(Vanity) Yugoslav type 59 SKS - Cleaning kit stuck in the stock!

[jboot]

OK, fellow FReepers, I've got a question. I recently purchased a Yugoslav Type 59 SKS. This is the original Yugo SKS, nearly a carbon copy of the Soviet weapon, not the later 59/66 with an integral grenade launcher. It's been around the block many, many times, but it still shoots as good as an SKS can be expected to shoot (which is to say just OK). I am planning on doing a full conservation project with it, because it has lots of nice cartouches and rack numbers. Moreover, it was finished with what appears to be dark brown shoe polish! Apparently such rough-and-ready finishes are common on Eastern Bloc guns.

But none of that is the issue.

What is wrong is that it *appears* that the cap of an old cleaning kit is stuck in the stock. If you look into the hole in the butt you can see a concave, featureless steel hemisphere about 3 inches down in the hole. It is wedged tight and I can't move it either out or in. It bugs me because it doesn't look like any SKS "pill" cleaning kit cap that I've ever seen. I am concerned that this thing isn't part of a cleaning kit at all, but might be some kind of "follower" or baffle to entrap the spring. I am unwilling to damage the part on the outside chance that it is correct.

Has anyone ever worked on one of these SKS's and have any experience with this? Could this thing be a correct part? I'd post a photo, but I haven't taken any yet...

[JRandomFreeper]

I just popped the cleaning kit out of mine (ouch, got finger bit, yet again). There is no kind of cap over the spring. Just the raw end of the spring.

/johnny

[tumblindice]

” .. it was finished with what appears to be dark brown shoe polish!”

Does it smell bad?

Maybe your spring is sprung. Mine pops right out.

[Timber Rattler]

I believe that the answer is on page 2 here:

Survivor's SKS boards

Use JB weld to glue a bolt to the head of the kit, after it hardens pull the kit out. Clean kit & bolt with alcohol before applying the JB weld.

[jboot]

I’ve never seen or heard of an SKS with a cleaning kit follower. Then again, I haven’t seen everything. This thing just looks odd enough to make me err on the side of caution.

[jboot]

It has an "organic" smell, not bad exactly, but not good either. It has a distinctive feel, too-I'd call it "clammy". It was never cosmolined as far as I can tell. I've read that the Yugo army issued these rifles unfinished and it was up to the soldier to finish them himself. Some were rubbed with oil or grease, some were painted and some were daubed with boot polish. It depended on the unit.

I suspect that the spring is shot. I have a couple spares.

[jboot]

Thanks! I saw that thread. That will work...and drilling and tapping it would work even better. I don’t need the stuck part if it is just the cap off an old kit. I have the correct Yugo pill kit ready to drop in.

[tumblindice]

Mine leeched cosmoline even after being steam-cleaned.
I’ve heard of guys running them through the dishwasher: they’re called `bachelors.’ ;)

[tumblindice]

And I got three of those Chinese magazine vests that the Rooskies favored in Afghanistan (and the NVA/VC) for their AK mags, green with neck loop, tied in the back.
Taking them out of the plastic and smelling that musty old, rank canvas odor—that’s the smell of communism, my friend.

[archy]

Mine leeched cosmoline even after being steam-cleaned. I’ve heard of guys running them through the dishwasher: they’re called `bachelors.’ ;)

Spray oven cleaner and the high-pressure hose at a carwash works pretty well too. Just don't hit the hot wax button.

I used to clean Eastern European handguns [WWI and WWII German and Czech, some Hungarian and Polish stuff on occasion] the same way, since doing it at home in boiling water drove my cats crazy. It turned out that the parrafin-like Euro packing grease used instead of good old USA cosmoline was fish oil based....

[Peet]

It turned out that the parrafin-like Euro packing grease used instead of good old USA cosmoline was fish oil based....

---

*chuckle* That reminds me of a story I read on the “Strange Foreign Objects in Dog Feces” website.

Guy drained his VW Beetle (the REAL beetle, not that modern _thing_) of transmission oil. It smelled so bad he went in to wash his hands and when he got back outside all the oil was gone. He figured out his dog drank it all up when the oil kicked in and the poor dog had the sh*ts for days. Turned out the early bugs used whale oil. It smelled aweful after years in service but the dog loved it even if his stomach didn’t.

[Sarajevo]

Taking them out of the plastic and smelling that musty old, rank canvas odor—that’s the smell of communism, my friend.

You got yours in plastic? I had to chase down Iraqi's for mine, and let me tell ya', those goat-skinners can run fast!

[Tainan]

a very funny gun thread.

[Squantos]

Get 5 gallons of simple green cleaner an a pvc tube the rifle will fit in . Fill it up an put the pipe on a rock tumbler motor for a week.

Take the rifle out dump the simple green an cosmoline soup.

Clean out an dry the pvc tube.

Put the clean dry gun back in the tube an fill with rice.

Seal tge tube up tight an leave in a warm place for a week.

Take out the rifle an nothing should be stuck that isn’t screwed glued or tattooed on......:o)

Reuse the rice as desicant or for next office casserole dish.......

If tge rice an rifle come out as one concrete block drop off second floor balcony to free the rifle.....

Some adjustment to this process may be needed but it does work very well for old sino soviet toys.

Stay safe....

[Squantos]

Bump to 14....:o)

[Tijeras_Slim]

Putting it on an anthill works too.

[Squantos]

Drought conditions here make that a good choice,....lol. P

[hiredhand]

Shine a light INTO the hole in the stock. IF what you're looking at which is STUCK has a hole in it, it's probably the TOP off of a cleaning capsule. If it doesn't, then it's part of the spring loaded mechanism that keeps the cleaning kit snug up against the butt plate hatch.

I don't think you could go wrong by using copious amounts of simple green, or hot water for that matter.

A word of warning about hot water though... BOILING water can raise the grain permanently and SIGNIFICANTLY. It's not a huge deal because sand paper makes it "all better" again.

If it were me, I'd stand the rifle straight up... muzzle end on the floor and pour a light oil (Kroil, Marvel Mystery Oil, 3-in-One) into the hole until it well covers the stuck piece.

On a related note.... we cleaned our Yugo M59/66s with boiling water and dish soap and only raised the grain on the gas tube wood cover of one of them. We "thought" we had all the grease OUT of them, but if you leave one laying in the sun, or in a hot vehicle, it STILL weeps cosmoline. :-)

[hiredhand]

Simple Green is AWESOME stuff. :-) My little brother drank it once and it turned his teeth green and gave him the shits for three days! Momma thought he ate rat poison. It was quite a scene! He was “about” three at the time and he’s in his thirties today. If we use it to clean something, he STILL remembers that it tastes BAD. LOL! :-)

[jboot]

Well FReepers, thank you all very much. The cap is out, and yes, it was just a cleaning kit cap. Behind it was a wadded-up mass of green gabardine or similar uniform cloth. It looks to me that some Combloc soldier stuffed his cleaning patch material into the tube and then wedged the cleaning pill kit in upside down behind it.

I got it loose by drilling a 7/32 hole in it, tapping it 1/4-20, threading in a long bolt and pulling it out. It took some doing. Tito apparently tried to hammer it in pretty smartly.

Thanks again, all!