maxfam
Member
I bought a used Mini 14 Ranch for around $400 about 12 years ago. During the first time I shot it, I said to myself "Why did I wait so long to get one of these ". It's a very fun plinking rifle. Every one who shoots it likes it.
I don’t like Ruger Mini 14s…
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BKLooney
Member
Although I don't own one at the moment, I bet in all the years I've dealt with firearms I've owned at least 12 or so mini's. Thousands of rounds ran through them collectively, I cannot remember malfunctions of any type, all were extremely reliable.
Piwo
Member
I bought a standard mini 14(not Ranch rifle) back before the Y2K concerns as a contingency. I got a great price on it it. AR 15s cost much more then. I didn't own an "urban combat" rifle at the time. I had planned on selling it after the anticipated apocalypse subsided. I didn't expect much accuracy from it but it was a 2.5 to 3.5 MOA rifle and that was more than enough for a driveway length or city block distance employment. It was also fine for the woods I frequented as 50 yards was about the the maximum distance one could see. My Mini NEVER jammed with anything, but every single AR-15 that my friends had did at some point. That, or they suffered from some malady that required an armorer or trip back to the mother ship. My feeling at the time was that any accuracy advantage an AR15 had was muted by it's less than 100% reliability. So, I never got rid of it. I put a scout style upper forend on it with a red dot sight and improved my ability to hit with it at the distances I would use it.
I later bought a S&W Sporter 2. Most of the issues I observed in earlier ARs are gone. It seems they are more refined nowadays. And far less expensive, relatively speaking. It has far greater accuracy and has runs flawlessly. It is now my urban defense rifle in the unlikely event I would need one. The mini is now used more as a woods gun with the factory 5 round mags. Its looks don't scare people when that is a consideration. It is less bulky than an AR. But more importantly it is a reliable performer for what I use it for. One can ask for no more than that.
I later bought a S&W Sporter 2. Most of the issues I observed in earlier ARs are gone. It seems they are more refined nowadays. And far less expensive, relatively speaking. It has far greater accuracy and has runs flawlessly. It is now my urban defense rifle in the unlikely event I would need one. The mini is now used more as a woods gun with the factory 5 round mags. Its looks don't scare people when that is a consideration. It is less bulky than an AR. But more importantly it is a reliable performer for what I use it for. One can ask for no more than that.
LVSteve
Member
Could be the synthetic stock helps with accuracy. Wood is nocer to look at, but it can be a curse when it comes to consistency.
LVSteve
Member
I see that some sneer at the SKS. It is well known that the Chinese Type 56 variant with the right ammo (.310 bullets, not .308) is a 2 MOA gun and sometimes better. The Box o' Truth website shot a stock AR with vanilla FMJ and surplus ammo and it didn't get close to that kind of accuracy.
I'd be interested to know what ammo Mike uses in his Mini-30.
I'd be interested to know what ammo Mike uses in his Mini-30.
press-1-for-english
Member
After all these years I'm surprised some enterprising engineer hasn't developed a quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive magazine well conversion so folks can use AR and AK mags in their mini's. Just a thought. Please don't flame me. LOL
SnidelyWhiplash
Member
Some years back there was a company that made plastic mags that would fit the Mini-14, AR-15 and the Armalite AR-180.
I had an AR-180 at the time as well as AR-15s...tried one of those mags and didn't like it. It was hard plastic which seemed less durable but the big problem was that it fit very tight and wouldn't drop out of either model rifle I had tried it in. You really had to pull it out. I guess it likely wouldn't have worked any better in a Mini.
Whether the issue was poor design or poor manufacture I don't know but it was a piece of junk. Maybe a more thoroughly engineered design might work or possibly there's simply too much incompatibility between the competing design rifles.
Basically...if there's money to be made someone would likely have come up with a workable design by now.
I had an AR-180 at the time as well as AR-15s...tried one of those mags and didn't like it. It was hard plastic which seemed less durable but the big problem was that it fit very tight and wouldn't drop out of either model rifle I had tried it in. You really had to pull it out. I guess it likely wouldn't have worked any better in a Mini.
