Hey everybody, I’m new to the forum and new to SKS’s in general.
I recently purchased a Yugo M59/66. Love the rifle, it’s an absolute beauty. Got it for a very fair price too. Anyways, I’ve been reading about the SKS for a while, so naturally, the first thing I did was dissemble the bolt assembly to clean it out. I took apart the bolt assembly, which was tough considering how hard it is to punch the retainer pin out.
I disassembled the bolt, cleaned it really well, then I went to assemble it back together again. That’s when disaster happened: while hammering the retainer back in, I chipped the retainer pin head as I was hitting it. The retainer pin went back in, and it holds the firing pin just fine, but now the part of the retainer pin that covers the bottom of the extractor is broken.
Obviously I immediately searched online for a replacement retainer pin for the Yugo M59/66. Couldn’t find any replacements. I perused forums for hours and came to the conclusion that because the Yugo bolt assembly retainer pin is different from all other SKS retainer pins, it’s extremely hard to find.
Called a gunsmith and he said he could fabricate the part, but he said it would be a 200$ job. Worst case scenario I will have him do it. However, I would like to avoid that if possible. I found an old forum from 2006 on here where someone had the same issue I did: broken head on the Yugo retainer pin. Murray answered the forum stating that the older Russian SKS’s did not even have anything covering the extractor, interestingly enough. Do any of you guys think it would be just fine to use it with the chipped retainer pin and an exposed extractor? The bolt carrier covers the extractor, but I will get it fixed properly if it could cause further damage to my gun, or if it’s in unsafe.
Any feedback helps. Thanks!