I'm just curious because as some of you may know, I'm in the process of eliminating some cycling issues I've had with my Mini 14. Ruger says they'll replace the 2 magazines that seem to be finicky with the rifle for me to try out before sending out my rifle to them for diagnosis/repair.

I did notice one thing though.. when the trigger is pulled and the hammer down.. the bolt is noticeably stiffer when pulling back the charging handle vs when the hammer is cocked back. I'm guessing this is normal and largely in part due to the hammer. Unfortunately I don't have any other Minis near me to compare to, but are my assumptions correct?

Its weird that I've had my Mini for all this year, even owned a Target model last year and I'm barely noticing these things.

Indeed it is normal. The extra force is required to overcome the hammer spring and reset the hammer.

Ok gotcha. Before, for whatever reason, I never noticed it being any different. I guess since trying to diagnose problems, I've been extra sensitive to the little nuances of the rifle.

Thanks for the quick reply!

My Mini cannot be hand cycled with the hammer down, unless you jerk the oprod handle back quickly to give it a running start. When I say "can't", I mean with enough force applied to be uncomfortable - the oprod hangs up just after the bolt is unlocked and has started moving back.

Simply moving the oprod back quickly as it does in firing overcomes this hesitation with probably no more than a peak of 20 lb - but, noticibly more than with the hammer cocked for sure.

I suspect that the hammer nose to bolt gemetry still need to burnish each other and that this will ease up with more rounds though the gun. I have moly grease on these parts, so it is not a lube problem.