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So my buddy blessed me with an sks he's had in his safe forever. Said he never shot it, gave $80 for years ago, and thought i'd like to have it. I opened the case whe he handed it to me, and there sits this brand new, unfired Norinco, covered and filled with cosmoline! Took me 2 hours to clean it up. Now, i've never owned an sk before, so looking for a little help. Tried a Tapco 20 rd mag in it. Fit is too tight, and there is no bolt hold open with the mag out. You can't insert the mag with the bolt closed, so it takes at least 3 hands to install. Also I can't speed load the Tapco with stripper clips. Won't accept more than 7rd's max. The stock mag is pretty tough to strip into too. I want to attribute this to being brand new and requireing some break in, but not sure. Any thoughts?
 
So...is this an SKS-M, in that it takes an AK mag, or is it a typical SKS with a 10 round magazine and you are trying to use a duckbill? If its a typical SKS, it works best with its original magazine. Those aftermarket 20 round mags can be problematic.

Congratulations to you. That was too a good deal to pass up :) .

Keith
 
Last Edited:
Put the stock mag back in the gun, sell the tapco in the classifieds.

"Tough to strip into"......shouldn't be terribly difficult, make sure that you're pushing against the base of the cartridges ( slide your thumb along the clip as you insert them ).

Loading+SKS+stripper+clip.jpg

Loading+SKS+stripper+clip.jpg
 
So...is this an SKS-M, in that it takes an AK mag, or is it a typical SKS with a 10 round magazine and you are trying to use a duckbill? If its a typical SKS, it works best with its original magazine. Those aftermarket 20 round mags can be problematic.

Congratulations to you. That was too a good deal to pass up :) .

Keith

Standard sks.
 
Put the stock mag back in the gun, sell the tapco in the classifieds.

"Tough to strip into"......shouldn't be terribly difficult, make sure that you're pushing against the base of the cartridges ( slide your thumb along the clip as you insert them ).

Loading+SKS+stripper+clip.jpg

Yeah. Know how to operate stripper clips. Stock mag just doesn't want to load cleanly. Last round won't seat properly. Yet.

Loading+SKS+stripper+clip.jpg
 
I hope you enjoy your new SKS. My carbines always operated best with the stock ten round magazine. I built an oven out of a metal garbage can and some light bulbs to get rid of the cosmoline. 250w works best for me and the cosmoline slowly melts out over a period of several days. It is the only way I have found to remove ALL the cosmoline and not damage the stock with harmful chemicals. Did you disassemble and clean the bolt? Sometimes that can be a bear but it is almost mandatory to do so to help prevent a slam fire.
 
Check the follower where it's pinned to the lift arm. It sounds like an obstruction of some kind not allowing the follower to fully depress.

I had one once with a burr that wouldn't allow the follower to tilt properly, which caused the rounds to nose dive.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. Will take all under consideration and let you know how it goes. May get to go send some down range this weekend. Also have an Israeli 98k that needs to be sighted in. Love them classic weapons.
 
I built an oven out of a metal garbage can and some light bulbs to get rid of the cosmoline. 250w works best for me and the cosmoline slowly melts out over a period of several days. It is the only way I have found to remove ALL the cosmoline and not damage the stock with harmful chemicals.

Now that its summer, just sticking the stock and some newspapers in a black plastic bag and putting it in the Sun for a few days will do the same thing.

Keith
 
Make sure that you pay attention to what Ogre posted above about removing ALL of the cosmoline. If there is any residue in the firing pin channel the pin can stick forward and create out of control auto slamfires. Very exciting! You can buy them or you can create you own long mini-Qtips for the firing pin channel---just wrap loose cotton around the head of skinny stick, and be sure to spin the stick in the opposite direction when cleaning........................elsullo
 

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