firing pins of later design. It was also clearly more complex to machine and finish.

If there were no manufacturing benefits and/or they hadn't had any functionality or reliability problems, they wouldn't have switched. If the spring loaded design had been superior, I'm certain one of the other countries that manufactured the SKS later would have reincorporated it into their design. The Yugoslavians loved to change designs to make it their own, but they didn't change anything with respect to the firing pin.

[Bob_The_Student]

P32 you getting any use out of those posters you bought? 

[Phosphorus32]

P32 you getting any use out of those posters you bought? 

Yes, indeed!