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.

I had a recent one. It ran perfect. Way overpassed though. It fed everything but you really need the longer aftermarket firing pin if you want it to ignite ALL the potential steel case ammo you come across and you need a smaller gas port kit. Accuracy of mine was about 2 MOA. This was a 2016 model.

I gave Century a chance despite their low reputation. It was a mistake. I bought a C39xV2, the milled reciever AK. The bolt and carrier immediately started to deform, their metallurgy is pure [bleep]. After I decided to sell it and went to remove the gas tub for cleaning I noticed the little lever that holds the handguard in place had literally snapped in half on it's own!!! I probably had less than 500 rounds through the gun total. Never again.

I have a few 30s I think they are pretty cool and fun

But I learned you are best with OEM mags
Maybe there is some very good aftermarkets out there but I have not found them yet
Had a bunch of Tripple K and they didnt function at all They never replaced those but they sent me a bunch of newer 10rd ones I have not tried them
they have been sitting
I pretty much only shoot steel they eat them just fine

Personally I think they are just fun guns
Hank

SKS really are not heavy triggers that I"ve fired. Same with my AK. But they have a lot of movement. You have to get used to that part, kind of like shooting a Glock or a clone. Once used to it plenty good.

We used to shoot ball through SKS and no problem hitting 2.5 gallon herbicide jugs out to 300 and 350.

OH.... wouldn't I love a modern mini-30 in BO, with the old school factory wood and SS folder....that took AR mags and had trijicon night sights.....
SPLOOSH!

A-TEAM, B1tch!

I used to have a Mini30. The magazine situation was pretty bleak back then in the '90s. I even welded latch lugs to aftermarket magazines in an attempt to get them to function reliably. They never did. The only ones I found that worked were some clear plastic ones (Eagles IIRC).

As a counter point one wants to ask if you wanted it because you had a ton of 7.62 x 39, that's cool I guess with the right magazines, if you wanted it "just because" then have at it, if you wanted it because you could not shoot deer in your state with a 5.56 that's cool as well, OTOH if you were trying to get something that would out perform a 5.56 on deer and other medium thin skinned animals you would be wasting your money. A cheap PSA 16 inch barreled AR15 with its ubiquitous magazines, and off the shelf 64 grain WW power points will do the same thing if not more. Even for other purposes the 55 grain FMJ bullet is capable.

I had the same thing. It was pretty cool except for the mediocre accuracy. I tried a bunch of loads, and they all shoot mediocre.
Stock was really solid on mine. I even got an aftermarket scope mount. Kinda miss it, but Ar15s were a step up.
If I could get one cheap, I would for nostalgia.

most all will shoot minute-of-five-gallon bucket accuracy.

You got to have the right mindset for them. Think of them like a big, powerful, .22 plinker. Good for about 100 yards max.

As said, if you want a serious rifle rather than a project and AK's are out...SKS. Trigger freaks go elsewhere.

Agreed.

Palmetto State has an AR pattern rifle in 7.62x39 called the KS-47, which takes AK mags. I have one and it shoots well. They have a lot of good options...nitrided barrels, M-lock forends & such.

They are also building an AK now, but I'll leave it to others to judge if they make a good AK.

Had one of those for a while. Actually worked very well and much more accurate than any Mini-14 I ever owned.

The one Ruger Mini-30 I owned shot decent. 2 MOA 3-shot groups at 100 yards. The only problem I ever had with it was with the magazines. Anything other than the Factory Ruger 5 or 10 rounders did not work well.

Like I mentioned before, buy a Ruger American Ranch Rifle in 7.62x39 with Factory Ruger 10 round mags. Accurate, Reliable, and very handy little Carbine.

On a related note, my LGS just took a original Norinco Mak-90 in on consignment that’s still new in the original box. I think they priced it at $999, if any ones interested, I can give you there phone #

Yep. I once had a Russian SKS that would shoot 1.5” 3 shot groups at 100 yards with open sights. With the cheap ammo.
Gave it to one of my nephews.

Yep. They did look COOL !

My father just bought one. Another member of our hunting party has one, too. They are light and easy to carry, and accurate enough for woods-distance hunting.

