Send an E-mail to this fine gentleman Mike Knifong of Northwest Shooter Support
[email protected] He is one of the hardest working guys in the Mini-14 business...OK I don't know about that, but he does an excellent trigger job (complete with spring kit) and he sells a gas bushing kit for $25 that includes 3 stainless steel bushings with successively reduced diameter bushings. The theory behind the smaller diameter hole for gas flow is to reduce the violence of the Mini's robust cycle. This has one immediately noticeable side effect of reducing the distance your brass flies from 20-40 ft to anywhere from 2-10 ft, depending on which port you use. The smaller ports (the biggest is less than half of factory dia.) flow a smaller quantity of gas and don't operate the rod and bolt as quickly, if at all. I say this because with the smallest port in the kit my rifle was a straight pull bolt gun, and with the medium port it would cycle just far enough to pop the casing out and catch it between the bolt and reciever on the return to battery. From Mike's comments on this, as well as what I heard from several other of his customers that I contacted, indicate this is fairly normal for a rifle as relatively new as mine (500-600 rds). I should be able to reduce the diameter as my action smooths up and my spring becomes less stiff. Now theoretically this should have some positive effect on accuracy because it lessens the violence of all that steel to steel going on between the underside of the puny Ruger barrel and the op-rod. Less dragging and grinding, less barrel disturbance, right? We'll see. My testing has been limited and inconclusive due to a loose scope lens. BTW, it should help that nasty little tendency too. I can report that the brass I used to drive to the next county to police is now conveniently closer, around 6-10 ft.