I bought a Mini-30 right before the Assault Weapons ban went into effect. A year or so out of law school and not making much more than enough to pay rent and a truck payment. It was a stainless ranch with wood stock. Think I paid $400 then, way cheaper than any AR option at that time that I knew about. At the time, Chinese 7.62x39 was about $60 per 1k. I picked up a thousand rounds and took it to the bench. Scoped with a cheap Simmons scope, it would hold that ammo about 2.5" at 100. Likewise with the Winchester soft points, which were the only hunting ammo available around here and very hard to obtain. My Dad liked it and killed a couple of deer with it. I killed one. After the ban on importing Chinese ammo, I tried the Russian stuff. The rifle wouldn't hold five rounds on a paper plate at 100. I wasn't handloading that round at the time and sent it down the road. Wish I'd kept it as I'm now loading the round for a Palmetto KS-47 which will easily keep groups under an inch at 100 and is a great little hog rifle. It would be interesting to see how the old Mini would do with my handloads.