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Alot of jamming with 581-series

9K views 35 replies 23 participants last post by  VeT|Us 
#1 ·
I need help figuring out what's wrong with my Mini.

It's a 581-series. No scope. Using steel Promag 20-round magazines.
Last time I was at the range I got 3 jams of the same type out of 20 rounds.

It's the same every time, the fired case gets caught by the bolt as the bolt returns to chamber a new round after firing.
The case mouth gets stuck right above the chamber, causing severe damage to the case mouth and the gun to jam.

Whats with this? Theres no scope on it, so the brass isn't hitting anything and dropping back down either.

Thanks for any help!
 
#17 ·
X2

At $20 for a twenty rounder, there's no reason to use aftermarket mags IMO.
The Mini-14 has always been known to be fussy about it's mag.
It used to be a big issue "back in the day" when Ruger did not make high-capacity mags available to the public, but no longer. Get Ruger mags...
 
#8 ·
I've never tried the 5-rounder that came with the gun,
that's a good idea. I'm gonna do that this weekend if I get the opportunity.

The gun has gone through about 2000 rounds, so it should be more than properly broken in.

Yes, the jam looks exactly like that.

Ammunition is Federal American Eagle, 55grs FMJ.

Thanks for all your help so far!
 
#34 ·
I've got a new 581 with less than 150 rounds through it. It jams the same way you described, but only with american eagle 55gr FMJ. It works fine with steel tula and lake city brass. Not sure if that is the issue with yours, seeing as I'm still in the breaking in stage with mine but it might be a start on something.
 
#13 ·
Yeah I'm the first owner and the gun was NIB when I purchased it in 07.

I have had some jams earlier when it wore a scope,
as some brass would hit the scope and fall down into the action again, causing a jam. Not the same kind of jamming I am experiencing now.

I think I need to dit out the manual and do a complete teardown of the rifle and see if anything is stuck, loose or otherwise wrong. I'm thinking extractor, as many of you have pointed out.

Thanks again guys.
 
#14 ·
Yeah I'm the first owner and the gun was NIB when I purchased it in 07.

I have had some jams earlier when it wore a scope,
as some brass would hit the scope and fall down into the action again, causing a jam. Not the same kind of jamming I am experiencing now.

I think I need to dit out the manual and do a complete teardown of the rifle and see if anything is stuck, loose or otherwise wrong. I'm thinking extractor, as many of you have pointed out.
M
Thanks again guys.
Probably the extractor is your issue or th plunger. Can you move the extractor with your fingers?
 
#21 ·
Pull apart the bolt and I'll bet the plunger and extractor are pretty chewed up . I replaced mine at just over 2 k , wasn't having any extracting or ejecting issues , but could see eventually I would . Cheap parts from Brownell's , no need to send it back .
 
#22 ·
So I finally got time to pull the bolt apart.
Wasn't difficult really after watching the video fra Great Western Gunsmithing.

I had ordered and received a new ejector and extractor,
and while I could not find any faults or signs of excessive wear in the old parts, the extractor sits supertight in the bolt compared to the old one.
The old one I could push around with my finger (easily), while the new one is much more rigid.

I also changed out the ejector. This was not a success.
After reassembling the rifle, I chambered/ejected alot of rounds just to do test, and the new ejector just would not eject them at all.
I put the old one back in, and it functioned like it's supposed to.

Brought it to the range yesterday, and though I just fired 40 rounds, I feel somewhat confident that the problem is fixed as I had zero malfunctions.
Before I changed out the parts, 40 rounds would have meant atleast 5 jams.

Now to order some more parts to keep around, just in case.

Thanks everyone for your help!
 
