Mini-14s had a reputation for mediocre accuracy. It was traced to poor barrel harmonics. Once identified the problem was corrected…about 2005 when the rifle had been in production over thirty years.

I’ve never been able to warm up to the Mini. Some love them…I get that.

A colleague went to rifle instructor school back in the early ‘90s. He said students in the class had either a Mini-14 or an AR-15. He said by the end of the week all the AR-15s were still shooting and everyone with a Mini wanted to wrap them around a post due to malfunctions. They simply weren’t made for such heavy use.

Today..there are many clones of the AR-15…there are apparently no clones of the Mini-14. If Ruger had taken more in the design of the Mini…more substantial and designed it around the AR-15 magazine rather than an expensive, proprietary design…they might cut more heavily into AR-15/M4 sales.