It belongs in a museum!
The M1 garand, M14 and M1 carbine belong in a museum too, but at least the USGI versions work well, one of them even makes a ping sound like an old typewriter and doubles as a baseball bat.
I was recently at a patrol rifle course where several Minis were in use. They were decent, but had major feeding issues with aftermarket magazines. All sight adjustments were done on the rear sight also.
Man…I’ll put them all in my personal museum.
No respect for real battle rifles. Have you ever shot an M14 or M1 Garand and/or hunted with one??? I was in Montana last year and put down a mule deer at 500M with an M1A. Went to my 600 yard zero and bang!!! The mule deer took four or five steps and fell over dead…have you seen the size of mule deer!!! God damn double lunger. Missed the heart by three-four inches but tore through the superior vena cava. It went through two lungs at 500M. Bullets were handloaded 180 Nosler BT’s.
An AR-15 pill would have bounced off the hide!!!
Oh yeah…Mini-14’s are not very accurate. I got a real nice one in a trade for a S&W 6906. I traded it to sell, but shot it anyway. Three-four MOA is all it could do and the sights were poor quality. The AR-15 is a vast improvement over a Mini-14. Not even a reasonable comparison.
The Mini is sorta known for being inaccurate, and I’ve always wondered what about the design hampers accuracy.
Is it the sights? Or the thin barrel? Is the action inherently gimping the guns accuracy?
Kinda hard to hunt with an M14 in the US, since civilians can’t own them and all so I assume you mean the M1A. Are you confusing caliber with design when you are trying to cast derision upon the AR or what? I own an AR in .308. It shoots circles around any comparably priced M1A or Garand and outshoots those that cost twice as much.
Better tell all of those dead insurgents that they weren’t killed with “real” battle rifles.
well like I said before shouldnt compare them to an AR’s, m4carbine.net or not, its not known for its accuracy like an AR but in my opinion ( and we all know what’s said about opinions ) its not as picky as an AR you can drag it though dirt, sand, and whatever and it probably wont give you as many problems as an AR will, but thats just my own experience with them.
you realize you just compared them to ARs, right?
my experience with ARs is that if you have a quality specimen, you can do anything to it that you can do to any other gun, and it’ll probably out-run the other gun.
pound for pound, mini14s, being made by the same manufacturer, probably are more reliable than ALL AR15s- because most AR15s are made by DPMS and bushmaster and M1S and etc. but pound for pound, mini14 against LMT, or mini14 against Colt, or mini14 against BCM… no contest.
:o Yea I know. Guess I walked right into that one. But when it comes to accuracy, I had a friend who spent a little cash and got his to shoot 1/2 in groups at 100 yards, he had his sent off to some place in texas ( i think ) and they shortened the barrle and did some other stuff, so now at least its more accurate that other rifles similar to it like the ak, sks, and so on, I shoot deer with mine 25 - 40 yards head shots, never had a problem hitting them…yet
Biggest culprit seems to be barrel harmonics. Cut the bbl down and/or add a muzzle brake/flash hider and groups improve significantly. Ensure the gas block bolts are properly torqued & throw in a trigger job and groups can shrink by half (personal experience w/a new 580).
Tomac
Shortening a Mini barrel to 16" is an easy way to improve accuracy and consistency. Reinstallation of the FS should be done by a machinist able to ensure it’s aligned to TDC. It’s also a good opportunity to use a GB-type sight.
SBR’ing a Mini is also an interesting idea, if allowable in your AO and you prefer or are stuck with a Mini. Watch your gas.
I was sold on the barrel shortening after shooting several and seeing the difference. Seeing the personal Mini of a Ruger employee so modified also helped.
If you’re doing barrel work, remove it. It’s a great time to ream the chamber to 5.56mm.
The newer series is better than the old in accuracy and consistency. The bolt and the receiver appear to be status quo, but time will tell. Data isn’t trickling in as fast as it used to, because few are using them with intensity anymore.
If you’re opposed to permanently modifying the Mini barrel, and want to improve accuracy and consistency, the stainless are better than the blued. You might also look into the various barrel stablizers like the Accu-Strut. An Accu-Strut equipped series (186?) Mini showed a 1/4-1/3 group size reduction with various load.
If using an Accu-Strut type device, be advised that they can have a tendency to move themselves, especially in harsher firing drills.
The Mini is not an AR, and comparing it to one is too complex. Many might also have the inclination to liken a Mini to a low end AR. This isn’t fair to either as well.
The Mini is what it is. Get a new manufacture one if you can.
all conventional wisdom says that a .556 chamber is safe to fire .223 in, but the opposite is not true, due to case neck dimension differences. If Ruger says either one is okay in their products, then they must be .556, or Ruger would be recommending an unsafe practice with their arms, which I doubt very much. The talking heads that answer phones at any company usually are not too well versed in the nuances of every product, call 2 different ones and get 2 answers, etc. If anyone reading this is a talking head, sorry…the owners manual states either one also…
Many manufacturers routinely lie, deceive, or obfuscate with customers. Many manufacturers routinely publish erroneous, incomplete, or dangerous information in their product manuals, armorers manuals, and the like. Examples abound here and elsewhere. They get away with it because most folks don’t know the difference or blindly trust them.
Ruger isn’t in the top ten on that list, but on the subject of their chamber dims, user experience from the field with their product states otherwise.
What you shoot in your gun is up to you, just go in with both eyes open. And as always, trust but verify.
From post #8:
[i]While users have reported having 5.56mm chambers, and Ruger has reported producing them, guns seen in the field, classes, and chambers castings from them demonstrated otherwise.
When Ruger is asked about their chambers, 5.56mm is the least consistent answer from them.
One particular agency deploying the Mini used 5.56mm NATO ammo exclusively. When they showed all the usual signs of tight chambers, Ruger told them to stick to .223. Reaming a Mini chamber removes quite a bit of material.[/i]
fixed it for you. It’s not just Mini-14s. It’s ALL their long guns.
Thats because with RARE exception the only reliable Mini-14 mags are the expensive factory ones.
All fourteen of the thirty round mags i bought have no feeding problems at all now the twenty rounders, well they are crap I threw the three I had away… total crap
oh. really? you spent a metric ton of cash trying to get it to work right but when Ruger claimed mods to the gun all you did was routine cleaning? sorry. my brain doesn’t process quick enough to figure that out.
also, what kind of mags were you using in the gun? I’m guessing the problems you and your friend had was some aftermarket mags as the Mini is almost stupid proof with factory mags.
so was it a mule deer or an elk?
My bad…mule deer. I am not from the Mountain West, being a native Kentuckian. I get them confused. All we have down south is deer and hog. We were just a bit southeast of Great Falls.
Freakin’ mule deers are huge, well compared to white-tail!!!
Stainless Mini is a great gun to throw in the trunk or behind the seat of a truck. Use ONLY factory twenty round magazines.
Use ONLY FMJ ammo
GTG until the last part. How’d you arrive at that?