I can't get my mini 30 to fire Russian or other surplus ammo. I have thousands of rounds. One gunsmith told me to buy higher quality (more expensive) ammo and another told me to "stretch" the firing pin spring. I'm not sure what to do. It fires about every other round and dents the primer on all but obviously not hard enough. Can anyone give me detailed directions on what I can do.
thanks

The primer cups may be too hard for your trigger/firing pin and spring combination.
If good quality ammo goes off without a hitch, then suspect the surplus primers as being too hard for your rifle. It is worth a try.

Welcome to the forum C mini

The Russian ammo has berdian primeers which is harder to ignite. Get some commercial ammo, which is boxer primed. How many rounds have you fired thru your mini?

Also check your firing pin, by removing the bolt, the pin should rattle or move back and forth freely. It could be gummed up with carbon or debris. Make sure it moves all the way fwd. If pin is sticking, remove firing pin, and clean pin, and pin hole in bolt with solvent then dry. Reassemble.

Avoid the gunsmith that suggested stretching your firing pin spring. There isn't one. Even if there were a proper fix would be to replace a spring. The hammer strikes the pin, which strikes the primer. Now if you have fired thousands of rounds, and feel the Hammer spring is getting weaker, then order a new one from Ruger. Just my 2 cents.

Has anyone ever tried a heavier hammer spring and a new, stronger firing pin. Maybe titanium, harder steel, cryptonite????? It would be worth it to use the cheaper ammo.

I've only fired a hundred rounds or so through the gun. I make sure the firing pin moves freely and I'll also buy some different ammo. One of the reasons I bought the gun was to take advantage of the cheap 7.62x39 ammo. I let you know how it goes after this weekend. Thanks for all the help!!

Sorry to say this, but if you were just wanting to blast cheap surplus ammo, then I would suggest an AK series rifle or even an SKS. AK mags are dirt cheap and are 100% reliable.

As dirty as some of the surplus and Russian ammo is ( i.e. wolf) complete cleaning is necessary as that it can effect the impact of the pin against a hard primer. Sometimes the tolerances are less in the manufacturing processes even at Ruger, so what functions in one firearm may not function in another of the same manufacturing. If it turns out to be the ammo, that should be easy to sell if avertised at the range without much or any monetary loss. Good luck!

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have fired about 500rd of various eastern ammo thought my mini and haven't got one mis-fire yet . All were commercial stuff such as wolf and barnaul and such, but they are as cheap as any real mil-surp......You might want to try these, they are only 1 or 2 cents more (per round) than the mil-surp stuff anyway.

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-- So, to be safe, never buy a used mini (you can never really tell how many rounds had been fired by the firing pin)
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I have 2 mini's one Mini-14 Ranch Rifle and one mini-30. I use WOLF ammo in both guns with no problem. .223, and 7.62x39.
This might sound silly, but try cleaning your entire trigger group with some carb or brake cleaner to make sure there is no old grease gumming it up. Also clean out the bolt and fireing pin. there might be some gum in there slowing it down.

My only suggestion to that would be non-chlorinated brake cleaner. Much cheaper than buying Gun Scrubber. I am drawing a blank right now as to why but I would advise against carburetor cleaner. I hate it when CRS comes on!

the only real downside to carb/brake cleaner is the fact that it totally degreases all the metal leaving it totally dry, and also you DONT want to get it on any wood, as it will surely ruin the finish.
But if there is a chance that there is some type of grease or gum slowing up your hammer makeing it strike softer or slower then give'r a good cleaning and a very light oil and see it that works befor spending any money. That just might be the fix your gun needs. But then again ................

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum and thought I'd throw my two cents in on the question of cheap ammo not going off in the Mini-30. I have a series 189 and experienced a failure to fire in about one in ten to one in twenty with the Cheap Russian stuff. I installed a stronger hammer spring from Wolff Gun Springs and everyting I now feed it goes bang. I honestly don't know if this will be too much for the firing pin over time as I've put less than two hundred rounds thru it since the switch. I should also mention that I did try the standard solvents on the pin and bolt first. The cheap ammo is fine for plinking but for any more serious applications I keep better quality American stuff in the mag. Hope this helps.

Homesteader

I have the same problem with steel cased ammo in my mini30, the primers are way too hard. No problem with commercial ammo like remington, pmc or s&b. I have heard good things about the southafrican cheetah which is not as expensive. I would hesitate to put a heavier hammer spring in for fear of breaking the rather thin firing pin.

