Just be sure you get the 580 series
Read my post above. You can get the pencil barrels Mini 14s and Ranch rifles to shoot just as well as the 58X series rifles, with an Accu Strut, a Choate flash hider, and a gas port bushing, all for under $200.
You'll find that used 58x series Mini 14 will cost you a lot more than $200 over the price of a pencil barrel Mini 14, so I would not rule out an early Mini 14 that you can find for $300-$400 when a used 58x Mini 14 will run close to $700 in the same condition.
I also prefer the looks of the earlier Mini 14s and with an accu strut they actually start to look more like a "mini" M14.
1. Magazines are more expensive.
2. The 20 round factory ones are the only reliable ones. Even factory 30s are hit or miss.
3. Less customizable than AR.
4. Less accurate than AR.
5. Not field repairable. She breaks, send her back to Ruger.
6. Not as tacticool as AR
I had one for years. I never shot it for fun. It was a utility truck gun. I sold it 2 years ago to fund a 6920 and don't miss it a bit.
1. Magazines are more expensive new, but they were also widely used in law enforcement and show up in shops as surplus for around $20 each, usually in new or minty looking condition.
Mini 14 Magazines are however also much more durable than AR-15 magazines. The feed lips don't get bent as is the case with aluminum AR-15 magazines.
2. I agree with you that the Ruger factory magazines are the only magazines you'll find that function reliably.
3. The AR-15 is much more customizable than a Mini 14, but that's both a feature and a bug for the AR-15.
I used to shoot tactical rifle competitions and I've used three different AR-15s. One was an XM177E2 near clone (it has a heavy under the handguards barrel for better accuracy at high rates of fire). It's short, still light, and very well balanced, and accurate enough out to about 200-250 yards.
The second was a 16" lightweight carbine with a short, fixed entry stock and small M16 esque hand guards. It was very light, very fast handling and accurate enough out to 200 yards.
The third was basically one of my M16 or M16A1 clones. There was a lot to love about the original design. It could (and still can) rapidly and accurately engage torso sized targets out to 400 yards, while still being light and handling well. If the course of fire involved longer shots, it was the go to AR-15.
Note the common denominator here is that none of these are tarted up with a rail and 3 pounds of tactical-cool garbage on them. It's all too common to see someone show up with what started out as a light and handy M4gery and ended up being 10 pounds of over weight slow, poorly balanced carbine that had all the weight related negatives of a larger rifle, plus all the negatives that come with a short barrel.
In short that customizability often makes them worse and it encourages people who don't know better to add lots of useless stuff that doesn't apply to the mission at hand.
Also note that a properly set up Mini 14 will shoot just as well as the M16/M16A1 style Colt AR-15 with the same accuracy and better reliability.
4. Saying the Mini 14 is less accurate than an AR-15 depends on the Mini 14 and on the AR-15.
As noted above two of my three pencil barrel AR-15s are consistent 5 shot group, 1.5 MOA rifles with 55 gr FMJBT ammo (in my case generally hand loaded Hornady 55 gr FMJBT at M193 velocity), and the third is a solid 5 shot group 2 MOA rifle.
In comparison I have a 1-9 twist 20" bull barrel varmint AR that is about 1 MOA with 55 gr FMJs and 1/2 MOA with 52 or 53 grain match bullets.
I also have a 1-8 twist AR-15 set up as a service match rifle and it's a solid 3/4 MOA rifle with 68 gr and 75 grain match bullets.
In that regard, yes, those AR-15s are more accurate than a Mini 14.
Then I have the above mentioned M16 and M16A1 clones that are equal in accuracy to my Mini 14s.
However, I also have an M4gery and a couple light weight carbines in .223 that vary between 2 MOA and 4 MOA. They are for the most part not as accurate as my pencil barrel Mini 14s, or the current 58x series Mini 14.
5. I agree, the Mini 14 is less user repairable than an AR-15. At least in theory as I have never managed to break anything on a Mini 14. I can't say that about the AR-15.
So the question to consider is whether it's better to have an AR-15 that breaks and can be user repaired, or have a Mini 14 that never breaks in the first place.
A further consideration is that the the AR-15 will fail to function under conditions where the Mini 14 won't. Low crawl through sand mulch or bits of bark for 100 yard with each and then tell me which one still shoots without having to clean it.
6. Agreed. But that's a bug not a feature. It's also one of the major reasons the Mini 14 is on the exempt list of almost all ban legislation while the AR-15 is not, even though the Mini 14 has a higher cyclic rate and can be converted to a binary trigger with just an office staple.
