Dear S&W forum, over the weekend i watched a documentary about the U.S. Navy Seals and one of the Seals was carrying a Ruger mini-14 rifle with a stock that folded under the rifle. Now here is my question. Have American military units ever used the Ruger mini-14 rifle? sincerely and respectfully mg357 a proud member of the S&W forum.

A couple of questions: Are you sure it was a Mini-14 and not a M-1/M-2 carbine? What was the date of the documentary? If it was during the Vietnam war, it was most likely a M-1 or M-2 carbine with a folding stock (the Mini-14 was introduced in 1974). I never heard of any US military unit carrying the Mini-14, although a very few foreign military units were equipped with them (Bermuda and Honduras according to Wikipedia). It would not be unusual for a US special ops unit to carry the same weapon as a foreign unit they were working with, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that a SEAL unit training with the Honduran military could have carried a Mini-14, but that's a long shot.

There is/was the Ruger AC556 that was a select fire version of the Mini-14. Factory Ruger folding stocks fold to the side, and the butt folds up to a stud on the forearm to keep it from unfolding by accident. I've never seen an underfolder on a Mini.

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C M Brier CPA, CIA, CFE

I'm not aware of any standardized use of the Mini 14, I do know there were some mercs back in the 80's that used them, and that the USSOCOM can use pretty much anything they can buy. I've never seen an underfolding stock for one though.

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Even older, even crankier....

There were THOUSANDS of American Viet Vets that went to Rhodesia after Vietnam. The Mini was very popular with the Americans who worked 'Security' or guards on farms. The Rhodesian army usually carried the FN FAL.

Federal Ordnance manufactured an underfolding stock for the Mini-14.

Class III

The military M14 rifle was offered with both a underfolding (Type III) and sidefolding (Type V) stock. That is probably what you saw.

Wew!. I thought you were gonna say it was a Glock rifle!

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Still Running Against the Wind

In addition, the A-Team carried Mini's. Their experience matched mine in that they were very inaccurate. They never could hit anybody!

I have a Mini-14 Ranch Rifle, and find it to be plenty accurate for it's intended purpose of varmint control.

If it was a documentary made by New Dominion Pictures, it may have been a re-enactment using whatever weapons they had laying around, weapons not meant to be period accurate.

They do a lot of picture shooting in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area of Virginia, the City of Virginia Beach helps them out with police cars and officers a lot.

I've seen a lot of thier documentarys where the bad guy is toting a Daisy BB gun that looks like a 1911 pistol, others where SWAT teams are armed with SKS's, that sort of thing. I enjoy watching thier shows to catch the gun in-accuracies.

Here's a link to their web-site:

New Dominion Pictures / Home

The Mini was introduced in 74 and Vietnam was about over by then.

The factory Mini14 folding stock looks "sort of" like an underfolder, though it folds to the side. The Mini14 actually was in U.S. inventory for a while. Marine guards at Embassies had them. Saw photos of them in the arms rooms, etc. No, I don't know why they had them either. I think DSS also had them. I suppose that it is possible that if a Naval Special Warfare team was training with embassy folks one might have been used. Or it could have been used for training since a wide variety of domestic and foreign small arms were, and are, fired for training and familiarization.

Supposedly a few may have been used in South and Central America during the 1980s - commercial availability making them deniable presumably.

I bought a used SS Mini in @ '93. Original box and came with a Fed. Ord. underfolder wood/steel stock. I sold the underfolder stock for more than I paid for the package.
Still have the Mini. Max is correct, no Ruger Mini's in Nam.

I don't have the book at hand, but Dick Marcinko's autobiography mentions the formation of SEAL Team 6 and lists some of the hardware he wanted. Pretty sure he made specific reference to ordering - and getting - a case of stainless Mini-14s.

I'll have to dig it up and see if I can find that part.

The A team has used them.

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Forum consigliere

Caj, I like you to refer to Post#9 paragraph 1, sentence 1.

Speaking of Rhodesia & the FN FAL, here's a close friend with his FN while serving with the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI.)

Seal team 6 was not formed till after VN. So Marcinko could well have bought some Minis. Mini 14s were found in some arms rooms at various diplomatic stations/embassies, as well as for civilian use at US military installations, security guards and the like. Minis were used by some fed LE types for a long time and still are found in some armorys around. The most use of the Minis by government were at various prisons for tower guards as the Mini is very easy to train personnel with. Moreover they are very reliable and prison weapons frequently get minimal care but are used everyday-just not shot a lot. I have had Minis for many years and the newer guns are head and shoulders above the previous guns, but even the old guns could be made to be quite accurate by a good smith. I like them very much and one is in the back of my work car as I write this.

I can only say that I work with a former USN Seal, recently I told him that I was thinking about buying something in 223 / 5.56 NATO. He told me that while he dearly loved the AR-15,
when it came to trusting his life to a rifle he would choose a Mini-14. Guess what.
I recently purchased a Tactical Mini-14 in 5.56 NATO I chose the standard synthetic stock over the folding model.

If you believe the Bible word for word, a shepherd boy named David killed the Philistine giant Goliath with a rock. The Ruger Mini had yet to be invented. Had the Mini existed then, and been lying by the stream David plucked the rock from...the rock was still the best choice David could of made.

I am not quite sure why the mini-14 tends to attract as many critics as it does. It seems to be a perfectly serviceable that is accurate and will hold its own among rifle in its price range and caliber.

The rifle shown below is mine, I have done some basic things to it such as installing a muzzle break, a barrel brace, polishing the trigger group, installing recoil buffers, installing a reduced diameter gas port, and bedding the receiver.

The second photo is a 3 shot group that was shot at 100 yards. I know that this is only one group and is only a set of 3 and not 5 or 10,but it is still telling of what the rifle may be capable of achieving.





Sorry - seem to be having trouble posting photos

Ruger produced the AC556, as mentioned above, in a select fire version originally with the full wood stock but then came out with the folder. These were produced for LE/Military use. The AC556 had a slightly longer receiver to allow for select fire and this longer receiver was shared with semi-auto only Mini-14s with the 180- serial number. Mini-14s with the later 181- and beyond serial numbers have a shorter receiver. GatorFarmer is correct that US Marines assigned to Marine Security Guard posts at certain US embassies are issued Mini-14s instead of M-16s. As he said, I have no idea why.

CW

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μολὼν λαβέ

I would like to see a picture of the weapon being discussed as I am a bit confused about the product.
Please
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

Never mind---I googled it and we must be talking about the mini 30.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

Those who don't like them can give me there share. Mine is setup with a scope, a synthetic stock, worked on trigger group. Never failes to function. Decent accuracy, but not as good as my heavy barreled Ruger 77 in 223.

Except for the lack of select fire I like it much better than the M16s I had in USMC. Simple and reliable.

So do I. I've had an SS Mini since the mid 80's and it's always hit anything I've aimed at. Accuracy issues? Like any other firearm, it's always the gun, never the guy behind the sights.

As soon as they first came out way back then I bought a SS Mini. I found a under folder stock for it and it stayed dressed that way for a while. (Stock had a wood pistol grip with a skeleton type under folder; do not remember who made this stock.)

After a few years I redressed it in its original stock and still have the weapon today. Sold the folder long ago.

As long as does not have a pistol grip stock or other verboten features or larger than 10 round mags are available for this gun it passes muster with NY now infamous "Safe Act"

I have a reasonably accurate carbine, but I have seen some that were not near as accurate as mine. It shoots anything I put through it including many different combination of hand loads I was working up.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!