Mini 14 Ejection question/problem

[KnotRight]

I have a friend that is having problems with his Mini 14 ejecting factory 5.56 rounds (Maybe 2 out of 20 get hung up). He says that there is no problem when he fires 223. The ejection looks to be getting hung up on his rail that his scope is mounted on.

The rifle with throw the spent brass from 10 yards straight out (3:00 position) the port to 10 yards out at a 1:00 angler. He even gets hit in the head every now and then.

I looked at the rim of a couple rounds that got stuck and could not see any excess extractions marks.

Any ideas?

 

[hittman]

Is his Mini chambered for 5.56 or 223?

 

[KnotRight]

He says it has 5.56 on the chamber

 

[DGW1949]

I've seen numerous reports which indicate that Ruger has had some ejector and/or extractor and/or extractor-plunger and/or bolt problems of late.
It might be a bad part or it might be that the parts are not interacting correctly due to a machining gltch...or even due to poor assembly during manufacture. Thing is though, if your friend hasn't had very much prior experience with the "Ranch Rifle" design, he'd be hard pressed to distinguish a good part from a bad part....and even if he could, who wants to start doing their own repairs on a gun that wasn't right when built?

T'were it me, I'd be calling Ruger for a shipping label.
You can rest assured that they've been through the scenerio many times.

DGW....who also has one that had to go back.

 

[dfletcher]

For about $19.00 he can get a 4 pack of gas port bushings from Accuracy Systems. Easy to change out and he'll stop flinging brass 50 ft away. Might cure the ejection issue. My Mini lobs brass about 5 ft out to 2 o'clock - other shooters have stopped calling "ready on the firing line" when I'm still 100 yds downrange.

 

[KnotRight]

Thanks dfletcher

 

[Voyager28]

You mentioned that he has his scope mounted on a rail. Any way to post a photo of it? That's where I would start. Take the rail off and fire some rounds and see if the problem persists.

Also, the suggestion to step down the size of the gas bushing is a VERY good one. I would recommend a maximum size of .045 but, personally, I prefer a .040.

Bob

 

[DGW1949]

Hello Bob....
I thought about the rail aspect too, but to my way of thinking (and assuming that he's using the Ruger supplied rail), the gun should still work fine with it in place.
That don't however, mean that it does, so your idea about trying again after removing the rail might-well be a good one.

I'm allways up for a learning oppertunity, so now that you've mentioned it....I think that I'll install the (Ruger) rail that I have onto my own Mini-14, just to see if having it on there creates a problem.

Thanks for the input.

DGW

 

[swmetal]

I have a target model that has the same problem with 223. Mine is chambered in 223 only. With the Ruger scope mount and a scope sometimes ejected brass hits the rail and/or scope and jams in the action. With the rail only (no scope) it only rarely happens, but I can see brass marks on the front corner of the rail. Without the rail, no ejection problems.

I haven't tried yet, but I was thinking to try extra high scope mounts and grind the front edge of the rail a bit.

 

[DGW1949]

Just as an experiment, I installed the Ruger-supplied rail on my 582-series today and went shooting. All together, I fired 60 rds of LC M193 ball and 20 rounds of LC M855 without a hitch.
No difference in how the ejected brass looked either, so I'm saying that it aint touching the rail on the way out.

On the other hand, my gun aint the OP's gun.

DGW

 

[bczrx]

I have a 580-series Mini-14.

I have ejection issues.

The problem is that the ejector doesn't kick the shell out of the bolt about one out of every 25-60 times. It used to be one out of every 15 times.

It seems that the bolt will occasionally 'tip' sideways when it is compressing the hammer assembly, and that this makes the front of the bolt pivot just far enough out that the shell isn't ejected.

Then, the bolt will strip a new round from the mag and attempt to load it, while the shell will 'stovepipe' on the face of the chamber, above the chamber- stopping the bolt.

It isn't a scope rail that is blocking ejection- it is the gun itself.

It went to Ruger 3 times. On the 3rd time they simply sent me a new gun. Same problems, but not as severe.

I am now working on the problem to figure out why the hammer does this intermittently.

All of this is to say your friend's rifle may have a similar gremlin.

I'd have him take the scope rail off and fire 200 rounds through it. Observe the ejection pattern [angle/distance]. Then put the scope rail back to see if that does anything different.

my new 582 replacement came with a scope rail- but I won't install it until this weird jam is resolved.

 

[Riprock]

This thread may be long dead, but in case anyone else is having ejection issues with Mini-14 I figured I'd post my recent experience. By way of background, I bought a new 580+series 5.56 Ranch Rifle in stainless a few years ago. Immediately I started having ejection issues at the range. Not extraction - the case would extract just fine but wouldn't eject and clear the open bolt. I tried different (factory) mags and different rounds to no avail. I eventually contacted Ruger customer service and they replaced the rifle entirely. The new rifle had the exact same problem (but less severe). I tried everything. Cleaned and lubed. Adjustable gas block. New mags. Everything I could think of. Then I took a really close look at the bolt and ejector bolt stop and here's what I found (see attached photos). The original factory bolt stop looked like some toddler welded it together in shop class. I ordered a replacement part from Midway USA for a few bucks and you can see the difference in quality. Night and day. My theory is that the crappy stop was catching the ejected case too soon before it had space to clear the rifle. Although it was close enough to allow some rounds to fully eject. It could also explain the totally random and chaotic case ejections I experienced (sometimes 30-feet at 2 o'clock; other times 4 o'clock; sometimes only a foot or two). I'm quite surprised that Ruger would allow such shoddy quality to be shipped out the door. I'm equally surprised that they didn't catch this when I sent the first rifle back, but I'm glad to have a fix for only a few dollars and without the hassle of shipping. Hope that helps anyone else out there looking for a cheap fix to a really annoying problem.