[zen_grasshopper]

My friend Ross brought his Mini-30 with him to school this last semester to do some shooting. He has never had any problems with it before, but now he is getting fed up.

We have tried several different types of ammo for it; American Eagle, Winchester, all the big brands. Just to see if it would work we tried Wolf, and some stuff that my Dad has for the SKS.

Tried the Ruger 5 round mag, Ruger 30 round mag, and some piece of junk that he had laying around.

Here is what is happening we load it up, rack a round into battery, and fire a round. The gun cycles back, picks up a new round and when the round gets a little way into the chamber the bolt sticks. I checked to see if the round was getting hung up on anything, and it looks fine. To get it to go into battery just a light tap on the charging handle will allow it to slam forward and lock up.

It's driving me crazy! I am generally a pistol person, and really don't tinker with rifles or shotguns. I have a degree in Machining, so I like to think that I am pretty handy, but I can't figure this out for the life of me!! Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jon

 

[SigMan]

zen_grasshopper,

While testing 10 rd ProMag mags I had no feed problems with Wolf (hp and sp) or Sellier & Bellot sp, but had the same type of problem you are discribing with Winchester and UMC ammo.

SigMan

 

[cajungeo]

zen_grasshopper

My friend Ross brought his Mini-30 with him to school this last semester to do some shooting. He has never had any problems with it before, but now he is getting fed up.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your friends mini-30 problems. If you can give us a little more detailed info we may be able to get your friend back up and shooting.
(1) How many rounds do you guess has been fired thru the rifle, 1,000 10,000 etc?(2) Has he made any changes to the rifle, such as a new stock, recoil spring etc?
(3) Has he cleaned, and lubed the bolt, and receiver rails. With no mag, or ammo in the bolt should move very smooth with no hang ups, or rough spots.
(4) When it hangs up how far in is the round into the chamber?

Just trying to eliminate somethings, and if we have a bit more info we may be able to duplicate the problem, and come up with a fix.

BTW what kinda school lets ya target practice?