They're in NY, so an AR/AK/SKS is not an option without ridiculous-looking modifications.

I have a stainless Ruger Mini 30 with synthetic stock in 7.62x 39 . Good condition, never hunted with. I inherited it from an elderly relative. It has a 2.5x7 Weaver scope mounted. Shoots reliably about a 2MOA rifle. Not my kind of rifle. What is it worth?

If you do most of your shooting from the hip

I grew up hunting with a Mini-30, killed my first few deer with one. I don't know that I would ever buy another one but I am not letting go of the one I have. Not an ideal target rifle or battle rifle, but does fine in the woods at typical hunting distances.

The sear in an SKS is a small rectangular block that's easily removed from the trigger group. If the rifle has been shot a bit, you will be able to see how much sear engagement there is between the sear and the hammer because the finish on the sear will be rubbed away on that area of the sear.

It's a 10 minute job to place the sear in a small precision grinding vise and remove all but about .040" of the sear engagement with a surface grinder.

After you do that, the trigger will break after about 1/8" of travel. But it will still have a huge amount of over travel.

To correct that, drill and tap through the rear of the trigger guard 8-32 and insert an 8-32 button head screw of a length that will eliminate the over travel of the trigger.

It's a very easy little job for a machinist with access to a surface grinder and a milling machine,..a "lunch break" job.

If you have a machine shop nearby, you could probably get it done by slipping one of the machinists 20 or 30 bucks.

Thanks. I haven’t owned an SKS in years ;about 20 actually. That sounds good though .

My limit is minute-of-gallon jug.

I just saw this post, and My first thought was Minuteof Moose Shoulder. That's about it,
I had a ranch Ruger, Stainless, plastic stock, Leupold scope and could not get it to group, tried everything, Finally gave the gun away.

I loaded the 7.62X39 for a while. I found good accuracy in an SKS with Speer .311 diameter 150 grain soft points over a charge of H322. It's been a long time and I don't recall how much H322 I used, but it was close to a maximum charge for the bullet weight in the 7.62X39.

Tag!!!

I've had two Mini-30's. Ruger replaced the first one with a new one since it shot so poorly, 2 to 5 MOA was typical. The new one shoots just as bad. Borrowed a friends old blue one. Removed the flash-hider he'd installed, so I was comparing apples to apples. Shot just as bad as both of mine. Re-installed the flash-hider and bingo, under 2 MOA every group. His has the old light barrel where both of mine have the newer heavier barrel. My barrel is 5/8" behind the front sight. Had to slit the front sight with a Dremel cut-off wheel to remove it. Went to Lowe's and purchased two Hillman 5/8" ID bushings of different lengths to use as barrel tuning weights. Going to drill and tap them for a set-screw to retain barrel position and see what affect they have.

I have a 7.62 X 39MM Ruger American Ranch rifle and it is a tack-driver. One ragged hole for 5 shots at 100 yards with its favorite loads. At least I can use the Mini-30 mags in it!

I miss the days of $79.99 SKS's and 1400 round crates of ammo for about the same price.

Another vote for the SKS. I bought a like new Norinco about six or seven years ago for about half the cost of a Mini 30. I took the bayonet off and added a rubber butt plate extension for about ten bucks and 5 minutes. After a several thousand rounds and not a lot of cleaning it's never malfunctioned and is accurate enough with the factory iron sights and cheap ammo for that type of rifle.

Jerry Miculek's got a good you tube video on these. He's hitting silhouette type targets way out there for these type sights.

I like the Ruger mini platform. I’ve never had a 30, but the 14’s are fun guns. To reiterate other posters points:
Accuracy isn’t typically that great, although the new ones are better than the old.
One advantage is they are available in stainless.
Stick with factory mags.
Get one with a flash suppressor. They tend to respond positively to some weight on the end of the barrel.
Mini 30 folks claim a longer firing pin is needed to be 100% with steel case ammo. It’s cheap and you have the original as a spare.
They can chew up optics with their back and forth recoil.

To me it’s no contest on the ergonomics, I like the mini over an AK, SKS, or AR. They just feel right to me. I think they are worth the hassle if they feel right to you. Think if it kind of like a semi auto high cap version of a .30-30, with the same range limitations and you will be happy