Ruger mini 30- who shoots surplus ammo thru theirs???

bfiles

bfiles

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I am on the limb about buying a Ruger mini 30, does anyone have one and shoot the surplus ammo thru theirs with little to no ill effect???

I know a wolff spring change might be benefical but anything else???

Thanks guys.
 
Whe I had mine it shot a lot of surplus ammo threw it. Russian, Romanian and ecverthing else. Had one batch that 1 in 4 wouldn't fire due to what seamed light primer strikes but still shot. Only problem with it is the gas system gets very gummed up. Stay on top of cleaning and it will be just fine.
 
I went throgh two different BRAND NEW Stainless Ruger mini-30's and neither would feed the surplus ammo, it gummed up the action and jammed or failed to go into battery about 75% of the time

Other people have great luck with it but I sure didn't, so I sold those POS rifles a long time ago

Also, about every 1 in 3 rounds I was getting light primer strikes, that was solved by installing a wolf hammer spring. so at least that was a quick fix.
 
I have used Privi Partisan in mine and it has been excellent. I also have hornady hunting loads that it shoots without issue.

I haven't started handloading for it yet. Maybe next year.
 
The Mini 30 isn't made for surplus. In my opinion, that's a design flaw, but it is what it is. Some people can get their Mini 30's to shoot surplus just fine, but most of them will find the primers in surplus rounds are too hard for the Mini to reliably set the round off.

I'd go with an SKS.
 
browningautorifle said:
Steve Janes;7542667 so I sold those POS rifles a long time agoQUOTE said:
Seems like it's the ammo is POS not the rifles. They work fine with decent ammo.

Or mine in 5.56...shoots my reloads very well.
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Sorry, I agree there not complete POS rifles. I actually think that mini's are decent, cheap, truck/utility rifle's, problem here though, there not cheap......

IMO, if I have a rifle, any rifle, chambered in 7.62x39mm then they should shoot 7.62x39mm. Your entitled to feel otherwise should you see fit.

As someone else said, some work and some don't, it is what it is, they weren't designed to shoot steel cased ammo. And I agree, it's a serious design flaw.

If, and only if you insist on shooting nothing but surplus then, what this guy said...
Andurp said:
I'd go with an SKS.
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I had an older mini 30 back in the day, shot everything, biggest problem is the lacquer transfers to the chamber, you'll have to scrub the chamber good for reliable operation. Mini's are great truck/bush guns, like stated above, in canada a bit pricey, put so is everything else.
 
My mini-30 was bought new 2 years ago (581 series).
I've only put Czech surplus through it. No feeding/ejecting issues at all. Wolf spring fixed the fail to fire issue (was 1 in 4 or 5, now love-tap free :)
My only problem now is accuracy, or rather a total lack of accuracy. Mostly I blame the ammo, but local suppliers haven't had "quality" 7.62x39, and I haven't played with reloading yet, so I can't say for sure.
 
Feel free to flame me if I get this wrong but it is my understanding that the bore diameter of the Mini 30 is .308" while the the diameter of 7.62x39 bullets is nominally .310". Thus you would be squeezing the bullet down .002" in diameter when firing the 7.62x39 bullet down the .308" bore. If this is, in fact, the case it might well explain the apparent lack of accuracy of milsurp 7.62x39 ammo when fired through the Mini 30. One would also expect a rise in chamber pressure but people seem to be doing it without any serious ill effects.
 
ted_dent said:
Feel free to flame me if I get this wrong but it is my understanding that the bore diameter of the Mini 30 is .308" while the the diameter of 7.62x39 bullets is nominally .310". Thus you would be squeezing the bullet down .002" in diameter when firing the 7.62x39 bullet down the .308" bore. If this is, in fact, the case it might well explain the apparent lack of accuracy of milsurp 7.62x39 ammo when fired through the Mini 30. One would also expect a rise in chamber pressure but people seem to be doing it without any serious ill effects.
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I can't find it on the Ruger site right now, but I recall reading that the Mini-30 has a long leade (freebore or the start of the rifling) just so that .311 dia bullets can be fired thru a .308 barrel.

It's worth noting that Ruger does not have any scary "Dont do it!" warnings on their site. All they say is "chambered in readily available 762x39"
 
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