That's a common problem with Mini 30's. Alot of surplus, or foreign ammo has hard primers. Just find what works, and stick with that brand.

 

Most of the misfires come from my hand loads. And those worked fine in my other mini and my AR-15. I use CCI primers.

Mad

 

This is worth a try for 7 bucks

Wolff Hammer Spring Ruger Mini-14 Mini-30 Ranch Rifle Extra Power

 

This is worth a try for 7 bucks

Wolff Hammer Spring Ruger Mini-14 Mini-30 Ranch Rifle Extra Power

It works if you don't mind an occasional broken firing pin. kwg

 

There's no good reason, 'Why' a Wolff FP spring should cause a firing pin to break. That's ridiculous. (Here comes another great internet gun forum myth!) I've got Wolff, 'extra power' springs in more than half the firearms I own. They're all high quality excellent springs.

Ask Ruger to send you another firing pin; ask the factory whether or not they're using MIM pins, now, too. Don't dry fire without using snap caps; and you should be fine. Here's the right place to buy Wolff springs:

Wolff Gunsprings - Firearm Springs for Semi-Auto Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, & Shotguns

 

Ask Ruger to send you another firing pin; ask the factory whether or not they're using MIM pins, now, too. Don't dry fire without using snap caps; and you should be fine. Here's the right place to buy Wolff springs:

Wolff Gunsprings - Firearm Springs for Semi-Auto Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, & Shotguns

Thank you. I didn't realize that Ruger ships the pins to us. I thought they had to be replaced by a cirtified gunsmith or the factory. Has that changed?

Cheers,
Mad

 

Didn't think of that!

Myself and several friends are gunsmiths (and/or armorers). So, personally, I'm able to get any part I need. When I want a factory part I don't have immediate access to (like Glock) I just ask one of the certified armorers I know to bring it in for me. Then I install it, myself.

In your case you've stated a strong suspicion about the firing pin being too short; and the barrel is, certainly, tight. Me? I'd be on the phone to Ruger Customer Service. If they wouldn't send anything directly to me (which is unlikely) I'd give them the name and address of another gunsmith to ship to.

Wolff Gunsprings will, I am sure, ship directly to you. Nowadays I only work on my own guns; and I keep a very nice inventory of principal parts on-hand for each of them.

Just out of curiosity: How's the headspace on that Ruger? Is the cartridge pushing itself forward when the pin hits the primer?

 

Myself and several friends are gunsmiths (and/or armorers). So, personally, I'm able to get any part I need. When I want a factory part I don't have immediate access to (like Glock) I just ask one of the certified armorers I know to bring it in for me. Then I install it, myself.

In your case you've stated a strong suspicion about the firing pin being too short; and the barrel is, certainly, tight. Me? I'd be on the phone to Ruger Customer Service. If they wouldn't send anything directly to me (which is unlikely) I'd give them the name and address of another gunsmith to ship to.

Unless something has changed recently, Ruger will not ship bolts or firing pins to anyone, including gunsmiths and armorers.

In order for you to get a new bolt or firing pin from Ruger, the entire rifle has to be shipped back to them for fitting (headspacing for bolts, protrusion for firing pins).

Sure, you can find aftermarket firing pins online, but they don't last.

I've read through the vast majority of the 'broken firing pin' threads here, and almost all of those rifles were fed a rather steady diet of cheap Berdan-primed ammo. Many overcame misfires with Berdan-primed ammo with a Wolff Extra Power hammer spring, and it seems using those springs led to firing pin failure faster than those who left the springs alone.

That's not to say Wolff doesn't make a good product. When used as intended, they're fine. But if firing pin protrusion is the problem (as with most who shoot Berdan-primed ammo), a heavier spring is not the correct solution, IMO.

 

the early M30 had a .308 bore and long throat. around the 189 series went to .310, mine is the 189. no problems with the yugo, fiocchi, PP, IMI, lapua, sako, rem, winny, fed. all the russki stuff occasional misfires.

 

Are you getting a firing pin strike on the primers of the mis fired rounds?

I ask because if your bolts fails to turn completely into battery, the hammer will fall but will not strike the firing pin and you sure as hell don't want it to!

 

Are you getting a firing pin strike on the primers of the mis fired rounds?

