Ruger Mini-14 180 Series locked up

[TraditionalCatholic]

Hello all,
I was on the range the other day with a co-worker, and I had brought my Ruger Mini 14, because my co-worker was a new shooter, I figured it would be best to start my co-worker off with something small-caliber and easy to shoot.


Anyway, I had brought a couple boxes of some new Brown Bear 55gr FMJ ammunition that I had bought from my LGS. I have been shooting Tula through it forever, and it's always fed fine. However, when I loaded up the Brown Bear, the first round didn't go off. I racked the bolt, ejected the dud round and tried again. This time, the round fired, and ejected about halfway and jammed. I cleared it, fired again, and the rifle fired, but the bolt didn't retract. I tried retracting it manually, and I couldn't. I pulled as hard as I physically could, but to no avail. I finally got the cleaning rod and wiggled the stuck case around until I was able to manually retract the bolt. I was pleasantly surprised to find a section of the case rim had been ripped off. After confirming that the bolt cycled fine by hand, I loaded up my last box of the Tula, and it fired all 20 rounds beautifully. Not a single jam/hiccup/misfire.

I've read good things about Brown Bear .223. What gives?

 

[courtgreene]

Magtech has some steel core stuff out now that is the same price as brownbear/tula/wolf in my area... brass cased. I learned the hard way to just stick to brass. PMC has some pretty cheap brassed cased stuff as well.

 

[Rich223]

Stick with PMC, basically, come to terms with the fact that 223 is gonna cost 6 dollars a box of 20. lol.