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Mini 14 issue

hillman

hillman

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UPDATE turns out it was the stock. There was a bur in the wood. Ruger shipped me a replacement. The charging handle was hitting it in one spot. No issues now.

I have a new Ruger Mini 14 ranch rifle, the basic model in wooden stock, purchased new about 2 months ago. I finally got to try it out a week ago and it hangs when feeding a new round out of any magazine I try. When cycling, I can feel where it hangs up. If I cycle slowly, it will stop without any magazine being inserted, but it I let the bolt snap shut on it's own, without a mag, it goes all the way forward. When I insert a mag, and pull the bolt back and let it snap forward, it feeds correctly, but when firing, it only goes forward enough to start feeding the round and then stops. There are no marks on the nose of the bullet so I don't think it's catching there.

It would do this on every round, in every magazine I had (some preban 20s, and some new 5s), until I got to the last 2 or three rounds in the magazine, and then it would be fine on those.

I took it home and broke it down, took the trigger group and bolt out, cleaned and lubed with silicone grease, and cycled it several times without a magazine. I can still feel where it hangs but it doesn't quite catch when I let it go slowly, as it did before. However, it still does it with a loaded magazine inserted and a slow feed forward, but not a snap forward. It feels like the lube helped but not quite all the way. Took it back to the range and now it's still doing it until about the last 5 or 6 rounds in the 20s, and 3 in the fives.

A complete visual inspection with a flashlight doesn't show anywhere where there might be a bur or mark inside or on the rails but maybe I'm just not looking at the right place.

I know Ruger will take it back and fix it but that's a pain to ship it. Any thoughts?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Mini-14s are notorious for malfunctioning with non-Ruger mags. Not all, but a lot. Are your mags all Rugers? If not they may be able to be tweaked so they will operate.

That's all I can add.
 
You said it got better the second time out to the range. Possibly something that may work itself out with some more shooting. There may just be a burr somewhere that needs to "break in"? That's my 2 cents. If it were me I'd take it to the range with some cheap ammo and fire the shit out of it and see if it works out.

I did have an m and p 45 that hung up 1-2 times on each mag till I fired a couple hundred rounds through it. Now it works perfectly and has been trouble free for years.
 
I've owned a few target guns over the years that just needed the crap shot out of them to break in. I suspect if you dump a few hundred frustrating rounds down range one of two things will happen. 1) it will cure itself or 2) what ever is causing the hanging up will be visible so you can take a file or a stone to it.
With it happening to every mag I'm not sure I'd look there but stick with the factory mags while testing. No need to add more variables and complications as you try and sort this out.
 
Billsail said:
Mini-14s are notorious for malfunctioning with non-Ruger mags. Not all, but a lot. Are your mags all Rugers? If not they may be able to be tweaked so they will operate.

That's all I can add.
Click to expand...

All but two of my mags are factory, the problem happened with every mag the same way.
 
hillman said:
All but two of my mags are factory, the problem happened with every mag the same way.
Click to expand...
there is really no need for grease on the mini 14, a light oil to prevent rust is about all it needs.... maybe a small sknot of grease in the bolt rail on the receiver. Also strip and clean your mags. make sure they didnt wrap the spring in some rust preventive paper, also good to get any of the rust inhibitors off the mags and rifle.
another spot to look is make sure the hammer is not binding anywhere. My quick guess is something found its way into the gas system.
 
Are you sure you have the buffer bushing and spring guide correctly put together? If it isn't in the correct orientation you will have this issue, or it could be a dodgy magazine.
 
what type of ammo are you using? with steel cased ammo the mini tends to stick while action trying to close. it shouldnt' happen much with brass ammo.

unlike an AR pattern with feed ramps, the mini relies exclusively on the magazine for proper feeding. to achieve reliability with a mini one is going to need OEM mags. if these are aftermarket mags, avoid them until the rifle is running well then can trial them.

the wolf extra power recoil spring is unnecessary. it just makes the bolt slam forward into the action even harder than needed. in terms of cycling the mini is horribly over-gassed. to get one to run smoothly the gas port needs to be slimmed up with a smaller bushing. i've posted on this elsewhere on NES and it's been addressed on many forums. if you end up experimenting with gas bushing sizes be sure to trim the bushing so there's some space when the gas block is tightened, otherwise the bushing will get crushed inside the gas block and you'll never be able to remove it. i learned the hard way!!
 
