[dragunovsks]

The other day I went target shooting with a co-worker of mine and took my SKS, Mosin-Nagant M44, and .45 pistol. He had never shot or heard an M44 go off and he wanted to see how loud they are. I fired 5 rounds from the creek bed into a dirt berm downstream before handing the rifle 5 rounds and hearing protection to Josh. He loaded the rifle as I instructed him how and fired his first shot. He then lifted the bolt without any trouble but could not withdraw it from the reciever to remove the empty brass. After a few seconds of hitting it with my palm (which really hurt) I managed to get it to open and discovered the casing had split from the opening to the first bend in the bottleneck. I assumed that the casing had split (cheap Bulgarian ammo) and had provided enough pressure against the inside of the chamber to make it difficult to withdraw the bolt, so I let him shot it a few more times. However on his second and third shot, it happened again. This time we inspected the empty casings and they were not split like #1. We decided not to shot it anymore, placed it back in my truck and moved on to the SKS. At first, I thought the problem was the fact that my ammo was stored inside my house (in the A/C) in a .50 cal ammo and swelled when exposed to the 90 degree/ 80% humidity outside air. The only problem is, the ammo can sat in the backseat of my truck for about 3 hours will we layed brick at the neighbor's house. I thought that would be plenty of time for it to adjust to the heat. Was I wrong? Would this have actually affected the ammo? It's really confusing me cause this is the first time this rifle has ever done this, I've had it about 2 years now and always used the same type of ammo. Bulgarian 7.62X54R FMJ

Could someone educate me on this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Righteous]

what you speak of is pretty common with M44's, Mine does it with the Bulgarian ammo and split cases are normal, hell I even find some split before I ever shoot them. I use russian ammo alot and it seems to cycle alot better.
As for the bolt sticking you need to clean the chamber real good...and I mean real good, I used a brush set up on a cordles drill to clean mine. These things are never gonna be that smooth but that should help. Its al;l normal tho..thats why they got there *** kicked using them in combat lol

 

[dragunovsks]

Thanx for the advice, i'll try that with the cordless drill. I do keep my guns pretty clean, sometimes when I'm bored and I have nothing to do, I clean all my guns. Even if they haven't been shot since thier last cleaning. Oddly enough though this is the first time it has done it.

 

[RL357Mag]

I've had this happen with my No.1 MkIII Enfield when I used some cheap Indian milsurp ammo. 50% of the case necks spit. They didn't jam the gun though and ejected fine. When I compared an unfired case to a case that I reloaded from new Remington brass, there was a major difference in the case dimensions, particularly the setback on the shoulder. My advice is to use newer issue ammo or buy brass and reload. Your second reload will work flawlessly because the case will now be "fire formed" to your exact chamber dimensions producing better accuracy also.

 

[Boris]

I've owned the M38 and M44 and never had a problem (both where Polish manufacture), having said that I only used Russian military surplus steel cased ammunition. I have never used Bulgarian ammunition, might it be an ammunition problem? They seemed to do alright when they stormed Berlin...

 

[dgray64]

I haven't had any problems with my M44 or 91/30 actually operating. There have been split cases, but no failures to eject. I did clean them VERY well when I got them, going as far as to soak there bores (including the chambers with Kroil and JB lead remover). This really took a lot of crap out of the pores.

I heard on some other forum that the gun was built with the short bolt handle so that the operator could reach over with his left hand to shuttle it after firing while keeping the target in site and holding onto the rifle with the right hand. I tried this and it works well and makes working the bolt easier. Try it.

How do you like your SKS? Love mine and now want to try and AK 47 and 74. Got the fever...anyone else?

Dave

 

[dragunovsks]

I love my SKS, although I just bought an AR-15A2 so it got moved to second but I still like it. I also would like to have an AK but until I get (if I get) a Class 3 license I won't get one cause I want a full-auto. I don't see the need in spending the money to buy a second semi-auto rifle that fires the same round as the SKS. So if I ever get an AK (47 or 74) it will be full-auto, legal of course. Couple weeks ago I hit a skunk at 225 yards with my SKS, iron sights and on the first shot. I have a Yugo, what kind is your's?

 

[dgray64]

I love my SKS, although I just bought an AR-15A2 so it got moved to second but I still like it. I also would like to have an AK but until I get (if I get) a Class 3 license I won't get one cause I want a full-auto. I don't see the need in spending the money to buy a second semi-auto rifle that fires the same round as the SKS. So if I ever get an AK (47 or 74) it will be full-auto, legal of course. Couple weeks ago I hit a skunk at 225 yards with my SKS, iron sights and on the first shot. I have a Yugo, what kind is your's?

Mine is a Norinco. It is a simple model with a fiberglass stock, standard elevation sights, and a 30 round mag. I bought a second 20 round mag, but don't have the right lip properly bent yet since it mis-feeds about 3 rounds of 20 on the right side. The 30 rounder is flawless. Mine is dead-on accurate as well, but my old eyes would have a time popping a skunk at 225 yds. Congratulations!

Dave

 

[rickrem700]

Ammo 7.62x54R

The ammo you are useing is hardly anything close to milspec it was manufactured in massproductin probably in a time of war when they could not keep up with demand and were dumping powder with out much care to measurement, so some of this stuff is way hot, also there is some 7.62x54 ammo that was manufactured just for machiene guns that is alot hoter than rifle ammo that will also expand and slit cases causeing the cases to stick in your rifle, I can't remember the head stamp but it might be worth looking up to some of you

 

[Joshua M. Smith]

Something I found: Clean the chamber with 5% acetic acid (white vinegar). It will remove the bluing that they put in there as well as most of the rest of the cosmoline.

It will discolor the metal. Don't let it get anywhere you don't want the bluing removed, and swab it out with water after 5 minutes max (keep an eye on it.)

Josh <><