I ask because if your bolts fails to turn completely into battery, the hammer will fall but will not strike the firing pin and you sure as hell don't want it to!

That was the first thing I cheched. The bolt closes and locks all the way. Unfired rounds have small dimple on them, larger than what you would see if the bolt is not locked.

I am going tomorrow to shoot. I'll take a box of TulAmmo, Yugo surplus and 20 home loads. I wanna see the whole picture.

Cheers,
Mad

 

I wonder if filing a little metal off the op/rod wound help? Are you using buffers?

 

I use a home made buffer (toilet tank washer) just on one side for a softer extraction/recoil.
I will wait with filing. I am gonna take her to the range so I can put on paper exact data and then see if I can maybe work on the gun myself. Or maybe I'll just have Ruger work on her. It is a brand new gun and should not have such issues.

Cherrs,
Mad

 

Try firing with and w/o the buffer, it may be too thick.

 

Thank you, but I don't see how. The buffer is on the reciever side, not at the gas block. Am I missing something?

Cheers,
Mad

 

I thought you may have the buffer on the gas block. I run on both sides with my minis.

 

I'll report back later today on my findings.

Cheers,
Mad

 

Thank you.

I didn't get a chance to go to the range today, but I think I might have found the problem. I will test my suspicion tomorrow and maybe post a video. Basically the action does not lock up all the way. Even though I said that it did. Sorry. And it seems that it is happening with my reloads. Strangely, but the reloads with the same dies worked just fine in my first Thirty, and my AR. Anyway. Need to test and verify.

Cheers,
Mad

 

Out of curiosity, how many rounds have you put through your new rifle?

Also, have you stripped and thoroughly cleaned everything?

I know they sound like stupid questions, and I don't mean to insult you by any means, but sometimes all that's really needed is a good deep cleaning and some trigger time to let everything break in a bit.

These Minis aren't tight-tolerance machines created by computers, so they have to be broken in a bit before they are 100% reliable. I'm honestly wondering if there's a burr or rub somewhere that is slowing the op rod's forward travel, keeping it from going fully into battery occasionally.

 

Thank you. Any advice is always appreciated.
The actione was cleaned. I even washed everything very well with hot water after shootin the Yugo ammo.
The op rod does go to the full battery once I push it a bit, so I do wonder if you are right and it needs more rounds through. Right now it's just passed 100. Hopefully I will put another 100 today. I greased all the points where the op rod touches the barrel, reciever and bolt. BTW, the bolt is where the rod catches something causing the problem. Anyway. We will see.

Cheers,
Mad

 

Yesterday I called New Hampshire. Yes, indeed! They will not sell Mini firing pins for anything except factory installation. So, it all comes down to a sizing die problem? RCBS makes special dies for that.

RCBS® AR Series Small Base Two-Die Set with Taper Crimp | Bass Pro Shops

 

If you aren't using a case gauge you are making things a lot tougher than they need to be. I did that all my reloading years then last year voila! case gauges - when I get everything set up so it sits properly in the case gauge it is all like factory ammo and nothing goes amiss! I like the Dillon units.
Also take your bolt apart and be sure the pin is nice and smooth. That was one factor that helped my mini go from maybe to always.... A little 2000 grit doused with some WD-40 and she'll shine like silver. Once you get it running it is truly a joy.

Z

 

The good thing about the minis is they will not slam fire, the round has to be properly seated in the chamber for a good strike from the firing pin.
You might check your seating die to make sure the shoulder is getting set properly. I've had this problem with my 223 rounds, I noticed a tight fit in my bolt gun so that means I need to get a little more pressure on the shoulder.

 

Thank you. I had this same problem with my 6.5 Grendel AR. Ended up shavingoff a couple thousandths of the buttom of the sizing die. I think I might do the same if the problem remains.

Cheers,
Mad

 

I know my mini 6.8 was tight on the gas pipe/ op-rod mating and needed a little wear in. I had to slam the bolt closed on the 1 rd, I could not ride the slide to chamber a rd. I polished it up a little to make for smooth chambering.

 

Slam fire with a mini is rare and your friends case is first I had heard of. Did have the trigger worked on as well? That would be my first guess. I reload myself and have been for 20+ yrs, I've had some primers not seat all the way and chamber. They don't fire because the hammer can't make full contact with the firing pin to ignite the primer. For it to happen on 2 minis with the same owner makes me suspect something was modded on the rifle.

