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Old November 28, 2004, 07:46 PM   #1
Major PITA
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SKS firing pin hole out of round

I just purchased one of the Yugoslav M59/66 SKS rifles. The gun is full of cosmoline and from what I've gathered from various translations of the log book that came with it, the rifle has had "around 50" rounds through it.

The gun looks brand new, with no appreciable wear anywhere on the rifle except for a few dings in the stock.

Looking at the face of the bolt, it appears that the opening of the firing pin hole is slightly out of round in one spot where the drill bit obviously wandered during the drilling process. Examining this spot under an intense white LED borelight, this out-of-round "bevel" does not go very deep, and appears to not even have the length of the tapered portion of the firing pin. In other words, it truly is just at the opening to the firing pin hole and it is not that the entire firing pin channel is out of round.

Now, I suppose that if some military armorer in the former Yugoslavia did not see this defect as a potential safety hazard, then perhaps I shouldn't worry about it. I seem to remember, however, reading an M-16 depot repair manual which stated that erosion leading from the bolt face into the firing pin channel is cause to reject the bolt.

Now I know we are not talking about erosion, just a manufacturing flaw, but is this flaw a potential safety hazard? Could it create a drag on the firing pin creating a hazard or potential unreliability situation?

I admit I'm trying to thin out my gun collection a little bit, so I'm going over my guns looking for reasons to reject some, but am I being paranoid about such a tiny flaw?
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Old December 6, 2004, 01:38 PM   #2
dfaugh
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Wouldn't worry about it much

I have a few milsurps that exibit similar firing pin holes, although in this case it looks more like wear...Now, its not real enlarged, but they are somewhat ovoid...Never had a problem, and we're talking about 8mm and 762x54R pressures, sometimes with some fairly stout handloads Sometime will see a slight cratering of primers with 'em...
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