'Afternoon,
Long-time customer of mine came over yesterday to fill out a 4473, and he brought me a Ruger Mini-30 he purchased off someone he knows a year or so back. He couldn't get the bolt open and wanted me to take a look at it.
I did the old mallet to the bolt handle trick and it popped right open. The reason for the lock-up: Rust. I saw some rust on the bolt face (the kind indicative of shooting corrosive ammo - You know the stuff), so I stripped it down. Found surface rust on the piston guide and in the port. Saw a little in the chamber, so I took a bore light to it.
Tried looking down the bore, couldn't see any light. The bore had been completely constricted with rust. He told me he only shot maybe 100 rounds of store-bought Winchester before putting it up. I guess the guy he bought it from was shooting corrosive stuff and neither of them decided to clean the gun...
Needless to say, I put a lot of time cleaning out the bore (chemical and mechanical). I got it as clean as I could, so I slugged it today using two different size slugs. I found no discernible grooves in the slugs.
I've not yet seen such terrible rust inside a bore before (and I restore mil-surps!). He's not gonna be a happy customer when he calls me back and I get to tell him about his brand new paper weight... I've shot some pretty pitted bores, but I wouldn't put my face next to this rifle, that's for sure.