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I plan to send my Mini-14 to Accuracy Systems...what can I legally have them do?
- Thread starter Rocky Mosasaurus
- Start date
curious on the return time if you go to ASI? Personally I would get the $30 RMA from Ruger, box it up and let them have at it. Turn around will be faster and total cost will be much lower. At $100 hr from ASI its most likely going to cost you more for ASI to look at it than what ruger will charge to fix it.
Heck your going to pay close to $100-$120 bucks just for shipping to and from ASI...
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
I agree with you. I was thinking Ruger first to just make sure she runs first before I think about custom rifling and whatnot lol. And while I’m at it I just want to save the money for an AR with the amount of money the “conservative” package will cost with labor and shipping. I think if I had more money to blow I would go nuts with it and grab a new barrel but hearing peoples advice on this thread has made me think twice about going down the customization rabbit hole.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
I took the Mini to the range last weekend and it crapped the bed on me. Typewriter Accuracy was awesome (Max 60 yards I was at Manchester firing line) but put about 100 rounds down range and I had many jamming issues which were consistent with what I was telling you guys about before. I will definitely be sending it to Ruger in the next couple weeks. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes when I get it back in late November and take it to the range again for good measure.
ChevyGuy91
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The answer to your problems comes in an AR15 box.![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
In fairness, whatever else is true, a Mini 14 should at least be able to cycle reliably. What happens after the bullet leaves the bore is a different question. But reliable cycling assumes a few basics, like good (usually meaning Ruger factory) magazines and an extractor and ejector that are working properly.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDsnGFrQulA
I have a lot of respect for the man in this video and I usually watch this video every time I clean my Mini-14. The more I watch it the more I believe I have been going about using the Mini-14 all wrong. For example: In the video the armorer states "[you should] never be repeatedly firing it to the point where you can cook eggs on it. A gun barrel which becomes so hot that you cannot touch it or starts smoking...[means]...you are doing damage to the throat of the bore." And then to paraphrase he says 'you should only be firing in rapid succession if you are under attack.' This is around 37:30-38:30 into the video. I feel like the 30 round mag dumps I have been attempting with this Mini-14 may have been misguided because of the above comments. Is it that the Ruger Mini-14 is simply not meant for this purpose? Obviously just using some basic logic everyone has chosen AR15s over the Mini-14s but at one point in time the Mini-14 was used by many different military forces and police departments all around the world.
That being said it is my opinion that despite the fact the rifle is old it is not THAT old and has not been abused and therefore I don't believe there is any copper fouling or damage to the throat because I would have noticed a drop in accuracy or maybe even a more serious malfunction. Anyway, I just sent the rifle into Ruger today finally so I will let you guys know in two weeks or so if they recommend re-barrreling or anything extra during their maintenance check/servicing of the rifle.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Yeah I’ve noticed that its not as responsive as I would like too. As in one trigger pull during a barrage does not equal one bullet fired during the barrage there’s “buffer time.”
The good news is it is an actual factory folder You can tell by the front swivel being on the side. (regular ones are on the bottom) Pistol grip and folder are 2 features.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
A Ruger customer service representative told me the rifle ran without issues using their (30 round) magazines, but that a glaring issue that was found had to do with the way the extractor was cut; to summarize: it was scraping something during the firing process. Quick turn around its on the way back currently and I will take it to the range next month. They had to mail the folding stock back separately so I will have to pop that back on...they offered to send it back with a wooden one but I said "nooo way baby!" Also, there didn't seem to be any copper fouling because accuracy was fine on the range, but they said they wouldn't be able to re-barrel it anyway because they don't have any of the parts for those series of rifles anymore. All in all not terrible news I'm just praying it will actually run smoothly on the range in a month.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Hey fellas just following up on this thread. I finally took the mini to the range today and I was running into issues with the bolt not locking back, so I had to manually rack the slide eject the mag, rock it back into place and continue firing. This happened several times. I am pretty disappointed. Even with properly greasing the bolt I am still running into these plaguing issues. The rifle was very accurate (up to 60 feet again, I was at Manchester Firing Line that is the limit) but the rifle is still not running smoothly. I hope the Maura case goes well but regardless it seems I must go mainstream and grab an AR. Thanks again everyone who gave me advice on this issue.
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ChevyGuy91
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Whiskeywon
NES Member
Hey hey, there's nothing wrong with a 2 to 4 inch group at 20 yards.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Not since it came back from the factory. I think I am going to go back into the brink one last time and buy a standard 10 round magazine. If that doesn’t work then I think I can at least say I put my best foot forward and didn’t give up.
I just received tracking for my mini coming home from ASI. They re-barreled my pencil barrel 14 with a new style tapered. This involved a fair amount of machining as well as milling the op rod, replacing the gas block and replacing some wear parts. Turn around time was about two weeks.
From talking to Carl I can understand why they are the goto mini folks. They are very knowledgeable and not afraid to spend some time on the phone with a customer. At this point I trust ASI over Ruger CS to get it done right. Granted ya pay ASI vs Ruger warranty. Give them a call and give them a rundown of what’s going on especially how the factory failed you.
From talking to Carl I can understand why they are the goto mini folks. They are very knowledgeable and not afraid to spend some time on the phone with a customer. At this point I trust ASI over Ruger CS to get it done right. Granted ya pay ASI vs Ruger warranty. Give them a call and give them a rundown of what’s going on especially how the factory failed you.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
I’m hesitant to call ASI because I felt like sending the rifle to Ruger should have taken care of these issues and ASI might be overkill, CS told me the rifle ran without any issues at the factory. I don’t know what is going on and I feel it could be a mix between being a first time rifle owner and cleaning/oiling/greasing insufficiently, mag problems, and unsolved internal issues with the rifle itself. Either way this whole thing has been a real ball buster.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
How do you guys generally clean your magazines? I’ve heard paint thinner is not a bad idea. This weekend I may pop the base plates off, stretch the springs and clean the magazines because I think that is definitely a point of failure here.
Use a dedicated cleaner like MPRO7, Hoppes Elite, Simple Green, etc. and not a CLIP on the magazines. Don't use paint thinner, it will damage the bluing & might mess up the followers.
Since your rifle runs with Ruger's shop magazines, I think your issue is the magazine. You might be able to send the magazine to Ruger in exchange for a new one.
Since your rifle runs with Ruger's shop magazines, I think your issue is the magazine. You might be able to send the magazine to Ruger in exchange for a new one.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Ruger told me a little while ago not to send them preban magazines because there would be no way legally for them to send the mags back to me. I just ordered a couple of magazine springs from Midway USA so I'm going to replace the original ones if cleaning them doesn't work out.
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Would you recommend using a copper cleaning brush?
Rocky Mosasaurus
NES Member
Finally changing the springs now but I am having trouble getting the base plate off of the mags, should I bend the lips holding the base plate in?
Edit: It will probably be impossible to change the springs let alone clean the mags because the base plate feed lips are crimped extremely tightly in place I cannot even wedge pliers in between to bend them back.
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