LAST EDITED ON Apr-21-17 AT 01:05 PM (EDT)
 
>>It is my understanding that Simonov designed the SKS with a
>>spring-loaded firing pin but the arsenal people thought it was too
>>complicated and substituted a cone-shaped pin going into a cone-shaped
>>hole -- which can cause the firing pin to lock even if it isn't dirty.

I guess whoever specced that design change never encountered a Morse taper before. Which is odd, if you think about it, since they're everywhere in machine shops.

>>Anyway a spring-loaded firing pin upgrade is available.
>
>I may have to track one of those down. It seems a more sensible user
>modification than, say, adding the capability to take AK magazines.

I actually revisited this post because I have an update: I just mailed my SKS bolt off to a chap in Texas to be re-educated. Given how heavily the rifle was gunked up with cosmoline* when I got it, I would have had a hard time ever quite trusting the non-spring firing pin (and, indeed, when I took the bolt out of the rifle I found that the pin was pretty firmly stuck forward). Sending it in for this mod has the added side benefit that it'll be even more thoroughly cleaned.

--G.
* or the Commie equivalent; a joke somehow relating cosmoline and the Komsomol is hovering just out of my reach
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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