May be getting a Mini-14

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whm1974

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I talked to a friend yestiday and he says he my be able to get me a deal on Mini-14. Now there are other rifles I rather have such as an AR-15 or AK, but if I can get a good deal on one...

How well does the Mini-14 handle cheap ammo such as Wolf or Bear?

-Bill
 
Folks gripe mostly because the thin barrel doesn't allow tight groups with long strings of fire. Outside of that, they're noted for reliability.

I've bought or traded into four of them through the years. Two blued; two stainless. I never had the first sign of any problem, no matter what sort of ammo I ran through them...

:), Art
 
Factory high capacity magazines are hard to come by and expensive. After market mags can be iffy. I tried several different brands and could only get 100% reliability with factory mags. If you only plan to use the 5 rounder or for plinking and non defense use it may not be an issue for you.
 
Well I've heard that Ruger discourages shooting steel cased ammo through the mini 14 and 30. The extracter breaks or something.

Now I also heard the story on mags. Who makes dependable magazines for the mini-14 that doesn't cost an arm and leg?

-Bill
 
I hope you love your mini. A lot of folks do. I've had two. Disappointed with them both. You can always find a deal on a mini. You see a lot of them in the arms of hopeful sellers at gun shows. I practically gave mine away. If you're buying it because it's almost an AR or an AK (just less-expensive) like I did, I think you'll be disappointed. I learned this lesson the hard way about guns: I no longer buy things that are "almost" what I want. Unasked-for-advice (the best kind I give) is to save your pennies if necessary and get what you want. But if you really want a mini, go for it. They will reliably put rounds in the general area of what you're shooting at.
 
Reasonably priced hi-caps for the Mini 14 are now widely available. You can get factory 20 rounders for $30-40. There are a number of cheap after market 20's, 30's, and 40's now for sale. The new 20 round Pro Mags are considered reliable and there are old, unused PMI's which have a good reputation. Hooray for the end of AWB!

Drakejake
 
I have two, a mini 14 SS and a Mini 30 SS The Mini 14 I have had for 20 years and the Mini 30 is 10 years old.
They have never failed me in 3000 rounds.
High capacity 30 rounds plastic Mag from Ram Line Mac 1530 has worked well for me.
black bear
 
Ive had 4, and I dont really like them. One of them would drop the trigger group in the dirt when shooting ammo with bullets heavyer than 55 gr.
None of them was accurate, and only Ruger mags were dependable.
The gas system rusted very badly on one when left in the truck, I would hate to see what corrisive ammo would do.
I DO like my SKS, same accuracy, harder hitting round, less expensive, and P.C. for you from the PRK.
 
I like my Mini-14 Ranch for what it is, a utterly reliable plinker and varmint rifle. I've done about $75 in mods (trigger job, smaller gas port bushing, muzzle brake and recoil buffer) and it will consistently shoot 3" groups at 100 yards.

I have a number of John Masen 10 and 20 round mags and they work with no problems. The brand new PMI mags are also supposed to work good and I saw lots of 20-round PMI and Masen mags at a gun show last week for under $18.

I guess I'm not really a fan of the AR rifles; they don't feel comfortable to me and in most cases, the price is way beyond what I wanted to spend. That is probably the biggest issue to me in that I would have a hard time spending close to a grand for something that I just couldn't "love".

I did look once at an Oly Arms Plinker as the price was reasonable (about a hundred or so more than a Mini but substansially less than a Bushy) but I had read posts on a number of forums where O-A got a lot of criticism. Oly Arms is just a couple miles from me and the people I talked to there were obviously proud of their products and went to great lengths to show me what improvements had been made over the last couple of years such as forged receivers and better machine work.

I still didn't think it was "the" rifle I wanted so I bought the Mini and I'm very pleased with it. It will shoot any .223 or 5.56mm stuff out there, although I personally don't care for the Wolf ammo as it is sort of smelly and the Greek "Olympic" stuff is just plain inaccurate especially the 62gr SS109 version. Winchester, UMC or Federal is my usual ammo in 55gr and they all seem to be consistent.
 
I always mounted a Weaver K4 on my Minis. When they first came out, I was still in the habit of doing five-shot groups. Around 2 MOA was common. Three-shot groups usually gave me 1.5 MOA.

Back in 1980 or 1981, there was a giant explosion in the jackrabbit population in northern Nevada and southwestern Idaho. I was visiting a buddy in Winnemucca. We went out with our Minis and did a bunch of population reduction. At one location, in about an hour, we killed some 120 jacks. The ranges varied from around fifty to 150 yards. Few misses; hot barrels. "Minute of jackrabbit" was no problem at all...

For a hunting rifle, the important shot is the first one from a cold barrel. All of my Minis have been quite reliable on that score.

Art
 
I love mini 14s...

ProMag is making good reliable 20-30 round magazines for them for under $20 now... Visit PerfectUnion.com mini forum and find out the real skinny on the mini 14. TONS OF INFO!!!
 
