Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

So I took the SKS’ out again last night. Mucho better. I had one failure to fire out of thirty rounds. I believe it was due, not to the firing pin/bolt having coagulated grease, but rather to the trigger group still having gobs of grease enmeshed in the springs that drive the hammer and such. Simple solution – I’ll pull the trigger groups, boil them, then pour the boiling water and some dish soap into a coffee can, shake well, rinse, oil and all should be well.

Someone commented that the SKS seemed trouble prone and that their AR never hiccupped. First of all, this is the only trouble Ive had with the SKS and the only reason Im having it is because the guts of the gun are caked in cosmoline. Take an AR15 and dunk it in a vat of melted cosmoline, let it dry, and then try degreasing it…let me know how it shoots then. Or if it shoots. Once all the grease is out of this thing it should be back to the 110% reliability rate that these things are famous for.
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FAL seems back to normal. I cleaned everything, lightly oiled it and went to the range. I opened up the gas port to the point it would short stroke and then started closing it off until it fired reliably. Fired another 20 rounds through it after that point without a problem, so Im going to leave the gas regulator at that setting. However, Im going to see about swapping the gas regulator ring for one with some numbers on it to make it easier to keep track of what setting it is on. Also order a small spanner for the adjustments…easy enough to order since:
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The 15 FAL mags I ordered from DSA arrived today. They also included, at no charge, extra magazine springs. w00t. More importantly, there was a catalog in there so I can order up the little geegaws I want for the FAL. The mags, by the way, were $5 ea. and seem in good shape. Definitely used. About 1/2 of them look a bit tired but they should work fine…no dents or anything. Worth $5 ea? Oh yeah. I now have 27 mags for the FAL…a few more and I’ll call it good.
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In non-gun news, I went up to CostCo and purchased their MagLite combo pack. 3-cell ‘D’ MagLite, 2-cell ‘AA’ MiniMag and Duracell batteries for each light all in a package for $19.99. (GREAT Christmas gift, by the way) Picked up several and crossed them off my Enormous List O’ Things To Buy. Still need to pick up spare bulbs and filters, though.