Tweet
I used to have a Mini 30. Man, I loved it when I took it out of the box! It felt great...sturdy, nice balance, good-looking. I purchased it to keep with my self-imposed rule of never having only one gun to fire a particular caliber. I had purchased a Saiga and a bunch of ammo (steel case of course...why would someone spend the money on new US factory brass 7.62x39? I'd buy a .308 if I wanted to spend that kind of money on ammo...same price and availability but way more power, IMO.)
Anyway...I ignored all the negative reviews I read about the Mini30 and chose to listen to the one or two who said their Mini's were reliable and shot Russian ammo. Well, like I said, it felt great out of the box...and then I took it out to the range...and began a maddening two-month process of attempting to find the right ammo and magazine combination, hammer spring, proper cleaning/lubing technique, etc. It jammed more than any gun I have EVER owned (oh, except my 60 year old hand-me-down tube fed Ward's 22). It jammed on every magazine, every ammo I tried, every situation, every day! That Mini just about drove me crazy. I probably shot a total of around 400 rounds of 5 or 6 types of ammo. Just when I thought I had it figured out, it would start jamming again! Like I said, this went on for a couple months and I was beating my head against the wall trying to make this thing work......
Then I remembered my other 7.62 rifle that had been sitting in my safe the last two months. The unconverted, featureless, no bullet-button, never jams, perfect functioning, easy to clean, easy to maintain, half-the-price-of-a-Ruger, ugly-as-sin, no-ammo-too-cheap-for-it Saiga. Why was I spending tons of time, money, and mental energy trying to get this Mini 30 working?? So I went home, cleaned the Mini, took it to the gun shop and put it on consignment for around $100 less than what I paid for it. When it sold, I went and picked up the money and used it to purchase ammo and another 7.62x39 Saiga that happened to arrive that day. It was a good choice.
Had I read the OP's review first, I may have chosen to go a different direction, since I value the same stuff he does (function first, accuracy next, then everything else).
Anyway...I ignored all the negative reviews I read about the Mini30 and chose to listen to the one or two who said their Mini's were reliable and shot Russian ammo. Well, like I said, it felt great out of the box...and then I took it out to the range...and began a maddening two-month process of attempting to find the right ammo and magazine combination, hammer spring, proper cleaning/lubing technique, etc. It jammed more than any gun I have EVER owned (oh, except my 60 year old hand-me-down tube fed Ward's 22). It jammed on every magazine, every ammo I tried, every situation, every day! That Mini just about drove me crazy. I probably shot a total of around 400 rounds of 5 or 6 types of ammo. Just when I thought I had it figured out, it would start jamming again! Like I said, this went on for a couple months and I was beating my head against the wall trying to make this thing work......
Then I remembered my other 7.62 rifle that had been sitting in my safe the last two months. The unconverted, featureless, no bullet-button, never jams, perfect functioning, easy to clean, easy to maintain, half-the-price-of-a-Ruger, ugly-as-sin, no-ammo-too-cheap-for-it Saiga. Why was I spending tons of time, money, and mental energy trying to get this Mini 30 working?? So I went home, cleaned the Mini, took it to the gun shop and put it on consignment for around $100 less than what I paid for it. When it sold, I went and picked up the money and used it to purchase ammo and another 7.62x39 Saiga that happened to arrive that day. It was a good choice.
Had I read the OP's review first, I may have chosen to go a different direction, since I value the same stuff he does (function first, accuracy next, then everything else).
Comment