S K S bolt fitment

[lead collector]

Hello,

Not sure why gun bolts get lost but they seem to. So here we go into another fixer-up-er deal.

So I purchased this Late production, Pinned barrel SKS off of a guy last week, along with a little cheap surplus ammo.

Originally the gun was brought to me to figure out what was wrong with it. Since I had owned one in the early 90's and knew a little bit about them, I quickly field striped it, and discovered that the bolt was missing along with the gas piston. The bolt carrier was in place, just no bolt.

Several months go by, and the owner made no attempt to get me any money for parts, or bring me the parts to fix. So I asked if this rifle was for sale. A reasonable price was agreed on, and it became my problem.
I have a Chinese made bolt, in route, and have the gas piston already.
I think the bolt will be here, late in the week, if the USPS can keep up their end of the deal..

So my question is, have any of you guys fit one of these bolts, and or checked the head space? I dont know if the tape on the rim deal will work on this one or not. Maybe a feeler gauge?
I got lucky on an old Mosin Nagant a few years back. I bought a used bolt , stayed with the same arsenal.
It went in the gun, but was tight. So I checked it, with several brands of new ammo. Fitment was a bit tight, but I was able to lap the chamber a bit, and get a couple thousandths of clearance that I needed.
of clearance. Lapping was done with a new steel case, broken down, and a rod threaded into the head if the case, then some valve lapping compound applied and turning the case slowly in my drill. The chamber was cleaned and checked very often, until the right fit was reached.
I used some .001 thick Stainless steel shim tape on the rim until I got it where I wanted it.
Please dont flame me for my black smith ways, they have worked in the past..
I never claimed to be a gun smith, just a careful tinkerer.
Any ideas on the SKS would be helpful. Hope to get lucky again, on this project.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Well, you don't have the bolt yet, so speculation is probably premature. It may fit and work just fine. In fact, I believe that it is much more likely to just be a drop in than was your Mosin Nagant bolt. I replaced a missing bolt in a 1944 MN that was given to me with one ordered from GPC, and it worked perfectly. In the case of a semi-auto like the SKS, if the bolt will seat properly in the receiver and slide back and forth, I'd say that the recoil spring will put enough tension on it in the forward position to give good enough head space. I have a couple myself, so don't take this wrong, but they're pretty crudely made when compared to some rifles and the tolerances are pretty loose anyway.
That makes the whole assembly pretty forgiving. Where I ran into some problems was replacing parts in trigger groups. The information I've read said that the Chinese built the main parts of the gun in Norinco or Polytech factories, but the smaller parts were farmed out to many smaller shops, some no larger than a cottage industry. When I worked on them it seemed like the smaller the part was the more likely one was to have trouble with it, and sometimes you needed to have 5 or 6 parts to find one that would work. But in your case, I don't believe you'll have a problem.

DG

[Gtek]

Putting a round or even better several rounds of different origin on bolt face and chamber. With bolt down in battery laying in seated forward of shoulder, (thumb and index) if it does not move more than about .010" go get it hot. Or - find someone with headspace gauges of a Go and No-Go and one step farther a dial indicator on bolt tail with Go in chamber for exact.

[lead collector]

Thank you guys for the replies to my question. I was surprised to find my bolt in the Mail box last night, when I got home.

So here is what I dd. I stripped the bolt, and put the bolt in the rifle. Placed a round in the chamber, and eased the bolt shut, and it went into battery. Felt pretty normal, so I opened up the bolt, and knocked out the round, and tried another brand of ammo.
Same thing, all the way shut, with no resistance. So now to try and measure the head space.
I have some stainless shim tape, from the printing, and Die cutting industry. I attached a piece of this to the head of a new round, and tried it in the gun.
It went in, but offered a bit more resistance, so a second layer was added. No go, until I bumped the bolt handle with my hand. So a new round was selected, and three layers added, for a total of about .006. No go at all, even after I bumped it with my hand. So I must have about .004 clearance give or take a bit.
I reassembled the bolt, and dropped a round in that I had removed the powder and bullet from, and fired the primer off.
So far everything looks good. I am going to try and go to a buddy's shop, and size a few pieces of range pick up brass cases, with the plan of loading and firing a reduced load with a Cast lead bullet. I would rather have and issue with a light load, than a full charge.
So long story short, I think I am going to be ok with this thing. Chinese mil-spec parts must be pretty accurately made is all I can say.
Thanks again for the advise!
LC