My SKS bit me

Ouch! When I was young I visited a local gun shop and was handling an M1 Garand. I racked the bolt back and then to close it I pressed the follower and my hand slipped, the bolt crushed my thumb and blood came out.

Be glad it wasn't a Hakeem

Nice looking rifle.

By any chance does it have a star ☆ on the receiver and a и, д, or a K after the receiver serial?

Beautiful rifle.

The combo of that Russian birch, with whichever stain is my Big Namba Won rifle furniture . Period.

No exaggeration.

Cut it a break... it was probably only a matter of miscommunication, nothing personal. Perhaps you caught it on a bad day; it may have heard about the whole Russian ammunition fiasco and you just so happened upon it just then.

Beautiful SKS, by the way. You can tell her I said that.

'Simonov Thumb' -- is that a term?

Derek Wildstar said:

By any chance does it have a star ☆ on the receiver

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I had one of those. Got unfired. Paid $120 OTD at a pawn shop.

Few years later a Guy I knew wanted it real bad. I told him (IIRC) $375. He didn’t blink and snapped it up.

I lost a thumb nail pushing the follower on a Garand. I was cleaning, wanted to release the bolt, and ouch!

Been there done that with my '56 Romy. Sure doesn't feel very good!

troy fairweather said:

Be glad it wasn't a Hakeem

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Those things'll take yer whole hand clean off!

swoter said:

Had my 1955 Russian SKS out earlier, bolt back. Went to release bolt, pushed down on bolt stop and caught my index finger in the action. Two small cuts on my finger. It hurt.

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The official procedure was to unlatch the magazine bottom, release the bolt into battery, lock the magazine back. The NCOs were at times very particular about it, and did not let just push on the bolt stop while pulling the bolt back with the other hand.

Another way in which SKS can hurt you is the connecting rod. I heard of solders losing teeth, and even eyes, by lifting the gas tube and letting the rod fly out with some energy. I never saw that happen though.

No SKS damage, but a PPK/S I used to have would regularly draw blood on the first shot if I forgot and held it too high. Two red stripes on the web of my hand from the slide.

OP: Love that mottled arctic birch stock!

Dave DeLaurant said:

'Simonov Thumb' -- is that a term?

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... Beat me to it. Or perhaps it's just SKS thumb. I've done the M-1 thumb to myself once, and it was a good lesson in paying attention to what you are doing. ( I usually learn things the hard way).

Dadgum commies. I got bit by an AK when trying to clean it at the shop. I was holding the bolt open and it slipped and caught one of my digits in it and it did require a Band-Aid.

After the 1949 dated carbines, 1955 is the hardest Tula-made sks to find.

I've got one too.

Definitely a keeper.

When I'd shoot mine in 3 Gun matches, it seems my SKS bit me on a regular basis. I figured it was just excited at getting to play.

Got a piece of steel in my eye from an SKS. Like an idiot I didn’t have glasses on.

I considered a Russian SKS years ago, simply to have those beautiful, glowing reddish-brown colors in the wood (the same, non-laminated type).

Steve Milbocker:
Were they able to save that eye's vision in a hospital ER ?

I know many folks who have had minor Garand thumb but somehow the only time I got hurt, aside from High Powers biting me so much I had scars visible for 20 years, was a Beretta 92.

Was demoing a feel-with-pinky-finger style of chamber check, hadn't done on the M9 before. Not a lot of slide, I slipped, got my pinky stuck AND I couldn't open it myself, AND the extractor tried to extract my finger. Once a friend opened the slide, I had to pull and twist to actually get my finger out.

There was flesh under the extractor claw, that had to be removed with a dental pick! That left a mark, though now around 30 years later you finally can't see that scar either.

I had the action close on my left thumb at the range one day on a "nicer" Chinese one. It certainly smarted, I let an expletive out that rhymes with trucker, but no blood learned my lesson and went about my day. Btw did that after I had been shooting that particular rifle for about 15 years before it bit me.

Derek Wildstar said:

Nice looking rifle.

By any chance does it have a star ☆ on the receiver and a д, after the receiver serial?

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Mine does, I take it to mean that’s a good thing?