[nucleardog]

It's definitely not widespread, but it's also not just an urban legend. It's pretty well understood how to intentionally recreate the conditions for a slamfire.

The slamfires happen when the firing pin sticks forward in the bolt due to some sort of contamination which isn't anything unique to the SKS. It's probably more commonly associated with the SKS just because so many people pick them up covered in cosmoline (preservative wax) and just fail to clean them properly. You could probably also do it by slathering oil all over the firing pin and then repeatedly operating the gun in dusty and dirty conditions without cleaning, but really at that point it's kind of on you. (E.g., no slam fires here despite filling the thing with mud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL1gEqBk0s)

Take care of your tools and they'll take care of you. I've put many thousands of rounds through mine without issue, and I know a lot of people that own them because they're extremely cheap here and I've never run into anyone in meatspace that has experienced a slamfire. And even on the internet many people _warn_ about them, but relatively few claim to have ever experienced one considering how common the rifle is. That said, I still make sure mine is pointed downrange every time I chamber the first round from the magazine because it doesn't hurt to be extra cautious.

In all the rounds I've put through mine I've had exactly one failure. An old, corrosive surplus round manufactured in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It seems to have expanded a little more vigorously than the usual round or something and got stuck in the chamber. Still fired correctly and the extractor did its job and... ripped a chunk out of the lacquered casing trying to pull it out. Had to pound it out through the muzzle with a brass rod.

They're pretty much what you'd expect out of a soviet russian firearm. Overbuilt, rugged, reliable in hands of an untrained peasant, and somehow no two came off the line the same.