 

Fulton Armory FAQ: Slam Fires, Mags & SLEDs; Clint speaks out!

Home - MAS 49/56 Titanium Firing Pin

Surplusrifle Forum ? View topic - Problem with my MAS 49/56

Again with respect:

Unfortunately - the blow from just the firing pin can cause a sensitive primer to go off. More common in ARs but possible in M1s, M1A/M14s and Minis. Also - the firing pin can be out of tolerance or the cut in the receiver for the firing pin tail could be out of spec also. Rare yes - impossible no. IIRC - some of the MAS 49s converted to .308 had problems with slam fires.

There is a reason that military primers are "harder" than commercial primers and CCI and other manufacturers produce special primers for loading rounds used in semi-autos.

One of the Mini blow-ups was caused by incorrect powder - it was not a slam fire. The owner of the rifle was not a careful reloader. When my late friend, not the owner, fired the rifle it blew up. He said there was a loud bang and when he let go of the fore end - it fell off. That he was not hurt says a lot for the materials used in modern firearms.

In fact - all the slam fires I've seen - not one of the shooters was seriously injured. Mostly just brass fragments in the face and maybe a bruise on the hand.

The M1 Garands seemed to handle the slam fires best - very, very tough receivers. Another friend who experienced a slam fire in a Garand had it back in action in a couple of weeks. One of our match armorers checked it out and other than a little rounding of top edge of the right locking lug recess and a bent op rod - it was good to go with a new op-rod and a little touch up of the locking recess.

The commercial M1As - not as tough as the GI Garands. As I related in a previous post - another friend destroyed a beautiful M1A via a slam fire. I imagine the GI M14s are probably as strong as the Garands but I'm not sure on this point.

Slightly off topic:

Improperly loaded ammo can damage or destroy a rifle. Using the wrong ammo can be catastrophic. I've done the same as the shooter below - the wrong round in a '03 and an Arisaka. The military bolt actions are tough - neither rifle suffered any damage and neither did I BUT...

About 2 or 3 years ago a shooter grabbed a .308 round and managed to chamber it in a Sako .270 bolt gun. IIRC - it was a family group shooting and he was shooting his dad's or uncle's rifle.

We heard a strange boom. A guy standing behind and to one side of the shooting bench started bleeding badly from his arm - the deepest red blood I've ever seen - looked almost black. Ambulance took the guy away and the police came to investigate and make a report.

The rifle barrel flew down range a few yards. The scope hit the roof over the firing line and split in two. The stock was split and snapped in two.

Amazingly - the bolt was still in a locked position - even with the front receiver ring split open. Even more amazing is that the shooter, again, received only superficial injuries.

YMMV

 

Here's a question about the Mini 30s that's been bugging me for a few years.

Will the Mini 30 fire Lake City 7.62x39 reliably? This ammo was loaded either late Vietnam or later - to supply indigenous forces and some of the special ops units using AKs. Read most was loaded around 1971.

Just read that LC is still producing military 7.6x39 - possibly for training or for the Iraqis.

The primers in LC ammo would have to be military spec boxer, it's brass cased and it would be interesting to find out if the Mini 30s can run this ammo without problems.

I know this is long - but the history part is interesting. Especially the US dropping "enhanced" AK ammo onto trails in VN - enhanced with C4 or downloaded to stick a bullet in the bore. Not good news for VC or NVA who tried this stuff.

This ammunition was not made for "testing captured AKs". Some if it was made for Cambodia and some of it was made for training. During the Vietnam war and after, some troops were given the opportunity to fire AKs and SKSs for familiarization. There were four types of ammunition used for this. 1. captured ammunition. 2. ammunition bought from Finland. 3. ammunition reformed from the Czech 7.62x45mm cartridge and lastly, the stuff made by Frankford Arsenal and Lake City. To my knowledge, in my 20+ years collecting this cartridge, no "sterile" boxes of this ammunition have ever appeared. All of the boxes and markings, while generic, are clearly marked in typical US fashion. If the ammunition were truly intended to be untraceable, the the boxes would be plain. I had the priveledge of knowing a gentleman who worked at Frankford Arsenal at the time the US made 7.62x39mm cartridge was being developed. He gave me one of the Finnish ball cartridges they copied to make the US version. There ARE headstamped variations of this cartridge. These are the rare ones. The headstamp is "L C 7 1" and if you can find one, it is worth $20-$30. The box of cartridges this guy is selling is worth about $20 at the very most. If it were still sealed and in mint condition, maybe $25, but since he has opened the box and handled the cartridges, the value has dropped. As a side note, a special forces guy I know told me once that the 7.62x39mm blanks that Lake City made were total crap. He said that they would try to get Yugoslavian or Egyptian blanks if they could since they worked much better. I verified this claim of his by shooting up a box of these LC blanks a few yeras ago. They were definately weak and the extended neck split on just about every round fired.

