yugo sks sticky bolt

[06lover]

can anyone suggest what might be the cause of the following problem ?
to set the stage, i had a cartridge case head sepeartion at the range a few days ago.
the next cartridge to be carried from the magazine to the chamber failed to feed because the chamber had the first case (most of it) still stuck in the chamber.
the cartridges are brand new winchester brass cases that have never been fired before.
The gun was never fired with anything other than new winchester cases as i'm not big on the steel cased ammo available.
To extract the case, i plugged the bore right in front of the stuck case with a rag and filled the stuck cartridge with molten led.
after letting it cool entirely, i inserted a cleaning rod in the bore and pushed out the broken cartridge, lead and rag.
after that i cleaned the chamber with an oversized bore brush and solvent on a drill until the cleaning rags were coming out with very little dirt on them.
when i felt the entire rifle was clean, i re-assembled it and used regular gun grease to lube everything like i had done many times in the past without any problem. i did not lube the chamber although i am thinking of spraying it with graphite.
the action cycles fine with no cartridge. if i dry fire it, manually recycling the action becomes a little stiff. if i put in a dud cartridge, it will chamber fine but manually extracting it is difficult. if i dry fire the dud cartridge, manually extracting it requires A LOT OF FORCE. i have to actually whack the handle with a piece of wood then the cartridge will eject and go flying. I think it will work ok if i fire a live round but manually ejecting a round was never a problem before. any ideas what could be wrong and how to correct it ?

 

[stchman]

I have 4 SKS rifles and I have never shot any brass out of them (Wolf and Brown Bear is too cheap and works very well). The Russian steel case seems to work very well in Russian rifles (AKs, SKSs).

Could it be that you got a bad batch of ammo?

Also, remember that brass expands more than steel so the case could swell up too much.

Try some Wolf 7.62x39.

 

[06lover]

actually these are rounds i reloaded myself. i have put several hundred thru the rifle w/o incident until the case head seperated. it seems like the problem may be in the trigger group but that's speculation at best.

 

[mbonner]

Next time you have a separated case, just push in a 38 cal bore brush into the chamber from the rear and pull the case front half out.
Did you bulge the chamber? Heat from the molten lead?
That would cause extraction problems, or else you have crap on your chamber walls. I have loaded brass cases for my SKSs for years and never had a separation.
Powder overload? Hard to do with appropriate powders as the case is so small.
Mike

 

[06lover]

the chamber was not bulged fortunately but it was pretty dirty.
as for the lead, i melted it in a big spoon with a propane torch and then poured it into the cartridge/chamber until it filled above the broken cartridge.
couldn't be an overload because the charge of h322 fills the case ~90+%.

i did buy a box of wolf ammo today and manually cycled them thru the action w/o a problem or excessive force. i will try the same with my reloads when i get to the range in a few weeks.

 

[NCsmitty]

Has your brass been loaded multiple times? A combination of dirty chamber and thinning brass from multiple firings, may have been the reason for the separation.

Maybe your brass needs a bit more full sizing with your die, if they are tight in the chamber before firing.



NCsmitty

 

[06lover]

the cartridge that seperated was never fired before at all. it was a brand new winchester case.

 

[Slamfire]

if i put in a dud cartridge, it will chamber fine but manually extracting it is difficult. if i dry fire the dud cartridge, manually extracting it requires A LOT OF FORCE. i have to actually whack the handle with a piece of wood then the cartridge will eject and go flying.

Sounds to me like you have a tight chamber.

Trouble happens when there is a mechanical interference between the chamber walls and the cartridge. If the case is a cruch fit in the chamber you can expect the rim to be ripped off, it is unusual that the case is ripped in half but I guess bad things happen.

Find someone with headspace gages and try to determine if headspace is below gage minimum.

If the chamber is "tight" because of a worn chambering reamer, that is a different problem. If the chamber is not chrome plated a gunsmith can run a finishing reamer in the chamber and make it bigger.

 

[NCsmitty]

it was a brand new winchester case.

Sorry, i should have noticed that in your first post.

If factory ammo is manually running through without issue, and your reloaded ammo seems to be sticking when going into battery, maybe you'll have to screw your sizing die down an 1/8 turn at a time, and try it in your chamber.

It is difficult to try to guess where your problem manifests itself. It's seems that your chamber is grabbing your cases for a reason. Whether it's case preparation or a problem with your rifle's chamber, we can only speculate, until you let us know what you find.



NCsmitty