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

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