Purchasing a Sks rifle for the first time

[echo83]

The suspense is killing me...did you pick one up yet?

[newchi]

I ended up getting skinned alive but the wood on my gun looks real good, the bluing nice (a few scars), it'll do nicely.
But still, $$OUCH!

I have a couple of guns i paid too much for at the time and was pissed off.
Cant tell you which ones they were now, they are all worth more now.

[Sallad65117]

The suspense is killing me...did you pick one up yet?

Hello! I totally forgot about the board and I apologize. I decided to bite the bullet on PSA SKS for $350 all matching. From the pictures and in person, I'm satisfied absolutely no rust except for some small signs here and there. I've had it for about two weeks and shot it twice. I just haven't had time and it took hours with the cosmoline removal that I wasn't in to shoot it the several days cleaning. In my neck of the woods, I was only able to get ahold of a box of brown bear 196gr subsonic lol. That was the only thing I was able to find for weeks. I finally decided to buy online so I got a few boxes of Tula 122gr fmj coming in. It's not the best but in 2020 anything is better than nothing. Several questions, I have no idea how I broke the safety but with some research and looking at the trigger group it's the safety spring and I still have no idea how I broke it. They safety was on when I was disassembling the rifle. The deed is done and I would like to know where I could get a replacement part? 2nd question is when the rifle isn't charged and I attempt to charge it it's hard to charge the handle. When I was testing it with the two shots I fired, the first round failed to eject then I had to recock. The second shot ejected but failed to lock the bolt back. Is it the ammo or the rifle? because I really don't like 196gr. It was my first two shots.

[Justin Hell]

First off, you did good!  That is a pretty darn nice example of what's been floating around lately...congrats!

I think the subsonic ammo might be the problem and/or more cleaning might be in order. Check to make sure the bolt hold open isn't gummy at all, and hopefully you did the full bolt disassembly and meticulous cleaning of the firing pin channel...

Also, a common error is to put the recoil spring in backwards....the squiggly end goes into the bolt carrier.

Seriously though, if there is any cosmoline in any of the system still, it can cause intermittent issues....and sometimes finger burns. Make sure the entire gas system, including the piston and spring under the rear sight are totally clean, make sure to secure a finger over that piston before deploying it across the room and through the TV though.

[Phosphorus32]

What JH said 

Good cleaning and check of the spring direction and it'll likely cycle well with standard 122-125gr ammo. Sub-sonic is much lower energy and typically doesn't cycle semiautomatics well unless a suppressor is mounted, which increases back pressure and dwell time a bit.

[echo83]

The suspense is killing me...did you pick one up yet?

Hello! I totally forgot about the board and I apologize. I decided to bite the bullet on PSA SKS for $350 all matching. From the pictures and in person, I'm satisfied absolutely no rust except for some small signs here and there. I've had it for about two weeks and shot it twice. I just haven't had time and it took hours with the cosmoline removal that I wasn't in to shoot it the several days cleaning. In my neck of the woods, I was only able to get ahold of a box of brown bear 196gr subsonic lol. That was the only thing I was able to find for weeks. I finally decided to buy online so I got a few boxes of Tula 122gr fmj coming in. It's not the best but in 2020 anything is better than nothing. Several questions, I have no idea how I broke the safety but with some research and looking at the trigger group it's the safety spring and I still have no idea how I broke it. They safety was on when I was disassembling the rifle. The deed is done and I would like to know where I could get a replacement part? 2nd question is when the rifle isn't charged and I attempt to charge it it's hard to charge the handle. When I was testing it with the two shots I fired, the first round failed to eject then I had to recock. The second shot ejected but failed to lock the bolt back. Is it the ammo or the rifle? because I really don't like 196gr. It was my first two shots.

Good looking specimen there, you lucked out!
My safety spring was broken when I got mine from Classic, I bought a replacement from Murray's Guns and was lucky enough to get it installed for free at my local shop. The spring cost me $11.49 all in.

Not having to pay for installation? Well, that was priceless.