Hi,
I am new to this Forum but not to minis. I have owned quite a few since my first in 92. I recently purchased a new stainless 582 series. To say I am disapointed would be a understatement. I have at least 1 or 2 failures in every 20 round(Ruger) magazine. It often leaves a spent round attached to the bolt with a fresh one partially stripped from the magazine. This gun is definitely more reliable with wolf ammo than brass cased ammo. It is also more reliable when meticously cleaned, but we all know thats not why we by a mini. It has been years getting to the position of being able to purchase this beautiful firearm. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

What ammo are you shooting now? kwg

American Eagle(black box) 55 gr, PMC 55gr, Wolf 55gr.

I had the same exact problem on my new blued 582 series. After much trial and error I called Ruger customer service and sent it back for repair. The best I could figure was that something was slowing the bolt or the extractor was holding the brass too tight, which I doubt. Ruger emailed me a prepaid UPS shipping label and I sent it in last week.

How does it do with the ruger 5 Rnd mag? Could be you have a mag issue.

I dont have any 5 round magazines, only Ruger 20's and 30's. These have been flawless in my Tactical model. Sometimes this rifle will eject about 20 feet 2 oclock and next its just lazing them out.

See if the oprod is rubbing against the barrel shroud. My 582 ranch had that problem and Ruger did a fluff and buff...seems to have fixed it.

Decided to send this gun back to Ruger. First gun I have ever returned. They gave me a prepaid label but couldnt drop it off at a usual UPS dropoff so I paid $5 for a UPS man to come to my rural address. Ruger said 1 to 2 weeks after they received it.

Dont worry ruger will make it right then you will have a fine firearm. Im sure whatever it is it will be taken care of by the good folks at ruger.

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United We Stand.. Divided We Fall.. Into the pits of socialism

Stellar, I think you made a good call even though send it back is a pain. You bought a new rifle and it should operate correctly/reliably and that is what you paid for. I came to the same conclusion on mine.

Shipped my 30 back...oprod rubbing on barrel shroud. They filed down the oprod for more clearance and it seems fine now.

I called Ruger this morning. They replaced the bolt, magazine release, bolt hold open parts and recoil spring. Its at test today. Fingers crossed that it works and will be back in the mail by Tues.

Nice! Good luck.

__________________
Slavery is not Freedom.

Good to hear. You will be in business soon and chunkin brass!

Received my mini back today. The good news is it was only gone 17 days total. The bad news is I wished they had kept it a little longer.

The packing slip said replaced complete bolt, mag latch, bolt lock, recoil spring, and repaired slide. The bolt is obviously new and the trigger mechanism sure looks new as well. It was spotlessly clean and well packaged.

Now the bad news. At least 2 failures in each 20 round magazine. The failures were very similiar to as before except brass was ejected much more consistently, more like you would think a mini should. I quit after about 100 rounds due to rapidly approaching darkness. Will give a good cleaning and try again in the morning.

Does anyone have any suggestions for tomorrow?

If you cycle by hand, does it feel tight in any areas while moving the bolt? Sometimes the oprod fits tight on the gas block piston while closing. If everything is still new and trying to wear in and the bolt does not close all the way, it will cause the FTF.

It could be dragging on the liner too, take apart and look for rub areas on the oprod and barrel. See if you notice any problems with the gas block alignment, you may need to adjust the screws and retorque for the oprod to seat against the block properly.

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" If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would send an entertainer..... our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent a Savior."

With my better morning eyes I can tell they did some polishing where the bolt locks and rotates against the receiver. As far as smoothness goes when running the op rod handle it is by far the roughest running mini I have ever had. It takes quite abit of force to just get started back--excessive compared to my other mini. There doesnt appear to be any rubbing against the liner.

I cannot recall ever hearing about a firearm that came back from Ruger that still had a big problem. This is indeed frustrating. Are you sure that the magazines are not the problem? Does it have ejection issues when you use stock Ruger 5 or 10 round magazines? Also, what about the ammo?

__________________
Slavery is not Freedom.

I only have Ruger branded 20 and 30 rounders. I had the same problem with every type of ammo I have. The invoice says it was function tested. It works fine for the first couple of rounds and works better when meticcously clean. Maybe my chamber is extremely tight.

Add some polish around the gas piston, this should make the bolt lock up and release smoother. I noticed this on my mini 6.8 and helped to get it smooth.

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" If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would send an entertainer..... our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent a Savior."

What kind of polish? And exactly where would you put it?

Any rubbing compound will work or gritty toothpaste, place on the piston and work the slide by hand for 20-30 times. This should give you a smooth feel and relieve the hard pull and bolt lock up. Clean off with gun cleaner spray or brake cleaner. Also emery cloth will work too.

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" If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would send an entertainer..... our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent a Savior."

can you post a photo of a "stuck" brass? (the one that didn't eject). It is hard to imagine why some brass will get stuck while the others go 20'.

Next time you go to the range, get a fresh round and stick two layers of electrical tape over the primer and see if it will chamber. If it still chambers without problem then maybe the headspace is off.

(extract the round and remove the electrical tape before you shoot it, of course)





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-- mini's are great rifles, the firing pin is the only weak link.
-- So, to be safe, never buy a used mini (you can never really tell how many rounds had been fired by the firing pin)

I am extremely frustrated. I have tried about $250 worth of ammo through this thing. Out of the five magazines I shot through it tonite only 1 ran without a stoppage. I wonder if I should try 556 ammo for greater bolt speed or a lighter recoil spring. Maybe I should send it back to Ruger.

What ammo are you having the best luck with and what ammo are you have bad luck with? Did you lube the channel the Op-rod moves in? The principal of the Mini and it's operation is so simple, I find it hard to believe it's all the gun. kwg