Ruger mini 14 in .308

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I saw a mini 14 in .308 for sale in Cheaper than Dirts catalog....I havent seen them in years, is there a reason they are no longer produced? I have heard accuracy for one, but apparently they are still out there, I was actually thinking of buying this one (dont need another, but you can never have enough). anyone have experience with this animal?
 
The XG-1 or XGI is a pretty rare rifle.

I'm not sure they were ever in 'mass production' rather a handful of test and sample rifles were built.
 
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If the rifle offered is indeed a Ruger semi-auto in 7.62 mm Nato and looks liked an upscaled Mini-14, buy it now. There's only about twenty Ruger X-GI made.

A prototype to the XGI always threw the fifth shot and the engineers' solution was to make the slide (op rod) heavier. Bill Ruger didn't like that solution but twenty were made and the guns were sent to gun rag writers. The decision came down whether to make them or not. It would cost $1,000,000 to re-tool the production line to make them. Bill Ruger thought it wasn't worth the money as he could make $1,000,000 just by keeping the Mini-14 in production. Thus the X-GI project was shelved.

BTW, the receiver was about a foot long. That's substantially longer than either the M-1 Garand and the M-14. When I visited Pine Tree Casting, I saw the wax casting of it and pulled it off the shelf to examine it and was shocked by its length. Of course, I had to put it back and one restriction was that we were not permitted to take photographs in the factory.
 
I'm thinking there is a mis-print there.
Dollars to donuts it's just a Mini-30 in 7.62x39.

The all-weather concept was hardly a blip on the radar when Ruger played around with the .308 Mini-14 program.

And I'm pretty sure if it really were one, the price would be way more then $625 bucks!
A lot of Ruger collectors would kill for one!

Although the XGI was advertised in 1984-1985, it never entered production due to what I heard was a patent violation with the Springfield Armories' M-14/M-1A.

Edit to add: Sounds like 4v50 Gary has the real story about it!

rc
 
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If Ruger made the XGI I'd buy one.

I don't own a .308, but that was a rifle I dreamt about when I was a kid thumbing through Gun Digest.
 
I am looking at the CTD 2011 master catalog and it does indeed offer a Mini -14 All Weather in .308 Winchester for $625.09 item # 42493( page 29 under Tactical Weapons). It is listed as having a 4+1 magazine while the Mini-30 in 7.62x39 ,item #14304 and 69842,is listed as having a 5+1 magazine. On the same page of the catalog is a listing for a Mini-14 All Weather in .338 Win.mag.,item # 42486 ,also for $625.09!
 
yeah I forgot about the .338, that would be a helluva load coming out of a mini....I just have never seen them in any Ruger catalogs or listings....a .338 on semi auto....scary.maybe the whole catalog is a misprint.
 
To me, the concept of the X-GI doesn't make much sense.

The Mini-14 was meant to be the M14 scaled down to a smaller cartridge, the 5.56/.223. Why scale it back up when you could just get an M14? Maybe that's part of why it didn't pan out?

Jason
 
Jason G said:
To me, the concept of the X-GI doesn't make much sense.

The Mini-14 was meant to be the M14 scaled down to a smaller cartridge, the 5.56/.223. Why scale it back up when you could just get an M14? Maybe that's part of why it didn't pan out?

I agree. I don't see why you need to make a copy of the M14.
 
Wouldn't be a "Mini" any more, now would it. Might as well just make a semi auto version of the real M14 to sell. I assume this was very similar though.
 
Page 29 of the 2011 CTD master catalog.

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Despite the model names given, those model numbers correspond to variants of the Hawkeye bolt action rifle. The correct model names are given on CTD's website. Again, there are no .308 or .338 Mini-14s in production.
 
They could probably build them at a significantly more affordable price than Springfield Armory.

If the choice was between a Ruger X-GI for a little more than a Mini 14, or for a Springfield M1a for $1200+, a lot of people would choose the Ruger.
 
I suspect the idea was to make a more economical version of the M-14 in semi auto at a time when when that rifle cost almost 2x as much as a mini 14.

1981 Gun Digest: Mini 14 MSRP : $227, Springfield Armory M1A MSRP : $420
1988 Shooters Bible: Mini 14 MSRP: $405, Springfield Armory M1A MSRP : $782

The prices of both have migrated continuously upward and the XGI probably can't be made at the comparable price point of the Mini 14 & 30, but there was a time where that was a distinct possibility.
 
I see at the bottom of the catalog page in post #15 that they have a Mini-14 in .338 WinMag too!
I just bet they do!!

Ruger stock #42486 is a M77 Hawkeye All-Weather Bolt-Action Rifle in .338 WinMag.
Ruger stock #57349 is a M77 Hawkeye Tactical Bolt-Action Rifle in .308.

The one that is supposed to be a .308 Mini-14, #42483?
Ruger stock #42483 is a M77 Hawkeye All Weather Bolt-Action Rifle in .308.

Nevermind, I see that Shear_stress already figured that out a while ago.

rc
 
The point of my post is not to argue for or against the existance of these rifles but to VERIFY that CTD is ADVERTISING them for sale.

Sure, but my point is that CTD's ads have misprints in them, and these errors have got some folks in this thread fussing about guns that don't exist.
 
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