Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles AR's are finicky

I've loaded ammo for every gun I've ever owned but the pistols, and the AR is the most finicky thing I've loaded for.

My Mini-14's will shoot ammo the AR's have issues with. They get dirty and start malfuntioning way to easy. If you need tacticool I guess an AR is your huckleberry.

If you want a handy little semi-auto that always works the Mini-14 is the way to go.

There's something wrong with your AR.



Travis

I'm thinken Travis is right

Snake

yep ive got one thrown together with parts purchased from here there and everywhere and it runs reliably so far without a single hickup.....have tried loading for it yet abut a number of types of cheap and expensive ammo has functioned fine....though i do run mine really wet out of habit....

I've never had any ammo issues at all with my multiple ARs.

never seen a finicky AR except one quality parts kit that had a barrel that was a cheapy, that would only shoot 40s.... or 45s IIRC that a friend had. I said thats what you get sometimes for model one sales stuff.

Now a mini being considered accurate is one thing I"ve never seen at all. Ever. But maybe you have the best mini and I"ve not seen the worst AR.

But you are right, the mini seems to be somewhat fool proof, about like an AK, if you can hit what you are aiming at with their accuracy and it makes you happy.

Me... I"ve rarely seen an AR that was much worse than moa or 1.5 moa. Most everyone I"ve had will get to .5 moa fairly easily.

To OP: Try H4895?

Also clean your AR and lube it so that it has a film of oil in the bolt carrier group.

Use a tooth brush and powder solvent and scrub the "teeth" of the bolt and where it locks up.

BigNate, I would go through the rifle and first make sure is as it should be; barrel torque, etc. The saving grace of the AR is that it's modular. If it's not right it can be made right with replacement parts. If it's assembled correctly I would start with the barrel and work back.

I've had a couple of AR's that were real stinkers. Most have been good rifles though.

The only finickyness I've seen is with my Rock River PP that won't chamber a fat little bullet that will work fine in the rest of them. So maybe you're right. I should sell that Rock River that shoots bug holes with everything else and replace it with a Mini 14 as soon as possible. Then all my problems will be over.

check the gas ring on the AR Bolt and make sure they are staggered. Most problems with the AR Platform is Operator Error

Please sell your AR and enjoy your mini.

The rest of us will be fine with our tacticool AR's.

Yeah, really. Whatever you do, don't bother to actually learn proper reloading procedures.

Do you find your jeep finicky to drive too? Could be a pattern there....

stay inside and away from sharp objects and stairs. With luck like yours maybe stay in bed all day as well.

Then all your holes will have "moved to the country" and live far, far apart....

Sounds like the nut behind the trigger is loose.

I agree with the above posters something is [bleep] up in your AR. Give it a GOOD cleaning including scraping the carbon off the bolt tail, lube it well with a good lube (typically Mobil 1) for me, and try it again.

Does it bobble with factory ammo as well?

If its clean, lubed and chokes on factories I would check the torque on the barrel then che k gas port size.

Most issues of unreliability I have ever heard of if the torque values are right are gas port related.

I can always count on you guys for kind works of encouragement.

Actually in five years of owning & shooting these I've had only one fail to extract, and a couple short stroke after switching from 22lr back and it was dirty. But I'm always amazed at how passionate some people are. Where's the finger smilely?

I know Travis is right.

Ernie

AR's should be far more reliable than the Mini-14. If yours isn't, then something's wrong. Do you have bad mags, bad bolt carrier? Are your gas rings at 120/240/360 degrees? Is your gun bone dry?

Looks like he was bored and decided to waste time entertaining himself by simply stirring the pot.

Like we all have nothing better to do than to reply. But looks like we did....

Well it looks to be a headspace issue with that particular batch of ammo.

I did check the gas rings as suggested and they wern't as spread out as they could've been but looking at the spent brass there was obvious marks showing the heavy contact when the bolt rotates to lock-up. They may have been loaded with a Lee kit. I don't remember which ones I loaded with it, but wanted to get familiar with it before I needed it. Will have to check that next.

One other thing I think may be affecting my reliability is the upper is pretty new and there isn't much wear/polishing yet. Burn rate of powders may be affecting it somewhat as well.

I still think the AR's are more finicky. I've put litterally thousands of rounds through mini's without a problem. They aren't bench guns but are definately well within usable accuracy.

That is a myth that needs to cease being spread.

The newer Mini-14s are much more accurate than the older ones. They beefed up the barrel.

What do you mean by that? I've shot both going back to the 1970s and haven't found one to be more reliable than the other.