Whether the issue was poor design or poor manufacture I don't know but it was a piece of junk. Maybe a more thoroughly engineered design might work or possibly there's simply too much incompatibility between the competing design rifles.
Basically...if there's money to be made someone would likely have come up with a workable design by now.
The Mini 14 is a rifle some folks just love to hate, beyond any rational reason.
I own a number of AR-15s in various configurations and in my experience quality of the barrel makes a a difference in accuracy as does the configuration. The average $600 M4gery won't shoot with a newer 58x series mini 14 or an older mini 14 that has been accurized.
I also own three mini 14s and all of them are extremely reliable. Back when I was issued an M16A1 if I was going to have to shoot it, and I'd been crawling around on the ground and or there was dust and sand blowing in the wind, the first thing I'd do at every opportunity was pull the rear pin, slide the bolt out and wipe off the bolt carrier and upper receiver and relube it. If you didn't the odds of a malfunction were high.
With an M1A, BM59 or Mini 14, I get superb reliably even if the action is dirty and contaminated with sand, dirt pr leaf litter. The larger tolerances make it much less picky about operating in extreme environments.
I own a number of AR-15s in various configurations and in my experience quality of the barrel makes a a difference in accuracy as does the configuration. The average $600 M4gery won't shoot with a newer 58x series mini 14 or an older mini 14 that has been accurized.
I also own three mini 14s and all of them are extremely reliable. Back when I was issued an M16A1 if I was going to have to shoot it, and I'd been crawling around on the ground and or there was dust and sand blowing in the wind, the first thing I'd do at every opportunity was pull the rear pin, slide the bolt out and wipe off the bolt carrier and upper receiver and relube it. If you didn't the odds of a malfunction were high.
With an M1A, BM59 or Mini 14, I get superb reliably even if the action is dirty and contaminated with sand, dirt pr leaf litter. The larger tolerances make it much less picky about operating in extreme environments.
The AR-180B was for the most part a big improvement over the AR-180.
Out of the box the AR-180B lacked the folding stock of the AR-180, but it was an easy modification. Similarly it lacked the Z shaped charging handle, but at the time you could get a charging handle for the V-15 and install it in the AR-180B after a single minor milling operation on the bolt.
I miss the AR-180's dust cover but it's not a great loss as the AR-180 is a very AK like open design, not readily choked by dirt.
The big improvement was an AR-15 style magazine release and full compatibility with unmodified AR-15 magazines.
It's major problem was that it just could not compete with cheap AR-15s and there wide array of adult Lego set like 3rd party aftermarket accessories.
OP
I disagree. I think most folks want to love the mini or they wouldn't have bought one, or several. I bought a dud then bought two more hoping for a more accurate example, but to no avail. I didn't need another shotgun, so I dumped em.
AJ
US Veteran
Walter Rego
Member
I had always admire the looks and concept of the Mini-14 but never enough to lay down my hard earned cash while the reports of mediocre accuracy were common enough that I knew it wasn't just isolated examples. But when ammo was $5/20 I kept thinking if i found one cheap enough it would be worth adding an Accu-Strut which supposedly would bring it down to a 2-3 MOA rifle.
And then, around 2007 they got some major improvements finally. Still, having a 5.56/.223 rifle seemed like a good idea but owning an AR15 rifle here in Commiefornia meant that it had to be so *******ized to be legal that it hardly resembled the guns sold in free states. On the other hand, other than being restricted to maximum 10 round magazine, the Mini-14 has stayed under the anti's radar.
I finally broke down and bought one last year. A blue steel, hardwood stocked Ranch Rifle. I added a sling and a Leupold VX Freedom 1.5x4x20mm straight tube scope. I can't see adding a heavy, bulky high magnification scope to one. The Leupold only weighs 9.6 ounces and doesn't need higher rings so it sits down low and at the lowest setting is very fast for close in targets. A few minutes with a fine ceramic stone smoothed out the trigger and it breaks a little over 4 lbs. Good enough for me.
