Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Thinking of a Ruger Mini 30

Anyone have any experience or knowledge with them. Has myself talked into buying one until I watched a u-tube video claiming that they wouldn't function well with steel cases. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

My friend had two of them he had a bunch of after market magazines. We could not get either one of them to run reliably with either magazine. I don’t recall what ammunition but it was brass cased. I cannot think of a great reason to own one.

Buy a Ruger American Ranch Bolt Action Rifle in that caliber.
Mine was very accurate and reliable with the Factory 10 & 20 round mags. Even with the cheap steel cases ammo.

Go to perfectunion.com and ask your question. A couple of Mini 30 owners can maybe put you over the line. Either way. The Ruger American bolt action is a viable alternative. The magazine issue is a non starter with Ruger factory magazines. The real problem is steel cases ammo and hard primers and a too short firing pin. Look for Sandog. He'll explain.

kwg

My brother owns two Ruger mini 30s. He likes them. I owned a blued one for a few years in the late 90s. I never experienced any issues with steel case ammo as long I used OE magazines. I have now gone the AK route for my 7.62x39 shooting. Good quality AKs have become increasingly more costly along with good foreign magazines.

If you want to run steel cased ammo you will have to get a longer firing pin from firing pins.com and have it fitted to the bolt.

It says it's for a mini 14 when you look it up but it will work in the mini 30 also

https://www.firingpins.com/ruger-mini-14-firing-pin-2470

There is a video out there were a guy had issues with light strikes. If I remember, he smoothed out the rough bolt face.

sure would be a nice gun if it did not have so many issues.

Unless you are in CA or something I'd go with an AR or AK in 7.62x39.

I had one--it wasn't that it was a bad gun ( just like theres no bad dogs--just bad owners) but i released it back into the wild.if you insist on having one you have to the adjustable gas block--it's worth the money

With the rising prices of AKs, a Mini 30 is not a bad option at all. Just stick with Ruger mags.

Get the adjustable gas block and it will run like a sewing machine.

If you plan to put a scope on it have several because they like to shell crosshairs.

This can be worked out by getting an Archangel stock package.
It takes some of the back and forth shock out of the equation.

Something to do with the double pulse of the action.

I have always liked the looks of the mini 30 rifle, but their accuracy was/is horrendous. I'f shooting 7.62x39 was on the agenda, I'd opt for a good ol SKS over the Ruger:



That 10 shot group was shot with factory irons, but its better than any Ruger 30 I've seen. No problems shooting steel cased ammo out of this yugoslavian model either.

The SKS is a great rifle, I would love one with a more "American" stock on it. For some reason the AK's and SKS stocks are hard for me to shoulder and fire reasonably accurate.

I got an American made AK47 last year from Century Arms called the RAS47. Mine came with Magpul furniture. I put a Vortec red dot in a Mid West Industries mount and it is lights out accurate and reliable. I put the red dot on it because of low accuracy expectations. I'm not great with a red dot, but with Tula soft points it will put 3 shots in less than an inch at 75 yards. And it has never jammed. I would take one over a Mini 30 every time. Here is a nice writeup:

https://gundigest.com/gun-reviews/rifles-reviews/review-century-arms-ras47-review

Yeah, mine is way too short on the lop. I put a slip on recoil pad on it and its still a little short. I do like how it shoots though.

SKS ‘s have a s hit trigger .

👍

Been awhile since I had my Mini-30. Grouped really well for that platform, and didn't have any problems with primers used in steel-cased ammo. Feeding, however, was not reliable with steel-cased ammo. IIRC, rounds would nosedive and with no sort of 'feedramp' it would fail to chamber.

I got new mags from Ruger, tried tweaking the mags, etc. but eventually got tired of dorking with it. Later bought a Saiga and SKS and never looked back.