Hatfield’s, McCoy’s and SKS Rifles

Hatfield’s, McCoy’s and SKS Rifles

Lily, Kentucky – -(AmmoLand.com)- This week I have had a experience. One of the legendary Hatfield family came to my shop for help. This is one of the famous feuding families of this area. Years ago it was most likely shotguns, rifles, hand guns. This time it is a SKS in a synthetic stock. When the gun fires it is jammed shut. Can’t extract the shell. I was told that no one could fix it at the local gun shop. They referred it to me. I thanked the gun owner for the challenge.

Once I got the gun open I saw that the bolt was very hard to open, I made a mental note and kept on going. The chamber looked very dirty so I polished it out and test fired the gun. The bolt was jammed shut. Getting the bolt open I find jam marks on the cartridge case. So I go back and re polish the chamber. I repeated this several times going deeper and deeper until I got a partial result.

The bolt would partially extract the shell casing and then slam back shut on the empty. Questioning the bolt I took it apart and reset everything.

After doing all this and not having success I started thinking outside the box. Maybe the recoil system was wrong. I then started to rebalance the recoil system. I made an adjustment and reassembled the gun and test fired. I did this over and over again

My first success was a two to three round successful burst, but the bolt would not lock in the rearward position, I carefully kept on going and at last I had a perfect three round run and the bold locked back on a empty magazine.

McCoy family watch out this SKS is back in business.

About Budd “Gun Doc” Gardstein:
Budd’s Gunsmith Shop is the only full service shop in Southeastern and Central Kentucky.

Budd is a gunsmith that works on all types of guns.

Budd’s Gun Smith Shop is an experienced restoration shop specializing in the repair of fire and flood damaged firearms.

Budd will take on many jobs others wont touch give him a call.

Got a gun repair question? Email Budd and see what he thinks.

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