I am only using brass cased ammo, and have taken the non Ruger mags out of rotation until i get this solved. I will look for threads about the bushing issue. Thanks.
 
if after firing a bunch of rounds and it still hangs up, do yourself a favor before spending money yourself to fix the issue, send it back for warranty service. it'll cost nothing except your time to box it up and ship it. ruger will email a prepaid shipping label to you, usually for fedex. or go here Ruger Forum | Ruger Forum for Ruger Guns and Firearms and ask for some solutions.
 
mini 14 thread i started a while back when i was tinkering with it

My Humble Mini-14 Review

greencobra said:
if after firing a bunch of rounds and it still hangs up, do yourself a favor before spending money yourself to fix the issue, send it back for warranty service. it'll cost nothing except your time to box it up and ship it. ruger will email a prepaid shipping label to you, usually for fedex. or go here Ruger Forum | Ruger Forum for Ruger Guns and Firearms and ask for some solutions.
Click to expand...

i've sent 2 mini's to ruger to try and achieve reliabilty and got nowhere. the rifles are inherently crappy. i still like the mini and continue to play with it, but it should be a $500. i've toyed with the idea of sending one to Accuracy Systems for a re-barreling which probably make it more fun. while i don't care for their adjustable gas block, their barrels look nice.
 
Just got back from the range. Fired 400 rounds through it. Started with only the ruger 5 round new mags that came with it. Worked perfectly. Then I added in the 20 round Ruger preban mags, it still worked great. Then I added in the two Ruger 30 round preban mags. They would not feed the first round but after making the executive decision that they would now be 29 round mags, they also worked perfectly. Even the aftermarket no name prebans worked great. All was good until around 250 rounds when the rear sight post came loose and flew off into the mud, never to be seen again. Even then I still kept shooting just for reliability. So now it's shooting great, better than I expected even with non-ruger mags. I just need to put a scope on it or something. Stupid sight... I did order the extra power spring and the gas bushing, but for now it's running great. Apparently just cleaning and lubing the hell out of it and then shooting it to break it in are what it needed as far as I can tell. I can still feel that spot where it catches when I close the bolt slowly but it's not stopping it. Thanks for all the replies.
 
i removed the rear sight on my current mini. it should come with a factory pic rail. i am running a primary arms red dot on it. works well. wouldn't really bother going to much magnification as I don't think the barrel will provide enough accuracy to make it worthwhile. YMMV.
 
hillman said:
Just got back from the range. Fired 400 rounds through it. Started with only the ruger 5 round new mags that came with it. Worked perfectly. Then I added in the 20 round Ruger preban mags, it still worked great. Then I added in the two Ruger 30 round preban mags. They would not feed the first round but after making the executive decision that they would now be 29 round mags, they also worked perfectly. Even the aftermarket no name prebans worked great. All was good until around 250 rounds when the rear sight post came loose and flew off into the mud, never to be seen again. Even then I still kept shooting just for reliability. So now it's shooting great, better than I expected even with non-ruger mags. I just need to put a scope on it or something. Stupid sight... I did order the extra power spring and the gas bushing, but for now it's running great. Apparently just cleaning and lubing the hell out of it and then shooting it to break it in are what it needed as far as I can tell. I can still feel that spot where it catches when I close the bolt slowly but it's not stopping it. Thanks for all the replies.
Click to expand...
That spot is the bolt riding over the hammer a a tad, I think been a while since I owned a 14, I had to buy one back then...yeah the Ateam guided purchase.
 

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