Well guys I've shot a mini-14 before. My stepfather had one. Yes I much rather have an AK or AR-15, but if I can get a good price on this I'll buy it. I can always sell it or trade.

My friend here has some other friends who's father died and they are selling off his guns they don't care for. The dad was supposaly a gun nut and has a ton of guns.

My buddy here is going to find out more. But there are two Mini-14s w Mags and one has a folding stock. Some SKS rifles.

If I can get them much cheaper then what a dealer will cost me, I'll get the Mini-14 and an SKS.

I'm planning on getting a AK this year anyway.

-Bill
 
Despite all the Mini-14 hate you see on sites like THR and AR-15.com, they are good guns. They are not intended for long strings of rapid fire. They are civilian arms, but very reliable ones and will function with very minimal maintenance under harsh conditions. (They may not take outright abuse as well as a military arm but frankly, I don't see that as a problem.)

My early Mini-14 has been utterly reliable with anything I've fed it: Federal XM-193, Ultramax .223 55 grain FMJ, and Wolf 55 grain JHP.

The new production Pro-Mags seem to have a good reputation. I managed to accumulate a good supply of PMI 20s and 30s before the AWB sunset, and since then, I was able to pick up four Ruger factory 20s that were basically unused LEO trade-ins for $25 each. :)
 
I have a Mini 30 in stainless and had a Mini 14 in blue.

The Mini 30 is a cute little rifle to keep in the truck for when working around the farm. It isn't exactly a tack driver (by a long shot and then some) but for a decent little shooter that doesn't cost a whole lot it suits my purposes just fine.

The Mini 14 I had was the single biggest piece of junk I ever owned, including the 1965 Ford Fairlane I got from one of my uncles.

On a good day it would group less than 10 inches, most days it was just the horrible trigger, regular FTL, FTF and FTE that would get ya down. Fit and finish was crappy in every respect. I sent it back to Ruger twice to be fixed. Then a new problem would come up.

I traded it for a lawnmower and a 10/22 that has been a great little shooter for many years.

As far as mags go, the best I ever found was the Thermolds. PMI's were pretty good, but the Mini would still jam with them in it on occasion. The Thermolds worked great, every time, but the gun had more problems than I wanted to say grace over.

I personally would pass on a Mini 14, but many folks like them. .223 is cheap to shoot too. I bought the Mini 30 because 7.62x39 is even cheaper to shoot and it was available in a stainless.

Good luck with whatever you decide

BigSlick
 
Is Ruger having QC problems? One group of people are saying that the Mini-14 is the best deal ever, And another groups are saying that it's a piece of junk. What gives?

-Bill
 
One group of people are saying that the Mini-14 is the best deal ever, And another groups are saying that it's a piece of junk. What gives?
Click to expand...

The first group owns Mini-14s. The second group believes what they read on the internet.

The Mini-14 is an overpriced piece of junk. Please send yours to me for proper disposal. ;)

Disclaimer: I own several rifles in several configurations. The Mini-14 is the only one that goes bang every time, regardless. Forget maintenance, forget cleaning, just slam a mag in and the thing works, every time. What more can you ask?
 
The first group owns Mini-14s. The second group believes what they read on the internet.

The Mini-14 is an overpriced piece of junk. Please send yours to me for proper disposal.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Hi-Points. My stepfather had a mini-14 and it worked fine with factory ammo. Reloads jammed up most of the time however.

-Bill
 
I love my Mini-14. Cut the barrel to 16" and you have a 2-3 MOA gun. It is reliable with factory or PMI mags. 5000 rounds of cheap Wolf ammo with no malfunctions is pretty good.

That being said, I live in Califrinkinfornia. I don't have a choice. I would rather have an AR or an AK if I lived in America. I just like both better than the Mini.
 
That being said, I live in Califrinkinfornia. I don't have a choice. I would rather have an AR or an AK if I lived in America. I just like both better than the Mini.
Click to expand...

Don't mean to ub it in, but I can own an AK or AR-15. However I may take up varmite hunting or whatever that I don't want to use an "ELR" for. Sometimes it is a must to be low profile.

-Bill
 
The two I had, and sold, functioned perfectly but accuracy was not very good. I'd save up for an AR if at all possible.
 
The two I had, and sold, functioned perfectly but accuracy was not very good. I'd save up for an AR if at all possible.
Click to expand...

I keep hearing this. Don't most firearms shoot better then most of thier owners? Like I said in another thread "as long as I can hit a 6' target at 100 to 200 yards I'm happy"

I'm not looking for a tack driver...

-Bill
 
Like Bam-Bam mentioned, visit the perfectunion.com site. They have a ton of information on making the Mini-14 shoot.

Without much effort my mini went from 4 MOA down to 1.5 MOA with WW white box rounds. Even better with others. Magazines can be a challenge. I've had good luck with 20 and 30 round PMI mags.
 
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