Messed Up Mini-14

[burningfeathers]

A few months ago I bought a brand new Ruger Mini-14. I shot it, diassembled it, cleaned it, and dry fired it multiple times afterward and everything was just peachy. About a week later I picked the gun up (because it looked lonely) and tried to open the action. The slide was stuck forward and no part of the weapon would budge, not the slide, trigger guard, nothing. Dismayed, I sacrafised my pride and took her into the gun smith. Apparently I had inserted a spring upside down, Ruger says its not supposed to matter, but apparently it did. I returned to the range a few weeks later and all was well. I again cleaned the weapon but this time did not disassemble it completly (i.e. said spring was NOT removed from the weapon), again, it cycled beautifully, and dry fired normally. The weapon then sat for about a week before I handled it agian, and the problem had returned. The weapon seemingly locked up. I again took it into the smith to have it looked at, but this time he too was stumped, he couldn't even get the thing disassembled. Being as only the trigger assembly was removed during cleaning it is highly unlikely that the weapon was re-assembled improperly...which means I have no idea what is wrong with my baby.

Just wondering if you guys have any suggestions or insight before I ship her off to Ruger.

Thanks