The SKS slam fire phenomenon was talked about quite a lot during the time they were coming in in large numbers.
Here's a pretty good thread from "The Firing Line" forum circa. 2002...
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129778I've had my Chinese SKS for over 10 years now, and hardly ever a problem. Recently down at the local indoor firing range it started to do somthing interesting, 3 round burst.........
I reloaded the magzine and the same affect I squeeze the trigger I get 2-3 round bursts not all the time but pretty frequently.and an incident so infamous and seemingly unlikely it seems almost an urban legend..
I have a reason. I watched a man die a few years ago from an SKS that went full auto on him and his buddy after they fed it from a stripper clip. Neither had a good hold on the full-auto SKS, and it rotated up as it continued firing. The last round in the magazine entered his face and exited the top of his head, right there on the firing line. Here's the report, including info from the Sacramento Bee:As to WHEN this incident occurred I dunno, but Navy Arms put out a recall/warning way back in 1992...
http://www.firearmsid.com/Recalls/FA_Recalls%202.htmWARNING: We hereby provide written notice to you that some Chinese SKS semiautomatic rifles may pose a serious risk of bodily injury or death.
Some of these rifles may have a manufacturing defect of the engaging surfaces in the trigger-hammer-sear assembly, which can cause intermittent failure of the sear to hold the hammer in a cocked position. This condition can result in the unexpected firing as a round is chambered, without pulling the trigger, or if the weapon is jarred or dropped. This condition may also result in sudden and unexpected automatic fire and loss of control of the firing weapon.Perhaps not caused by firing pin inertia or sticking in these cases, but your point about using harder Mil-spec primers is well taken. My 1954 Tula example used to ding the primers on the cheap Russian ammo pretty serious.
(...and egad! Has it really been 20 years since SKS's were showing up everywhere for about $150??
)
Birdwatcher
