Mythbusters vs. SKS rifle firing pins

[Floyd]

Most Russian gun owners here know about the free floating firing pin in the SKS rifle. One of the many charms of owning a war surplus rifle built during WWII.

Anyway, the myth (from season 7) claimed that Russian mobsters had a few loaded SKS rifles in the back of their car, along with a monster audio system with tons of bass. The claim was that the sub woofers caused the free floating firing pin to ping the primer on the chambered round and fire one of the guns.

Long story short: The many efforts to make the sub woofer trigger the blanks the team used failed, but the second part of the myth claiming that an explosion could produce a similar firing did work.

What was funny about the final test was that the four SKS rifles were placed in a ring around a C4 charge, which was detonated for the experiment. All of the rifles survived with the mechanisms in working order! Only one of the 4 chambered blanks fired, thus making this a 'plausible' situation.  

[Fresnel]

It takes a LOT to make a free-floating firing pin touch off a round. The most obvious indication of this fact is that the violent action of smashing the bolt forward after firing a round throws the firing pin into the primer, yet nearly always fails to fire it. If you ever eject an unfired round from an AR, it'll have a light strike mark on the primer.  

[Hans Reiker]

That episode pissed me off, they should have given the carbines to me, rather than beat the hell out of them. My SKS is the Type 56 Chinese model, have to take care in cleaning the bolt. The last thing you need to happen is for the firing pin to stick and set off a slam fire.

On a side note, ******** California.  

[OberFeldwebel]

Fresnel

It takes a LOT to make a free-floating firing pin touch off a round. The most obvious indication of this fact is that the violent action of smashing the bolt forward after firing a round throws the firing pin into the primer, yet nearly always fails to fire it. If you ever eject an unfired round from an AR, it'll have a light strike mark on the primer.

Yeah, it takes something like a hammer striking it into the firing pin to set it off.  

[Orkronos]

Yes, in Russia instead of a safety, you get a free floating firing pin.