Scratched .223 After Cycling Mini-14

I was messing with some dummy rounds I made, .223 - they seemed to work find for testing action etc, so all good there.

One thing I noticed is after sizing brass, seating bullet etc, the cases still look good - but after running these through the action, each of them has a vertical scrach down the length of the case. Well, the bottom 80% of the case, perfectly vertical, it isn't there up by the shoulder, but it is on each of the cases.

So, I dont' really like the scratches, since I'm thinking of reloading my cases at least a few times, and I'd rather not have them receive any more marks or damage than needed, so - where are the likely culprits for tracking down where they receive this scratch from?

Magazine? Chamber? Does the bolt ride the case of the next round when it is still in the magazine? My guess is I have a small burr some place, and trying to start with the most likely culrpits if anyone has been down this road before and can add some insight.

after a little checking/testing, it is definitely the lips on the magazines. nice little pool of brass dust at the mouth of the chamber. guess some day, I'll do a little polish on the magazine lips, any tips for how much or little one should do to them? some of them seemed not to scratch at all, but - if I'm going to take the time, I'll probably just do all the magazines I have in use rotation and be done with it.

as an aside on the Mini-14, does anyone smooth off the corner on the ejector so it doens't put such a hard punch mark on the brass when ejecting?

1KPerDay said:

OP are you using Ruger mags? IME aftermarket mags would destroy brass as well as cause jams.

Click to expand...

yes, they are Ruger factory mags. I checked several different ones, and it seems the pattern is for maybe one out of 3 mags to have one side with a feed lip that puts a good solid scratch down the case as the case is pushed forward and the nose hits the ramp and lifts it, the front corner of the lip digs into the case a bit. Should be no problem to smooth it out, just need to sit down and do it. Will probably make it a few hour maintenance project - as I haven't taken one of these mags apart before, probably not needed to do this, but - want to know how to take these mags apart anyway, so - two birds with one stone I guess.

If I wasn't thinking of reloading the cases, I would not have given the scratch a second thought, but - "My Brass!" lol ...

hdwhit said:

Sorry I missed this previously.

My Mini-14s are 181 & 182 series and don't mar the brass at the loads I am using, so I have not done (or had done) any gunsmithing on the ejector.

Click to expand...

good to know. glad to hear. I'll probably mostly shoot relatively light loads, so - hoping my experience is similar.

did a bit of polishing on a few magazines. ran rounds colored with black marker through them. seems some of the still make a little scratch, but not as bad as before. when cleaning up a bit, I found brass shavings from before on the face of the bolt, that looked like what you'd have from trimming brass. so, pretty good shavings.

Just a pic of going back and touching up the feed llips again on a few magazines. My name is Mike - the dial caliper's were my grandfather's, his name is on the case. Just figured I'd share this easy like Sunday Morning pic ...

thanks for the help/tips, for sure second time taking a few mags down was far easier than the first time.

thought I had it, but further testing still shows shave brass on the face of the bolt, and in the chamber. still think it is the magazines, but I smoothed off the feed lips pretty good. started looking at the bottom of the bolt, but didn't see anything obvious, but I figure it would not be obvious, couple areas seem suspect to me as possibly shaving brass, but no big burrs found or anything. more testing needed

had time to squeeze in another round of testing in before having to pack up

did the marker trick with the mark on the end again for orientation, worked well. ran the rounds through 3 times, and the round on the right, gets a gouge in it from the bottom to about 3/4 the way to the top. well, I'm suspecting it is actually the other way - and is from the bolt on its way back, but not 100% sure yet. The scrape, when I loaded it back into the magazine, checking the orientation, did not line up with the feed lip, it was perfectly on the top at 12, and only on rounds coming out of the right side of the magazine.

marked my pic of the bottom of the bolt, with a couple spots that I think are suspect. I did touch up the bottom of th bolt quick with 400 grit sandpaper, on the top area there, that could be the culprit - I suspect that spot more, but marked the two in the pic that I think could be cuasing the remaining brass shavings to be made by the action.

took a stone lightly to those spots and tested again, seems to no longer put he gouge in the brass. tried to touch it up with Oxpho blue, but for the life of me it would not take to the metal this bolt is made out of. figured good enough, not like there aren't a team of places the blue is worn off the bolt anyway, but found it interesting the cold blue would not do anything to the spots I stoned smooth.

finally, got this out and put 10 round through it. I was shooting at the target at the right at only 30 or 40 feet to start getting the sights on paper. I was shooting the Mini at the target on the right, just off hand. Took a few more tries after this to get facotry open sights up a bit for POI, but - pretty good, no issues. brass has a few marks, but nothing unexpected and no big gouges.

Next trip we'll keep working our way further from the targets, curious to see what kind of group this will pull at 50 yards shooting prone or from a rest. The tiny little cluster with me shooting off hand I find promising.