Posted on 06/08/2008 7:15:42 AM PDT by Last Dakotan
Based on the valuable input from a previous thread, I picked up a brand new Ruger Mini-30. Right out of the box I had the sad experience of pulling the trigger and no bang. I send it back to the factory, waited long 3 weeks and got it back with a note that they had replaced the firing pin. Took it out yesterday and got 5 shots off before the pin broke again. Cant blame cheap ammo, Im using USA made Winchester. Is Ruger using glass firing pins? Is something misaligned in the action causing extra stress on the pin?
There’s been some talk about mini 30 firing pins being problematic, but it usually is caused by steel cased ammo (Wolf) or berdan primed milsurp.
Not sure what to tell you, but someone will be along that knows that’s up.
i have a p345. great .45 automatic for the price (about $400), but not without its share of complications.
Talk to these guys.
http://www.accuracysystemsinc.com/index.php
They know as much about the Mini-14 as anyone on earth, including Ruger.
They may or may not make the specific parts, but they’ll certainly be able to tell you what the problem is, who makes the parts, and how to fix it.
I would advise calling Ruger prior to returning the gun again. The Mini-rifles are modified Garand actions and firing pin breakage has never been an issue with that design to the best of my knowledge.
I’m not sure if replacing the firing pin could be done by an “amateur” gun plumber but I would think that returning the bolt would be all that was necessary to replace the firing pin.
I just hate it when firearms go CLICK when they should go BANG.
Breakage of the firing pin on the Mini-30 has been reported by others. I believe there is a fix for the problem. Check with the good folks found here:
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=3cc109209e0795413ec9fc4280f15d3b
You might get a more complete response at http://www.perfectunion.com It’s a mini-14/30 M1 site.
I’ve never had a prob with mine. So, I have no other input.
My son has one upstairs, but I'm not real knowledgeable on these carbines. Broken firing pins scare me. A repeat failure means the problem is still undiagnosed and even scarier. We don't want any portion of the pin touching off a round, especially if lock-up hasn't been achieved. Don't shoot it till it's fixed! So give the factory guys another chance and tell them you think it is unsafe. They would much rather have a satisfied customer than a law suit.
As the old sage wrote, "The only interesting rifle is an accurate rifle". Even if you get it to function acceptably well for playing, it will never deliver acceptable accuracy for serious purposes.
I talked with Ruger engineers at the SHOT Show in February and asked what they did to improve the Mini-14 accuracy as so stated in their 2008 catalog. They provided a weak story about adding some kind of dampener to the muzzle which supposedly cut group sizes in half. Loosely translated, that means that the typical old 6-8 inch groups at 100 yards can be expected to be as small as 3-4 inches (about twice as large as their competitors). Over three decades and they still haven't fixed a basically poor design
If you are willing to live with a rifle that performs so poorly, go ahead and waste more time and money on Ruger's Mini-14.
If you compare the old and new designs side by side you'd see that they are noticeably different.
Try Brownell's
Try Brownell's
The typical reason for titanium parts in the firing mechanism is to reduce weight and therefore lock-time. If the firing pin is breaking "regularly" on his individual rifle, and this isn't a common, known problem in the design, then there's a very good chance that something serious is causing it, and the firearm isn't safe to shoot. Replacing the firing pin with one less prone to breakage because it's harder could cause a catastrophic failure, putting his safety in jeopardy.
Mark
I got the names the first time I called. Oddly enough, I was told it was Ruger policy not to disclose the last names of phone customer service reps. What do they think - I'm going to hunt them down? Is this a admission that Ruger thinks gun owners are less stable?
Ping
PING!
Think about it. To protect their employees, {and the company from liability} they aren't going to give you any last names. Companies that don't have this policy can get in big trouble. In the real world, I service some stuff that can be pretty dangerous. One of our associates was recently dragged into court over the death of a customer. Seems this customer had obtained the name of a technician and would call him requesting various "how to" advice. The tech wrongfully assumed that anyone that asked him for advice would have a basic knowledge and some safety training on the product. During a phone conversation, the tech left out a key warning, similar to "shut off the airplane before working on the engine". The customer received a Darwin Award and the company was promptly sued. All because a tech was trying to be a nice guy and give out a little free info to someone he was trying to help.
I woulda blamed steel cased russian ammo but that aint it
I guess this must be “breaking news.” Sorry about your problem.
I didn’t know that Ruger still made the Mini-30.
Like what? Titanium pins are softer than the steel ones that Ruger uses. There's probably been a run of bad pins, and he says he doesn't want to go around the merry go round with Ruger anymore. The gunsmith who does the work will spot any potential problems.
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