#27 ·
Brought it to the range yesterday, and though I just fired 40 rounds, I feel somewhat confident that the problem is fixed as I had zero malfunctions. Before I changed out the parts, 40 rounds would have meant atleast 5 jams.
40 rounds is nothing. When I replaced the extractor and plunger in my gun, I went almost 250 trouble free rounds, but the problems returned, and eventually I sent it off to Ruger. It came back much worse than it ever was, and they replaced the slide, bolt, hammer, hammer strut, and gas piston. Not happy, I sent it back again. This time they sent me a brand new gun that has been flawless for 160 rounds. My first gun jammed on the first mag I ever put thru it. Maybe you fixed your problem, but put a couple hundred more rounds thru it, and post back on how it's going.
 
#24 ·
Yep, try the 5 rounder with your ammo before you spend money on gunsmithing or more mags. If you have troublefree use with the factory mag, the promags are the problem. My luck with promags has been about 50/50, so its not worth the money to use anything but Ruger mags. Good luck.
 
#25 ·
Magazine issues are usually a failure to feed, This is a failure to eject, or a type 2 malfunction. Usually related to a bad extractor or a weak extractor spring, or a bad ejector. Sometimes new ejectors have to be adjusted slightly so they work properly.
 
#26 ·
I had a new Thermold 30 round magazine do that. The problem was the magazine was pushing upward with too much force. The ammo was pushing on the bottom of the bolt, causing drag and keeping it from going back far enough to "fling" the spent casing. A few minutes removing material from the magazine "latch" on the rear where the release lever engages, dropped the magazine down and no more excessive drag and no more problems.

Troy
 
#28 ·
Maybe the original problem was a weak extractor spring (extractor let go the case half way, so the spent case was not dragged far enough to hit the ejector)
 
#29 ·
Reviving this thread.

Last time I fired this rifle was in november '11, and it still has the same problems with type 2 malfunctions.

I stuck it in the closet and bought an AR10 and an AK...

I dug it out a couple of days ago, loaded up the 5 round ruger magazine and decided to see if it was a magazine problem.
Not so. Even with the ruger mag, I was able to replicate the problem my ejecting the rounds manually. About 3-4 times in 60 rounds.
I went to the range today and fired 55 rounds, with 2 jams.

Up until now I have exchanged the extractor. Apparantly this did not help much.

Soooo,
I headed over to my friends house. I have a 581 and he has a 582.
His rifle functions and has always functioned 100%.
So we pulled out his ejector bolt stop and my ejector bolt stop, and sure enough, there is a visible difference between them.
The lever that sticks out of the bolt stop and acts as the ejector is visibly more bent on his ejector bolt stop, causing it to engage ride higher in the slot that is cut in the bolt for the ejector. I hope this is making sense.

So we put his ejector in my rifle. Cycled 60 rounds through a Promag, without a hiccup. Could not replicate the problem.

Put in my ejector, and I'm back to square one. Type 2 malfunctions all over the place.

I ordered a new ejector from Numrich, but this is not at all made to fit the 580+ series. The lever that acts as the ejector is about 1/8" shorter than the lever on both the ejector bolt stops on mine and my buddies rifle.
The lever is so short that it doesnt even contact the rounds that are extracted.
Hence, the lever doesnt engage squat, and no rounds are ejected what so ever.

That's the only ejector bolt stop I've found so far and it didnt fit, so I was a bit stumped on what to do.

Frustrated and annoyed, I did the only thing I could do:
Brought out the hammer.
Stuck my ejector in a vice and hammered away until it was shaped like the ejector in my buddies rifle.

Results was... confusing.

While I earlier was able to replicate the problem by manually cycling rounds slowly (looking through the empty magwell I can see the ejector start to engage the round, and then the round slip past it),
this is now a non-issue. The rifle ejects violently when I singleload it and rack it.

However, if I stick a loaded mag in the well (Both Promag and Ruger), every time I cycle the action the ejector fails to eject the round.

Dump the mag, single-load a round and rack it, and the round is flying towards the next county. Insert loaded mag and rack it, and the round doesn't leave the extractor.

To me this makes about as much sense as.. Well I don't know.
 
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