[jcpowell27]

I went out to the range yesterday and shot 100 rounds through my 581 series Mini. I did not experience any malfunctions at the range so when I was done, I packed up and went home. When I sat down to clean my rifle, I noticed that two of my gas block screws had sheared themselves apart!

My original thoughts were that I over tightened the screws since I have re-torqued the gas block, but that was last summer and I have since put many rounds (800+/-). The ammo I used was 20 rounds of PMC Bronze .223 55gr. FMJ, 40 rounds of American Eagle .223 55gr. FMJ and 40 rounds of Herter's (repackaged Tulammo) .223 55gr. HP. I don't think that any of that ammunition should have been "too powerful" for the rifle.

Has this happened to anyone here before? What do you all think caused this? What do you think my next course of action should be? Should I send it into Ruger for repairs or should I just order some new screws and install them myself? Thanks in advance!

-Joe

 

[jcpowell27]

Thanks TxQuail, I figured that was the most likely cause. What do you think I should do? Send it back into Ruger or just get some new bolts and be more diligent about torquing them down?

-Joe

 

[jcpowell27]

The gas tube and gas bushing are sitting in a ziplock bag on the work bench waiting to be cleaned and reasymbled. Like I said the rifle functioned perfectly at the range when this happened. The only thing I noticed was it wasn't throwing the Herter's (Tulammo) cases quite as far as I'm used to. I thought that was due to poor ammo quality until I got home and started to clean the rifle.

I will be picking up some new gas block screws and an inch pound torque wrench this weekend and doing this the right way this time around. Thanks everyone!

-Joe