Do you mean the Lee loader that uses a mallet? If so that is the problem for sure. The Lee kit only neck sizes which is a no no in autoloaders. If Lee press/dies, probably need to set the shoulder back a bit more.

anyone that dreams that a Mini 14 is in any way better than today's AR15's is for sure a card carrying member of the Flat Earth Society.

that has been my experience as well. Then, on the other hand, I have never had an ammunition related problem with my Mini 14s either. Go figure.

Actually a lot of that is in the gun and operator.
my wife and I shot for years with a friend that came over to the AR highpower world from the BR world. He was a pair firing partner of my wife on teams all the way to the nationals... he never did anything other than neck size his brass and it worked. I personally never trusted it, but we rarely sized more than .002 under chamber dimensions which isn't much more than neck sizing.

He got away with it because all brass went back to the gun it was orginally fired in.

The combination of self assembled rifles and self assembled ammunition by individuals who don't have a thorough understanding of either one often results in posts exactly like the original which began this thread.

The AR has evolved a lot in 40 years.

Don't recall reliability problems with either platform going back to the 1970s.

These were my Mini-14 and AR back in the 1970s. Both worked great.

PS So has the Mini-14. Accuracy has been improved significantly with a better and stiffer barrel.

Thats what I keep hearing. But the AR as a platform has the mini so trumped with versatility, its a no brainer now days. To pick a mini over an AR leaves one wondering if the owner is thinking clearly.

That being said if they float your boat, go for it. I scratched our itch a couple of times with the real deal, semi version, and then lost all desire for a mini.

I've got both. An AK, too. Like them all.

The Mini's are a fun little truck gun that has been modified by Ruger with a heavier barrel to make it a little more accurate. It seems there are some quality control issues with the new Minis but when you get a shooter, you get a shooter.

The AR has become the real star of semi auto rifles in the last 30 years. There are so many variations and so many toys that can be added to the platform. It is inherently more accurate than the Mini will ever be and so much more versatile. The Mini is based on a 1930's design and the AR is based on a 1960's design. It's like comparing the B-17 to the UH-1H Huey.

I have both. The Mini's are fun guns but my AR's are my serious business rifles. I need to be able to fix or upgrade a rifle as I need to. This cannot be done with the Mini's. I really like my Mini's but I need the AR's for the worst case scenarios, if any should occur in the future. kwg.

[bleep] Off! You have no idea anything about me. I purchased a complete upper, so if it has headspace issues it isn't because of me. But that isn't the point. The ammo I use has all been reloaded by yours truly for at least thirty years. I bought up some of this cheap fmj [bleep] for ripping off rounds through these tacticool rifles for fun. My mini-14 fired the same ammo the AR had issues with. So maybe the ammo is the issue with the AR. I openly said it. But if everything fired fine out of everything but the AR does it or does it not make it more finicky?

So as I did load some with a Lee kit it may be the culprit. If you've done anything at all in life for yourself, at some point you may have something not go exactly right. Insulting people is pretty low. It's easy to talk [bleep] when you're anonymous.

Nate, no one knows anything about you but what you put in your posts. Keep in mind that most folks that post here (and have more knowledge than I do) have built AR's and have AR's that work all the time. Happy Easter.

Thats teh way to deduce an answer, insult the folks that have answers, and by bad language too. Not welcome here, to me at least in that usage.

Anyway the mini is goign to have a sloppy chamber compared to most ARs that nowdays have snug chambers and are more accurate because of it.

ANYTIME you desire more accuracy you go to a better chamber and barrel. That negates using any old ammo you can find, reloaded or not. Try putting any ammo in a BR gun. Duh.

Now that you've admitted you loaded with the Lee kit, it does infer that you do not know that much about loading or guns if you expected neck sized or any old ammo to work in any old gun.

The post was not insulting, it was spot on IMHO. If it was insulting it would have used the same language you did.

And the poster was not, IMHO, even being specific to your situation, just a generally correct over all statement.

IMHO if you want it to go bang with anything all the time you need a mini or an AK. I just don't tend to like, want or often keep a rifle that won't shoot MOA. Same with ammo.

I have no "blasting" ammo as I'm not sure what the use of that ammo might be. If I want to make a lot of noise its been cheaper to light off a full string of firecrackers. And somewhat safer too.

Do I have your permission to use this as my signature quote? Naturally, I'll give proper credit.

You need to add, but if you want to hit your target, get an AR and good ammo, otherwise just buy firecrackers if a bang is all your after.

Properly built AR's are not finicky but do require proper ammo.

Actually IMHO if you put a big enough chamber on an AR it would digest anything thrown at it also.