Bought four factory Ruger Mini-14 thirties from their website, fifty bucks apiece. Today I took them to the range.
Executive Summary: All four failed to function.
I used LC M193, R-P 55 grain, and Federal 50 grain JHP. All these rounds and more run 100% in my Mini when I use the factory 20 round mags. But the thirties? All four failed to hold the bolt open. Not once did any mag hold the bolt open. They did not fit well as do the twenties; they wallered around in the magwell. Two had bolt-over fail to feeds.
The construction is different from that of the twenties and although I didn’t measure anything, the fit is obviously different.
I’m sending them back to Ruger for replacement with 20 round mags.
The OEM 30rd mags were discontinued because of problems they had years ago. When I heard they were coming back, I wondered if they had made a tweak to the mags, the new guns, or were just pushing them out to sell.
Ruger reps specifically recommended the 20s over the 30s, for that reason. Especially when used with the then-new OEM synthetic stock.
Oh, I didn’t mean your report was crap, I meant the whole ‘factory mags are worthless’ situation was ‘crap’. Sorry for the confusion, when reading that post again now I realise what it looks like.
So there are no 30 rounders worth buying? That’s a shame.
Sure, wasn’t accusing you of accusing me . … . but to answer the question, I’d say the Factory Ruger Mini-14 20 round mag is the ONLY reliable one that I personally know of. Sad state of affairs. When the Ban expired I bought some from 44mag for $25. Recently the Ruger website offered them for $29 but then they saw the demand and jacked them up to $39.
Ruger has a 30 day exchange/refund policy for stuff bought off their website. On the 30th day I sent all four thirty round mags back to them for exchange for five of the twenties ($.05 difference). We’ll see if Ruger makes good. I’ll keep y’all posted.
I can’t overemphasize how much better the fit is for the twenties rather than the thirties. The twenties snick right in, feeding is perfect, bolt hold open is perfect.
Shame on Ruger for charging fifty bucks for a mag that’s really no better than USA, National, etc.
I think I have a functional 30 round Mini-14 mag. I bought it for my Dad at Smitty’s Grocery store back in the early 80s. I have no idea of the manufacturer, but I don’t remember it giving problems. It’s probably been 10 years since I fired our mini though.
I agree with ST, as long as the round feed functionality is tops. Bolt hold open, though important, pales to round feeding reliability. Otherwise, what a bunch of crap! Get the twenties!!!
Just for the heck of it I took the Mini back out to the range today. I brought along all my twenty round factory mags.
Executive summary: Perfect function with a variety of ammo.
I was benchresting, shot R-P 55 grain, Federal 50 grain JHP, and my own pet 55 grain AR handloads. Zero Fail to feed; zero bolt hold open problems. Perfecto.
(Only bummer is accuracy. Minis make patterns, not groups. Plus my rifle is weird: With the rear sight adjusted up as far as it will go, the bullet impact is still about 3" low at 100 yards. Pretty sad. But it’s accurate enough for a trunk gun).
Now that I think about it, during the Ban a friend lent me his two thirtiy round factory mags thinking I’d buy them (he wanted $75 each). One worked just fine, one had nose down fail to feed.
During the Ban I tried Thermold, USA Magazines, Triple K and ProMag, all thirties. All failed to function. When the Ban expired I threw all those expensive paperweights in the trash and bought factory twenties from 44mag.com for $24.95 each.
Conclusion: the ONLY mag that works reliably in the Mini-14 is the Ruger factory 20 round mag. As noted above, I sent my four faulty thirties back to Ruger for exchange for five twenties.
There are some tweaks that can help your Mini be more accurate. The best of them is to shorten the barrel to 16". That mod took one of mine from a 4" to a ~1.5" gun, with better consistency.
Checking your gas block, keeping it tight and evenly torqued helps to varying extents.
It is minute-of-felon accurate though, or “accurate enough.”
Plus my rifle is weird: With the rear sight adjusted up as far as it will go, the bullet impact is still about 3" low at 100 yards.
When you talk to Ruger again, let them know that. There are several rear sight heights available, and they usually send out the one you need gratis.
I didn’t know that; I’ll send Ruger an email about the sights.
ETA I just sent Ruger an email on their ask-a-question website about the availability of a longer rear sight. I’ll also update that issue in case y’all want to know.
True enough. My own experience, based on a sample of six, is that 4 of 6 failed to hold the bolt open, and 3 of 6 had nose-down fail to feeds. That’s a failure rate of over 50%. My experience with the aforementioned aftermarket “magazines” is even worse.
Before we file this away… I’m hearing things about some tweaks to the newest version of the Ruger 20rd mag. I don’t have one and am disinclined to buy one. Would you mind posting some pics of an assembled and disassembled mag?
Sure. I compared the new mags to my ban-era mags. Here are the results.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The new ones are identical in every way.
The new twenties ship in a retail bubble pack, whereas the ban era ones shipped in the famous white box.
They appear on visual inspection to be identical to the ban one in every way. The construction of the follower, the construction of the lock on the rear spine, etc. are identical. Even the welds are in the same places and are the same sizes. The only difference is that the post ban ones are not LEO marked.
Here’s a view of the new one disassembled. I did not put a micrometer on any of the parts, but the appearance of the parts and the fit in the rifle are the same. I haven’t test fired the new ones yet, but I’d do so with every confidence.
EDIT: Big thumbs up for Ruger customer service. Not only did they trade 4 thirties for 5 twenties as requested, they did so promptly. The USPS “lost” the package; I called Ruger customer service and they actually called the post office near my house and helped them “find” it. Can’t do better than that!
