The worst part of the SKS for me is that you have to take it apart after each shooting session to clean out the corrosive gunk or it will eat up your gun.

I always clean my guns after use. It should be basic SOP (standard operating procedure), regardless if it is corrosive ammunition or not. 🙂

I do too, but my cleaning consists of soaking one end of the bore snake in cleaner and the other in lube, running it through 3 or 4 times until its sparkly clean, then lubing the friction areas and giving the outside a thin coat of oil. The guy I met said he has to totally break the gun down and clean everything including the gas chamber, having never owned a semi I really have no idea what is involved, it just seemed like alot.

However, I would not dismiss the fact that I may very well own one of these in the not so far future. LIke I said, it was pretty fun playing with it and I think the stripper clips are cool.

Can I ask you SKS owners a few questions?

How long did it take you to remove the cosmoline?
What kind of cleaner did you use (Mineral spirits)?
Is there any non corrosive ammo available? Reasonable price? (I know nothing is going to beat $0.19 a round) but I figured id ask.

Thanks

When I had to ship my guns back from Germany (military), I had them preserved, when I finally got them back from Customs (big, Big pain) I took them to a machine shop and had them cleaned in a varsol bubble bath. Took about an hour for a real good clean, after that I took them home, disassembled them and put all the metal parts in the oven @150*F for about hour. While they were still hot, I sprayed a lot of gun oil all over them and let them cool. This heat treatment will allow oil to seep into the metal and seal it. At this temperature, it will not damage the metal or warp it, and was recommended by a gunsmith. When the parts are cooled to handling temperature, wipe down the parts and reassemble. Make sure you do the rifle bore also.

I think the ammo marstar has is non corrosive and I sure I found some on line out west and a few other places in ontario Kelly's sporting good ! Along with marstar ( non corrosive ) .

I usually get bulk ammo at SFRC or Canada Ammo. Be aware though, I'm hearing some ammo labelled as non-corrosive is actually not.
Good thread on SKS field stripping.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?755156-SKS-field-stripping-101-corrosive-ammo-cleaning-lubrication-*updated *

Today i going to talk about your topic which is that I have a A5 Tippmann paintball gun that has only been used two times. It has a custom barrel, electric trigger, and an electric hopper. How much is it worth?

I think the ammo marstar has is non corrosive and I sure I found some on line out west and a few other places in ontario Kelly's sporting good ! Along with marstar ( non corrosive ) .

Hi Sarniaprepper,

Unfortunately, John at Marstar confirmed that the 7.62x39 ammo is the steel core M43 corrosive type, but it's of the higher quality Polish manufacture. There haven't been many reports of problems with this ammo.

Cheers

I had the chance to shoot one at the gun club. Awesome rifle. 12 shots in less than a square inch. If the CFO would be kind enough to grant me a license, I'd like to find one.

Don't be afraid of corrosive ammo in a SKS. With a bit of practice you can field strip a SKS, give it a good once-over, and reassemble it in a couple minutes. If you're not going to fire it for awhile then a good cleaning and oiling is in order (like with any gun) but if its a regular at the range like mine you can get away with a basic scrubbing. These type 56's from Marstar are over built military guns. They can take a beating. The one thing I do make sure of before loading a single round concerns the firing pin. Its a free floating design and a quick shake test will let you know if its gunked up enough to warrant a complete tear down and cleaning.

Here's the option I took: I bought two. At $75 a pop (when you buy the ammo) I say why not?! 1440 rounds goes quick with a semi auto 😈 so the two cases of ammo is justified 😉

The one with the nicer stock stays cleaned and oiled in the back of the safe and the other is my regular shooter.

Sort of like having two cars, a beater weekday commuter and a weekend garage beauty.

Happy shooting all!

Just picked up a Russian one a couple weekends ago. In great shape. Tula arsenal. Also ordered some Romanian surplus ammo. 1320 rds from Cabelas.ca came to a little over 300 with shipping and tax. Not too bad I guess. It didnt say anywhere if the ammo is corrosive but I'm going to play it safe and assume it is.
I also picked up a1943 Izhvesk arsenal Mosin Nagant 91/30 a couple weeks ago and need to find some decent ammo for it.

Yeah make sure those SKS bolts are spotless. They have a free floating firing pin and if it gets gunked up, it can jam forward and you can get what they call "slam-fire" when the bolt slams forward and the gun will fire by itself. Very dangerous.

Yeah make sure those SKS bolts are spotless. They have a free floating firing pin and if it gets gunked up, it can jam forward and you can get what they call "slam-fire" when the bolt slams forward and the gun will fire by itself. Very dangerous.

That's why in addition to cleaning it really well I put a murray's spring loaded firing pin in mine: http://www.murraysguns.com/sksown.htm

Thanks for the tip. Can you order them and install it yourself or do you have to send your bolt to them for alterations?

I had the chance to shoot one at the gun club. Awesome rifle. 12 shots in less than a square inch. If the CFO would be kind enough to grant me a license, I'd like to find one.

That's great... It's really interesting post it here.....

By the way I'm just new here.................

Murray's makes good sears for the SKS too. They make the gun safer by creating positive sear engagement... i've got the pin and sear in mine, shoots fine. now if the GoC would allow us to use hicaps it would be near perfect and inexpensive gun.

Thanks for the tip. Can you order them and install it yourself or do you have to send your bolt to them for alterations?

No you can do it yourself. You just have to know how to knock out the retaining pin in the bolt. Then slide out the old pin and put in the Murray's replacement - you have to hold the pin in and drop the retaining pin in until it slides in place, then let the pin slide back (now the retaining pin is most of the way in place it won't shoot back out) then hammer it tight.

The pin comes with instructions that are pretty easy to follow.