I went to the firing range yesterday and put a few hundred rounds through the SKS. I noticed however that every 50 or so rounds, the retaining pin that holds the receiver cover (compressing the bolt spring) would wiggle out of its hole about 1/4 of the way and would need to be pushed back in.
What’s the best thing to do here? I can’t have that pin being loose like this any longer. Should I just get a replacement pin? Is there something I can use to tighten the fit that would not at the same time make it more difficult to remove the pin?
My BIL has an SKS [nice gun] and he has complained about a similar problem, I do not know the factual answer to this question, however, I do know he has a toolbox just for that carbine and he is replacing parts decently often.
There’s something wrong with your rifle. The “pin” you are talking about is AKA the takedown lever and it should require rotation before it can be moved out at all. It should also be captive to the receiver itself. Something is awry and I suspect the culprit is the non-standard receiver cover on your SKS.
Scumpup is absolutely correct. The takedown lever should have to be rotated 90 degrees to vertical before it will come out, and then it should not come out all the way. SKS’ vary quite a bit in quality, as they were made by several different manufacturers. I’ve run thousands of rounds through mine with no problems.
Argent bought a Yugo SKS that the previous owner had done some diddling on. His standard receiver cover had been replaced by an aftermarket model with an integral scope mounting rail. When the original owner did that is where the problems began, IMO. IIRC, some of those aftermarket covers come with their own retaining pin which may or may not function within specs for the original part. Another possibility, which I can’t check right now as I am at work, is to see what the takedown lever latches to when you rotate it to the locked position. It is, I suspect, the receiver cover. **Argent’s ** receiver cover may not allow the lever to latch correctly. Or, it may be one of the shoddy aluminum ones and the steel takedown lever hogged out its seat.
You are wrong about that. The dimple keeps the lever from rotating to the the unlatched position. It has nothing to do with whether the lever/pin moves laterally in and out.
What I meant was, when the lever is in the horizontal position, facing right, it is seated in the dimple which is on the receiver itself. When it works its way out during the course of shooting, it is doing just as masterofnone said, rotating upwards as it comes out.
Then we are back to it not latching. When it is rotated into the latched position, it shouldn’t be able to move at all laterally. Please make sure that is the case before we go any further. If that is good, then we can move on to check other possibilities.
If the pin does stay firmly in place laterally when latched and the problem is that it rotates into the unlatched position while you are shooting, the problem may be that the lever is bent slightly outwards so that it isn’t firmly clicking into the dimple when you rotate it into place. Perhaps somebody bent it out of spec trying to unlatch it by prying at it with a screwdriver. If that is the case, you may be able to fix things just by CAREFULLY bending it back a TINY bit. It only has to seat firmly enough to prevent rotation. Don’t get crazy when bending it.
That’s it. It is stuck in there just fine when seated in the dimple and cannot move laterally at all. When I unlatched it and then rotated it forward again, it did not “click” right into the dimple as it should have. I had to give it a little extra push to get it seated in there. So it seems that it was indeed bent out of shape somehow, and I will slightly bend it back as you suggest.