It just amazes me that a thread that asks a simple question about the Ruger Mini-14 Tactical version can draw responses from the AR cult. It's just wierd...Anyway, I picked up one of these Mini's just recently, and I've been very impressed. Ruger has made some changes, and the changes have definitely resulted in better performance right out of the box. With other Mini-14's, I've had to address the 40-foot casing ejections by replacing the gas port bushing with a smaller size. On the new Mini, I'm getting ejections of about 8 feet, therefore I'm leaving the bushing alone on this one. As for the new barrel, I still equipped it with a Mo-Rod to improve the rigidity and accuracy, but the new design clearly is an improvement from the traditional barrel. With a 6x scope, 2-inch groups at 100 yards were consistent. I swapped the scope out for a red dot, and the groups grew to 4 inches, but that's just me shooting without magnification. The new tactical model is impressive. For this Memorial Day Weekend, CDNN has put them on sale for $589...hard to beat that for a quality rifle...