Thread: Ruger Mini30

Picked up a Ruger mini30 off T/M a few weeks ago. In good condition and appears not to have been used much or the owner was a hell of a lot nicer with his gear than I am!!
Just running the Chinese military ball ammo through it and notice it missfires say 1 in 30 shots. Puts a good dent in the primer and when I re insert the round it always fires the second time. Don`t think I had ever had a missfire with a SKS or AK. Is this just normal with the mini30 and exmilitary ammo???
On the up side it goes auto for a couple of shots now and then just to make life interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

could be hard primers on the mill stuff,

first port of call is a take down and clean and a good chamber clean. which takes all of ten min luckely
the 6.8 I used was utterly reliable but that was with hornady sporting rounds

You're lucky, My Baikal misfires 1/5 with that dirty Chinese stuff.

Don't know if this is any help, (from an article I read) apparently original Soviet chamber specs are slightly larger than American that effects head space.

I also understand Mini 30 has a .308 groove and soviet ammo is .311

Originally Posted by Chupacabra

You're lucky, My Baikal misfires 1/5 with that dirty Chinese stuff.

Don't know if this is any help, (from an article I read) apparently original Soviet chamber specs are slightly larger than American that effects head space.

I also understand Mini 30 has a .308 groove and soviet ammo is .311

Yep thats correct on the .308 & .311. The U.S made ammo is too lose for the likes of the SKS & AK type rifles and probably the Baikal as well, and pretty tight the other way round.

Originally Posted by Bill999

could be hard primers on the mill stuff,

first port of call is a take down and clean and a good chamber clean. which takes all of ten min luckely
the 6.8 I used was utterly reliable but that was with hornady sporting rounds

So far I have put it down to a hard military primer issue. As for cleaning it gets the jug of boiling water down the barrel trick and then cleaned and olied every time its shot. I don`t trust Communist area ammo to be NoN corrosive as stamped on the box.
Missfires seem only to occure on the Chinese/Norinco stuff and so far the Chec tracer fires off every time but Im a little careful where I fire that stuff.

I was more meaning dis assemble the bolt and fireing pin to see if its got crud or preservitive greese in it.

could it be that the 311 projectile is preventing the occasional round from seating home in the chamber by the bolt and the fireing pin gives it just a nuge forward?

are the primer strikes on the Fail to fires lighter than the usual?

Could be a cartridge headspace issue. IIRC their was an article in NZ Guns many moons ago where a guy was having trouble with his CZ527 and US made ammo and determined it to be a head space issue.

Originally Posted by Beavis

Could be a cartridge headspace issue. IIRC their was an article in NZ Guns many moons ago where a guy was having trouble with his CZ527 and US made ammo and determined it to be a head space issue.

yip issue #104 Jan/Feb 2008 with the Ruger Alaskan on the cover.

I have a mini 30 and i only fire that ammo in it after i have pulled , necked down and loaded 308 projectiles , the best one i have used is the hornady 125gr. regardless you will not get that good a groups. a handload of the hornady and brass case is an excellent round in my rifle.

Thanks Bill, Will pull out the bolt and give it a clean.
PTK : Shoots about a cigeret packet group at 100mts & is fine for what Im doing with it, Wallabys, Goats and plinking. As they say the worlds most expensive ``PLINKER``.

Thanks guys.

Is the Chinese ammo steel cased, if so not good for mini 30/14 extractors

Originally Posted by lloydcj

Is the Chinese ammo steel cased, if so not good for mini 30/14 extractors

Yuup, from memory I think even the projectiles are steel with a wash.

My mini 14 doesn't like steel case. About 1 in 20 fail to extract.

Originally Posted by Recoil

My mini 14 doesn't like steel case. About 1 in 20 fail to extract.

As yet have not had a single extraction issue with the Mini 30 just fussy on firing the ex eastern block / commi steel cased ammo. That said I haven`t tried the brass cassed U.S stuff. Still have a case of the steel stuff to work my way through.