[Deussne]

I just realized that this 5.45 Saiga has a free floating pin. I know my 308 and 12ga are spring loaded.
And wanted to see what everyone else has. Hopefully Im not the only one with one. I tried cycling some rounds though my magazine last night. I was pointing the rifle away from the house pointing at the ground. And when I tried to chamber a round I realized that my carrier is not going all the way forward, I took a closer look, took the carrier off and thats when I noticed that my pin is free floating and was sticking in the fire position. I then charged the handle back but this time just let it slam in to the front trinion. Which closed fully on the round. I did this on a full magazine. After I started picking up the rounds off the ground I noticed that my primers have a scratch mark on the primer from the firing pin hitting it before it would go back in to the bolt.. Thats kind of scrarry, what it if gets stuck in forward position with some gunk in there.... You know whats going to happen then.
So. I was thinking of taking the bolt apart and installing a spring.
Is that good or bad idea?

[AresI-X]

You could always take your bolt apart and make sure there's no junk in the firing pin channel. Better to play it safe.

Military AK's originally all had free floating firing pins. They're safer with spring loaded ones 'cause it guards against slamfiring. Not having seen the inside of a 5.45 Saiga bolt, I couldn't tell you how they're supposed to be. 5.45 military ammo has some HARD primers, so you might be OK with a floating pin as long as the pin doesn't get stuck.

[Spartacus]

IMHO, if the floating pin was really a problem, you'd be seeing reports of it all over the forums.
Just keep up with regular cleaning and it should be fine.

Edit: BTW, I have heard of some Ruger Mini 30's in 7.62 not firing because they aren't hitting the primer hard enough. I think it's true that the primers are pretty hard.

This post has been edited by Spartacus: 29 October 2009 - 01:57 PM

[JK-47]

yep floating firing pin is standard for russian rifles. They put spring loaded ones on the rifles that fire commerical cartridges that might have soft commerical primers, like on US made .223, .308, 12 ga etc... just keep the bolt and firing pin channel kinda clean and you'll be fine. all the 5.45 you'll find out there should have HARD russian milspec primers, military surplus, wolf, etc... and therefore not be succeptible to slamfire from a floating pin.

[TonyRumore]

No, I would not put a spring on the pin. I converted a .223 Saiga to 5.45x39 and was having a few light firing pin strikes. I removed the spring from the pin, and the problem went away.

Tony

[saigafreake]

If you want to dry run some mags and not worry just remove the firing pin thats what i do.

[Deussne]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I just wanted to see and make sure that im not the only one out there with the free floating pin.
Im not going to put a spring. An FYI I clean the rifle after every time that I shoot it. However I usually do not take apart the bolt but only put some oil in Pin hole.

[JK-47]

Deussne, on 29 October 2009 - 05:19 PM, said:

However I usually do not take apart the bolt but only put some oil in Pin hole.

Oil + dirty firing pin channel = gunk and potential problems. If you don't want to break the bolt head down every so often, at least blast it clean with one of the aerosol gun cleaners, like gunscrubber, breakfree CLP in a spray can, even automotive break cleaner can disolve out gunk. Then oil as usual.

[ol'G]

I once put some Hoppes cleaner down the firing pin on the bolt of my SKS. I kept working it and junk keep oozing out. When I went back to the bolt later, the firing pin was stuck and I had to take the bolt apart to clean it. I had a thick layer of brown gunk that nearly glued the pin in place. I dumped the Hoppes down the firing pin hole in the bolt to avoid possible slam fires. If I would have put the bolt back in, I would have likely had them.

I'd be careful about putting solvent/cleaners down the firing pin hole in the bolt. Periodically it's a good idea to disassemble/strip the bolts and clean them.

This post has been edited by ol'G: 01 November 2009 - 10:39 PM

[Deussne]

Ugh just came back from the range.. And the same thing is happening. I keep getting double taps. I cleaned everything, even swapped the trigger group just to make sure thats not what causing this. Still no luck. Im getting frustrated with the issue. What can I do to fix it? Im about to put a spring in it.

[nalioth]

Deussne, on 08 November 2009 - 03:09 PM, said:

Ugh just came back from the range.. And the same thing is happening. I keep getting double taps. I cleaned everything, even swapped the trigger group just to make sure thats not what causing this. Still no luck. Im getting frustrated with the issue. What can I do to fix it? Im about to put a spring in it.

I suggest you take it to a knowledgable 'smith.

If it was "double tapping" due to a blocked firing pin channel, it'd 'full auto runaway', not 'two at a time'.

The trigger group is usually the issue in most "my AK double taps" problems.

[Deussne]

Well I had two different trigger groups in this gun. One of which was bought new (1st one) the second one is from my other saiga which worked for me without any incident for the longest time, I thought I would try that and see if it is the trigger group.. It would be hard to imagine that two sepparate trigger groups would cause the same issue with one of them being tested on another saiga for about 1/2 a year.
I still think it is a pin being stuck in forward position. Did I mention that I am using wolf ammo.

[nalioth]

Deussne, on 08 November 2009 - 06:47 PM, said:

Well I had two different trigger groups in this gun. One of which was bought new (1st one) the second one is from my other saiga which worked for me without any incident for the longest time, I thought I would try that and see if it is the trigger group.. It would be hard to imagine that two sepparate trigger groups would cause the same issue with one of them being tested on another saiga for about 1/2 a year.
I still think it is a pin being stuck in forward position. Did I mention that I am using wolf ammo.

If for some strange reason your axis holes are slightly off, it wouldn't matter what FCG you used.

[Deussne]

Well I agree.. Do you think some gunsmith in a middle of nowhere michigan will be able to test and figure out if my axis hole location is correct?? LOL
I checked it to my .308 and 12ga saigas they are the same distance from center to center(pins), from bottom of reciever to center of hammer and trigger pin. (using caliper) Soo..

I got another trigger group to test, I have a red star arms adjustable one to test tomorrow see it it does the same thing.

[Rhodes1968]

ol, on 01 November 2009 - 09:37 PM, said:

I once put some Hoppes cleaner down the firing pin on the bolt of my SKS. I kept working it and junk keep oozing out. When I went back to the bolt later, the firing pin was stuck and I had to take the bolt apart to clean it. I had a thick layer of brown gunk that nearly glued the pin in place. I dumped the Hoppes down the firing pin hole in the bolt to avoid possible slam fires. If I would have put the bolt back in, I would have likely had them.

I'd be careful about putting solvent/cleaners down the firing pin hole in the bolt. Periodically it's a good idea to disassemble/strip the bolts and clean them.

SKS have a problem with pin anyway and there are kits to add a spring which work fine. The AK pin shouldn't be an issue but I likewise spray carb cleaner into the slot and after it drys lube it. If you had some cosmoline on that pin that may have been what was coming out. Now that could really gunk it up badly.

[Deussne]

I forgot to update you guys on this. It must have been some gunk in the pin channel. It works like a charm now.