DevilDog1 explained it in better detail than I had. To back up rumors or to stop them, I was in a SF unit for about 14 yrs or so. When I came across my 1st box of this stuff while collecting, I took it in to work and asked 1 of the guys who was with 5th SFG, CCN, had he ever seen it before. Yes, just as DD1 stated, it was used for what was called "cross-border ops", where basically everybody was wearing NVA/VC uniforms, weapons, etc. 1 of the big reasons for using this ammo was the program that was called "Fortunate Son" or something like that. Ammo was captured, bullets were pulled and the powder replaced with C4 or just enough powder to push a bullet down the barrel a few inches. Mags of this stuff were then dropped off on paths and such and the rest is history, as I've seen a few pics of AK's blown apart completely. Again, this stuff is nowhere near the asking price, I think I paid about $20-25 per box for the few boxes of this that I have. Some friends back from AFG have told me that they have used some recent mfg Lake City -39 ammo overseas, but did not have an abundance of this to play with. They could not remember if some of the boxes had recent lot #'s, no headstamps, etc, but it could have been some of this stuff left over in some bunker up at Ft Bragg and sent overseas. Finally, about the headstamp comment I made was just as DD1 explained...LC and Frankford Arsenal made this stuff, and I also have a few blanks in the collection. I can't remember if the blanks were headstamped or not.

 

Yikes! I didn't realize the Lake City 7.62x39 had gotten so expensive - nice pics of boxed ammo about half way down the page posted below:
WTS 7.62x39 Finnish/US LakeCity/Chinese/Egerman/Yugo/Blanks Large List

 

interesting post of the LC x39 first I've seen.
my bet is that oburrhead will try to push thru a ban on euro mil-surp ala 'billary' and chinese ammo.

 

So that's it. After a slight mod to the op rod the gun seems to shoot just fine. It malfunctioned only once. Here is the video that shows what was the original cause for the misfiring rounds:

 

Nicely done - you diagnosed the problem and corrected it.

I looked at one of my spare Mini 14 op-rods and the corner is not that sharp.

I also use grease (Lubriplate) at that point on my Minis, M1, M1 carbines and, when I still had one - my M1A. The M14/M1A bolts have an actual roller at that point that has to be packed with grease - just like automobile wheel bearings.

YMMV

 

good post, seems you have problem beat.

 

I use small base on my .308 dies. Since I already had a set of dies, I purchased just the re-sizer. It certainly did the trick when sizing Lake City brass. A small base sizes lower on the brass.

The other part to consider is the chamber of the rife since you have the same problem with home grown and store bought. Which makes me feel it's not your dies. Check the adjustment of your die, and also load a test round. A chamber gauge might be what is needed to make sure ammo is within spec.

 

The other part to consider is the chamber of the rife since you have the same problem with home grown and store bought. Which makes me feel it's not your dies. Check the adjustment of your die, and also load a test round. A chamber gauge might be what is needed to make sure ammo is within spec.

Thank you. I think the problem I had was with the reloads only. There could have been a misfire or two with the factory ammo, but in the last shooting sessions that happened only onc I with Wolf and not once with the Yugo ammo. My guess is those were two separate issues.

 

I think you nailed it then. I reload for 7.62x39 but always for my CZ527 and never for other rifles.

 

I am actually thinking of getting the CZ or the Mini Mauser in 7.62x39. Can't find either one at a good price right now.

 

I got CZ527 back in 2006. I don't shoot it too much, but the action is smooth and the trigger nice right out of the box. It's light weight and takes removable mags. I liked it so much that a bought one in 204 Ruger. Although with a heavy barrel.

 

Thank you!