Anyone make handloads for the Mini30?

[guzma393]

I have a M30, serial starting at 189 thats been at the back of my safe due to its MOB (minute of barn) type of accuracy. Narrowing it down to the MFG date of 1993.

I was told by a couple of gunsmiths a while back that I most likely have a .308 bore M30. I have yet slugged the bore to figure this out.

Anyone have any luck reloading for the M30 or tried accurizing theirs? Any tips or pointers are welcomed.

 

[DENWA]

Sorry. Ruger in this time period was pay $12 for a rifle barrel from their supplier.

I know. I've owned 2 M77V's that were their "target/marksmen" rifles for sale to police.

The barrels were absolute JUNK.

Just quick look at the rings I have from then are horrible chatter marks and threads not cut right etc.

Those are fairly desirable these days. I would sell it or spend a little cash to have it re-barreled.

The money you'll spend trying to get a load to work just OK will probably be better spent on a new barrel

 

[guzma393]

Sorry. Ruger in this time period was pay $12 for a rifle barrel from their supplier.

I know. I've owned 2 M77V's that were their "target/marksmen" rifles for sale to police.

The barrels were absolute JUNK.

Just quick look at the rings I have from then are horrible chatter marks and threads not cut right etc.

Those are fairly desirable these days. I would sell it or spend a little cash to have it re-barreled.

The money you'll spend trying to get a load to work just OK will probably be better spent on a new barrel

I just tested out some loads for it. I guess I got lucky with my loads then. 4 shot 1.6" group at 100 yards, pulled 122 gr Tula resized to .308, 24 gr of powder 2.185 COL.

I tried 23.5 and 24.5 loads and they were typical to the factory groups (5"-6" groups).

 

[DENWA]

Good or you but that's pretty narrow window of accuracy, but typical of a crap barrel.

The 300WM and 308 Rugers were both that way. No factory ammo would do better than 2.5-3" at 100yds and handloads literally had a very narrow band which worked well with very few bullets.


a good quality barrel replacement is the exact opposite. shoots most everything excellently with very few exceptions. the 350-500 price tag is hard to swallow until you figure your time and ammo trying to get the thing working.

 

[guzma393]

Yeah, this was just a side project to get something a bit more accurate for it. I'd probably slap on a red dot later on (has a cheap busnell scope, but holds zero), make handloads to fill up the mags, and it will go back in the safe.