The evolution of flute instability in a cold, high-density hydrogen plasma jet, injected into a mirror machine, is studied. The experiment was designed to minimize the interaction of the plasma with the walls, thus bringing it close to the ideal magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability conditions. The modal growth rate was measured in various settings to demonstrate the effects of the finite Larmor radius, Bohm diffusion, conductive limiter, biased limiter and neutral background gas. In this paper we will demonstrate that lowering the magnetic field increases stability, as does the insertion of a conducting ring. However, if the ring is biased, the stability is reduced due to inhomogeneous coupling between the plasma and the limiter. It was also found that heavy background gas dramatically reduces the flute instability growth rate.