Help with Saiga bolt assembly

[bensdad]

So this friend of mine was out shooting his Saiga this morning. His name is, um, Kensdad. Yeah, that's it, Kensdad. Anyway, he was cleaning it when he got home, and the firing pin seemed REALLY sticky. So he popped it out by knocking the retaining pin out 1/4 in. When he put it back together, the firing pin was moving freely in the channel. No spring tension. Did he loose a spring? Was he supposed to lock something in place before removing the firing pin? He messed up, and he's really sorry. But now he needs your help. Also, he can't find any missing parts, but he swears he'll keep looking. He also swears that if you nurse him through this he'll be nice to kittens and never forget his dad's birthday again. If you can help him just explain it to me and I'll pass the information along.

[Pezhead]

Sorry can't help on this one. But I know um someone that's had um problems with other items.
Or as we say at some just left it for me.

[Stradawhovious]

Sorry can't help on this one. But I know um someone that's had um problems with other items.

Is his name Kezhead?

[Pezhead]

Sorry can't help on this one. But I know um someone that's had um problems with other items.

Is his name Kezhead?

Um yep that's it. I should have a clarified that. Thank you.

[45usp45]

Could be the firing pin is free floating.

[bensdad]

Could be the firing pin is free floating.

I checked it against my other Saiga (223). The .223 is loaded. Based on that, I'm assuming the 7.62 is supposed to be as well. If I lost a spring, I cerainly don't know how. The FP fell out. It didn't shoot out. I'm afraid there might be some sort of Russian trick to it.

[TabulaRasa]

The firing pin is free floating. If you just cycle ammo through the gun by running the bolt (not firing) you may notice little dents in the primers. A few AK's had spring loaded firing pins, Saigas ain't one of them.

[Squib Joe]

The AK-47 has a free-floating firing pin unless a spring has been installed by a lawyer. Millions upon millions of these guns have done just fine without them.

I've seen Saiga rifle variants with and without the springs, so I'm guessing it was never there to begin with.

[bensdad]

Awsome. Thanks guys. I really appreciate my buddy really appreciates it!

[plblark]

How's Ken's ankle doing?

[vwj1987]

My saiga 7.62 has a free floating firing pin

[bensdad]

How's Ken's ankle doing?

He's fine. His pride was hurt worse than his ankle. Thanks for askin'.

[Bessy]

The AK-47 has a free-floating firing pin unless a spring has been installed by a lawyer. Millions upon millions of these guns have done just fine without them.

I've seen Saiga rifle variants with and without the springs, so I'm guessing it was never there to begin with.

An ak with a free floating firing pin has the potential set off a round before fully in battery when fed commercial ammo with soft primers. The same way the garand/m14 does (which happens once every blue moon). Very early ak's had a firing pin spring, It was later removed as it was considered unnecessary when used with military ammo. Unless you are feeding your gun some super soft federal primers I wouldn't worry about it. The sks on the other hand... that bastard will slam fire.

[Squib Joe]

Very early ak's had a firing pin spring, It was later removed as it was considered unnecessary when used with military ammo.

Which early AK? The Type 1?

[Bessy]

Very early ak's had a firing pin spring, It was later removed as it was considered unnecessary when used with military ammo.

Which early AK? The Type 1?

The very early ones, before they switched over to the (type 2) milled receivers (that's right the first ak's were stamped not milled *GASP*.. they switched to milled only after the they could make the stamped receivers work, then back to stamped with the akm). We are talking early run field test guns here. The early sks's also had springs I think, I remember reading that somewhere but I don't remember where. I'm not sure if very many of the type1 guns actually had the spring or, if it was only used during development. I'd have to dig out my ak book.

Considering at this point they were running the sks without a spring, I thought it was very weird they would have even included it in the design, since the sks firing pin is much heaver, and would be more prone to a slam-fire then the an ak would be.