Mini-30 ammo preference???

[bennybooboo]

The father-in-law (actually a pretty cool guy) grabbed up a new Ruger Mini-30 earlier this year because they "needed" one to have handy around the 20-acre property... Nine months later it still hasn't had a round through it.

The guy doesn't "need" anything, so for Christmas I'd like to get him something fun, maybe a few targets (tomatoes, golf balls, tannerite inside a rotten squash, etc...) and some ammo to sling downrange.

Do Mini-30's have any sort of preference on ammo type, bullet grain-weight, etc...? Is there ammo type that is notorious for ftf's?

 

[blfuller]

The Mini-30's prefer brass case ammunition although some do use the steel case surplus successfully. If you are just doing some plinking I'd get some of the Winchester white box 123gr FMJ stuff. For hunting Id' go with any ballistic tip ammo or soft point in a brass case.

The steel case ammo have harder primers typically and misfires do occur. Not sure what type of primers the Hornady steel case ammo uses but they are Berdan which would lead me to think they were a hard primer. I would contact Hornady and see what they say about their ammo.

Most factory ammo is going to be a 123grain bullet, so you would need to experiment with different ones to see what it likes the best. If your FIL handloads that is even better and you can tailor your loads to squeeze the most accuracy out of it.

 

[bennybooboo]

Thanks for the info, man!

Yeah, he hand-loads... but not very seriously. Just for the hunting rifle... that hasn't seen daylight in 6 years.

He's the guy that'll find the "accuracy load" from a random 1982ish manual, and load up a few. Then he'll load a few hundred more (if they go bang).