The other benefit to the Mini-14 is that it has a chamber cut to the "Wylde" dimensions which means that it will safely shoot either 5.56 NATO or .223 ammo. The rate of twist isn't optimized for the longer, heavier bullets that are in vogue these days but is fine with 55 to 68 grain bullets. Too bad Ruger didn't make the changes back in the 1980's.
And then, around 2007 they got some major improvements finally. Still, having a 5.56/.223 rifle seemed like a good idea but owning an AR15 rifle here in Commiefornia meant that it had to be so *******ized to be legal that it hardly resembled the guns sold in free states. On the other hand, other than being restricted to maximum 10 round magazine, the Mini-14 has stayed under the anti's radar.
I finally broke down and bought one last year. A blue steel, hardwood stocked Ranch Rifle. I added a sling and a Leupold VX Freedom 1.5x4x20mm straight tube scope. I can't see adding a heavy, bulky high magnification scope to one. The Leupold only weighs 9.6 ounces and doesn't need higher rings so it sits down low and at the lowest setting is very fast for close in targets. A few minutes with a fine ceramic stone smoothed out the trigger and it breaks a little over 4 lbs. Good enough for me.
The other benefit to the Mini-14 is that it has a chamber cut to the "Wylde" dimensions which means that it will safely shoot either 5.56 NATO or .223 ammo. The rate of twist isn't optimized for the longer, heavier bullets that are in vogue these days but is fine with 55 to 68 grain bullets. Too bad Ruger didn't make the changes back in the 1980's.
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dsf
Member
I think you have to get to the recently made Mini 14s for that supposed greater accuracy. The series through (IIRC) 195 all use the pencil barrel profile.
dsf
Member
Maybe it's because of the heavier barrel profile or using different machinery but I've not heard about the 30 having such accuracy problems. Mine has done OK.
dsf
Member
Re CA and the AR reconfiguring - I bought a Fightlite rifle as sort of a mix & match between AR and Mini. Mini type lower using AR mags, AR 15 uppers.
in a X39 -
Lousy trigger in the original and maybe not the best for fast magazine changes, but all in all a pretty good rifle on its own.
Abbynormal
Member
You can't polish a ****! Sorry
I bought a like-new blued 580 series with several extra mags for $700 a few months ago. I put a 3-9x Burris I had laying around on it. Only one range trip so far, but it showed some promise - 2 - 2.5" groups with just some random ammo I had in my bag. I plan to do some work with it and see whats possible. I don't intend to spend any significant amount of money on it - I already have two good ARs, a Colt 6920 and a M&P Sport II. We'll see if it's capable of anything less than teacup size groups.
That sounds about right.
My agency issued Minis in the 90s because we were too cheap to buy ARs, and most deputies couldn't afford to buy their own AR. As instructors the Minis had us pulling our hair out at qual time because of the accuracy issues (our qual included 100yd shots). Add a 4 moa shooter to a 4 moa gun, and it's pretty much impossible.
I was very happy when we finally transitioned to ARs... made my life as an instructor MUCH easier!
Interesting side note... at that time, our policy was pretty open on rifles. We had deputies carrying everything from lever guns to SKSs...
We got the Minis in 1992, they were as accurate as everyone says. Over the years, ten I believe, we had two that sheared the lug off the bolt. Ruger did make it good.
I went to a select fire course in the mid 1990's.Everyone but two guys had M16's or HK MP5's, the two exceptions had full auto Mini14's. Both broke the first day.
I have owned a Mini14 and a 30. Neither shot particularity well.
I have no interest in owning another. I am also not a huge fan of the AR platform, but there is no denying the superiority of them.
OP
How's the mini compare with the AK for accuracy?
I bought my Mini back when ARs were twice the price of a Mini. Around 1997 a poor college student could come up with $400, but couldn't swing $800+ for an AR then. Funny, ARs are half the price of the Mini now. 1.5-2" is the group at 100 when I have tested it.
Rosewood
Rosewood
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