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NOT a good day as Commander Zero.

Headed out to the range to do a little shooting. Figured I’d take the FAL and the new SKS for a spin. Its about 25 degrees, Im nice and warm in my Flectar field jacket w/ liner, all is good. Load the SKS, safety off, pull the trigger..

Click.

Try again.

Click.

I thought I had degreased these things pretty well, however, I shot them over the summer and they worked fine. No they dont work so fine. It appears the firing pin channel was full of cosmoline/grease that had the consistency of candle wax due to the cold. Grrrrr. Got the other SKS, the one I keep in the truck for emergencies, and tried it… click. Frak! Ok, stomp home from the range in a foul mood. No one in town carries stoddard solvent….typical. Say screw it and just pulled the trigger group, bolt carrier, bollt assy, dust cover and heaved ’em into a pot of boiling water for a half hour. Then hunted the interweb for bolt disassembly instructions. Pounded the freaking retaining pin out of both bolts, cleaned the firing pin channels out with a q-tip, hosed em out with some carb cleaner and then lubed em lightly with some tetralube. I’m gonna go function test them shortly.

Then, not wanting to be left out, the FAL started acting wierd. It would fire, extract, chamber a round but the hammer wouldnt get cocked from the bolt cycling…wtf??? Remove magazine and work bolt manually, no problem. I suspect this has something to do with the magazine…maybe feed lips bent and theyre rubbing against the bolt retarding its rearward movement. It isnt the adjustable gas system since I havent screwed with it since I shot it in August. Will detail strip, clean and oil the thing and then try some different mags as well as opening up the gas system completely and then slowly closing it to find the optimal setting.

All in all, an utterly craptacular day at the range….but its a good thing I learned about this now and not at a terribly inopportune time.

25 thoughts on “”

  3. As I understand it, sometimes you do need to open the FAL’s gas port another notch in cold weather extremes. I wouldn’t really call 25F “extreme”, though, so that’s probably not relevant. What kind of grease do you use?

  4. Damn, what a mess. I haven’t shot any of my rifles in weather THAT cold, so I can’t compare. I figured you would’ve cleaned the SKS a little more thorougly in the initial teardown/inspection though?

  5. We got your postcard today! Tres cool. The Cmdr was more excited about it than the pile of Christmas cards that came with it. šŸ™‚

  7. Have you any idea how hard it is to remove cosmoline from every nook and cranny of a firearm? Completely?

    No? Let me put it in terms you’d relate to: Dip up to her neck in warm vaseline. Stir well. Remove from tub of vaseline. Now,. using a towel and some carb cleaner completely degrease every part of her completely.

    See? Difficult.

  10. I’ve never gotten a cosmoline packed firearm, so I cannot relate.

    I can come up with way better things to do with Chels, but thanks for the tip. šŸ˜‰

  11. Exactly! Prepare in times of plenty and luxury so that when times of need do come around, you’re all set. You remind me of my husband, boiling his components. hee hee.

  12. Had the same problem with Cosmoline. My solution was to take it down to an auto repair place and use their parts washer: it has a tank of solvent (half of a 50-gallon drum) with a pump and hose.

    Another method that works pretty well: find a car wash that has a hot pressure wand. Your boiling method indicates that you’re perfectly aware that if you get the metal hot enough, the water vaporizes off without having time to oxidize the metal.

    Anyhow, worked for me.

    But when I think of your problems, I think of Stalingrad. Imagine their problems.

    Makes me wonder if a bi-annual clean-and-change-lubricants date for the weapons might be a good idea, with one lube job for winter and another for summer.

  14. Some people change lubes in the winter. I’d prefer a lube thats suitable for both. The dry lubes such as moly work quite well for this application, I hear.

  15. FYI: Stoddard Solvent is very very very similar to mineral spirits paint thinner. I believe the flash point of the thinner is a bit higher than stoddard solvent.

    Also, kerosene is also very closely related. For that matter, diesel fuel would work too.

    All three would be suitable de-cosmolin-ing solvents.

    to wit:

    Stoddard solvent is a colorless, flammable liquid that smells and tastes like kerosene. It will turn into a vapor at temperatures of 150ā€“200 Ā° C.

    Stoddard solvent is a petroleum mixture that is also known as dry cleaning safety solvent, petroleum solvent, and varnoline; its registered trade names are Texsolve SĀ® and Varsol 1Ā®. It is a chemical mixture that is similar to white spirits.

    Stoddard solvent is used as a paint thinner; in some types of photocopier toners, printing inks, and adhesives; as a dry cleaning solvent; and as a general cleaner and degreaser.

    Taken from: http://www.temarry.com/chemicals/stoddard_solvent.htm

    And for the stoddard solvent ~= mineral spirits: http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_268000.html

    I hope you get it sorted out!

  23. How far was your FAL ejecting brass this summer? Following the British guidelines, I closed my gas system another 2 clicks after achieving satisfactory functioning and my brass ejected roughly 15 feet away during the summer. When I shot it last winter, my FAL still functioned but the brass was ejecting less than three feet away. From what I have read, the initial FAL failures in the US Army cold weather testing was what lead to the US adoption of the M-14. They changed the gas system to improve cold weather functioning, so that might be another hint to try turning down the gas. I use Tetra grease BTW for my FAL’s…

  24. Yeah, I guess I was kind of avoiding comment on that. Kinda dumb, eh?

    I wonder if they have a full fledged laboratory of taste testers of toxic chemicals šŸ˜‰

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