Well, I've put several hundred rounds through my mini-30 after installing the Wolff hammer spring and my firing pin is still holding up. It still chokes quite a bit on the wolf brand ammo though. As far as Russian ammo goes, I've had the best luck with the Ulyanovsk spam can ammo and the Silver Bear match "nipple tip" ammo (also made by Ulyanovsk). I still get a hard primer once in a while, but no where near as bad as the Wolf.

I just buy anew mini 30 and have e same problem . I order some wolff Extra-power springs and new everything work good.

Hi kowalski25,

Very glad to hear your Mini 30 works well with heavy springs and the surplus ammo. You also win this weeks prize for resurrecting the, perhaps, oldest thread on the entire forum! Congratulations are in order!

Ed

I've had no issues, but before I'll buy a spring if I do, I'm going to check the depth of the pin.

I remember reading a post/thread about cleaning up, and making sure the pin protrudes enough to get a good primer strike. Dimples don't do it. But do not go too deep, as you do not want to poke a hole in the primer. (Bad deal indeed.)

IMHO not a good idea, and one that Ruger discourages. The heavy spring is going to cut down on the life of your firing pin. Just avoid the machinegun (Hard) primed ammo.

My Mini 30 is about one month old same problem as you , but I did find that it will shoot silver bear and tulammo which I have a lot of. Fiocchi works great not as cheap but not bad.

I am afraid to replace my spring , so I will shoot what shoots and keep the rest for my AK's and SKS's.

The only ammo I have ever had issues with in my mini-14 was tula. That was enough for me to not want to shoot crap in my mini anymore. I reload so there is really no sense in shooting anything but brass, so I just stay away from it.

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Bought two new mini 30 ranch rifles for myself and my son. Long time Ruger fan! Have thousands of rounds of wolf ammo for my sks. Niether mini 30 will fire any of the wolf. Dents the primers ok, just no bang! Fire commercial ammo no problem. Cheap sks eats everything!! Always go bang every time! Very dissapointed. Wanted quality go to gun in case it ever hit the fan capable of shooting what ammo availiable. Guess I picked the wrong gun!

Measure the depth of your SKS firing pin.
Then compare to your Mini 30.

Then search here for the thread on how to mark, and then file the points that contact, so you can get the same pin depth on your Mini 30 as the SKS.

It should not poke holes in softer primers, but will more than dent/dimple the harder ones that are common in mil-surplus ammo. (And after all, if it will not shoot anything, this weapon is not worth keeping IMHO.)

However, if with the correct pin depth it works, the pin design is next on the list. Cryo treatment might help? Or going to another type of metal?

The Mini 30 should shoot anything out of the box. After all, it's designed for 7.62x39, and MOST of that ammo is military surplus.

I have a Mini-30 Tactical. So far, it fires berdan primed ammo 99% of the time and boxer primed 100% of the time. I ran 200 rounds of mixed Norinco, Wolf, Wolf MC, Silver Bear and Lapua berdan through it and only had two failures to ignite, with one round of Wolf MC and one round of Norinco. I ran 100 rounds of boxer primed Winchester and MFS through it last night and had zero failures.

Your Mini-Thirty should fire Wolf most of the time. If it doesn't look into upgrading the spring or send it back to Ruger.

A good test would be to get a box of the Hornady SST ammo. It's berdan primed steel cased ammo, but loaded by Hornady. It is technically "US" ammo. If it won't shoot the Hornady, let Ruger know.

nearly all stee-cased X39 ammo is berdan primed, and the primer is harder than commercial in order to withstand the possibility of 'slam fires' in the AK, SKS and other foriegn made X39 firearms.
if I can believe what I've read about the design of the Mini 30 this was taken into consideration as the Mini has a 'floating' fireing pin.
there is some mil-surp brass cased ammo berdan primed that my M30 shoots fine, the Lapua, Sako and the Yugo (slightly corrosive so windex after shooting) which is the best buy on brass cased at this time. the yugo ammo doesn't group as tightly as the excellent Lapua and Sako (which might not be available now, hopefully more in the pipeline soon) but plenty good for plinking/target or even combat purpose.
man what a 'resurrected thread'.

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actually a good thing. If your mini's keep on eating wolf non-stop, the pin might not last too long.

SKS's are in-expensive, not "cheap". If SKS is being made in the US it would probably cost more than a mid-grade AR.

__________________
-- 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)
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