1 Moa Mini-14

[def4pos8]

I like a good challenge. Conventional wisdom says that Mini-14s are "minute of man" at best. This was true of the wooden handguard version I owned in the early '80s: 50yds OK; 100yds definite maybe.

After reading a few reviews of the new, "round receiver", 580-series rifles I purchased a stainless steel Ranch Rifle in .223 Remington.

It has taken a while to figure things out. I added an Accuracy Systems adjustable gas block because I understand op-rod acceleration/velocity. A Hogue Overmold stock helped me hold onto it better. A 5MOA red dot sight helped with initial break-in and load exploration. A Leupold 6x42 Vari-X 3 has been mounted in the supplied rings to finish load tests.

I make my own ammunition. Cases are mostly Federal and Winchester. Primer is the CCI #41 Milspec primer. Powder is Accurate 2230. 23.5 grains worked best in my rifle. Cases are shaped with small bases; primer poockets cleaned/reamed to uniform depth; trimmed to 1.750. Cartridge overall length is 2.260in. Bullet is Nosler's 69 grain match hollow point.

I have yet to chronograph this recipe as I look for accuracy first, then clock 'em to discover ballistic arc.

Today, in lousy conditions (wind gusts pushing me off the bullseye when on a sandbag rest), this rifle fired six shots into a one-inch circle at 100 yards. I fired six because two were sharing a hole and I couldn't observe that through my 20x spotting 'scope.

Now, my rifle isn't exactly "off-the shelf" because I have substituted the adjustable gas block. This was done to keep the brass within this county. It MAY reduce or eliminate op-rod impact with the receiver but I have no way to determine that. Finding the "sweet spot" of the gas block did consume some time/experiments. I do not consider this to be a major modification of the rifle.

I believe that I will be able to reliably shoot 1 MOA, 5-shot groups with this rifle. I am highly satisfied with the performance of my Mini. I suppose a person gets out of a rifle what he/she puts into it. . . .

 

[R.W.Dale]

Today, in lousy conditions (wind gusts pushing me off the bullseye when on a sandbag rest), this rifle fired six shots into a one-inch circle at 100 yards.
I fired six because two were sharing a hole and I couldn't observe that through my 20x spotting 'scope.

That's great! But to throw a fly in the ointment I would like to know how the other groups look. One sub MOA group does not a match rifle make.

 

[Sunray]

"...minute of man..." Minute of barn is more like it.
"...gets out of a rifle what he/she puts into it..." That's the biggest complaint. You have to fix the rifle to get decent accuracy. The Mini-14 isn't accurate enough out of the box for the money Ruger wants for one.

 

[def4pos8]

I make no claim that this is a match rifle. I wanted to see if it could be done, given the typical poor opinion of this rifle.

I have done it. I will report on follow-up tests as I am able to do so in better conditions.

 

[tinroad37e]

As I have posted before, my mini-30 will shoot 2" groups all day at 100 yards. After settling in the stock and breaking in the barrel some, it shoots great. I put a Barska scope (not of Leupold quality, but acceptable) and hogue stock on it. A mini-14/30 wasn't designed to shoot 1" groups. It is a great rifle for what is was designed to be. I don't doubt with better ammunition and some work, one could shoot 1" groups. I'm just not willing to put the money in it. I plan on buying the new Ruger mini-14 in 6.8 SPC as soon as I find one locally.

 

[GunTech]

I was just at the range yesterday, and it was unbelievably crowded - just two day to the opening of deer season. Looking at the tagets of some 25 shooters, the only MOA group was mine, shot with a highly customized Remington 40X and handloaded match ammo. Most were more like 3-5 MOA, and most of the shooter were using sand bags or shooting rests.

I hear a lot about MOA rifles, but I sure don't see very many. I've owned 3 Mini-14s, upon which I lavished much attention, doing al the trick commonly known. I never had one shoot better than 2 MOA with hand loads.

Post your targets guys. This is what a sub MOA 5-shot group looks like:

And this is the rifle that does it:

 

[Bigfoot]

That's very impressive performance from a lightly modded Mini, good work.

Cartridge overall length is 2.600in.

Typo? 2.26 OAL?

Are you loading each cartridge individually or is it operating in semi-auto?

 

[def4pos8]

DANG! Yes, a typo - - - 2.260 OAL. Too many 7.62s. . . .

Each cartridge is loaded via normal operation, from the magazine by the bolt. I reduced gas flow to the point that spent cases would eject but the bolt would not travel to the rear far enough to strip the next round. I then opened the gas port screw one and one-half turns to provide normal operation. Brass falls about 10 to 12 feet to the right and 4 to 6 feet to the rear.

I attempted to upload an image of the target but my bloody Nikon and software can't reduce the image to less than 1024KB. A typical gun image is 1.2 or 1.3MB.

 

[def4pos8]

tinroad37e

Hey there! I SERIOUSLY considered using a 7.62x39 Ranch Rifle for this project. That's a better cartridge for close-in whitetail hunting. I do some careful handloads that make my no-'scope Tula SKS a tolerable deer rifle for the woods. Even with the bayonet, it's a light, handy carbine.

I do think that the 7.62x39 is a better SHTF cartridge than .223 Remington. Most "situations" are at distances within 100 yards and whacking something with 123 grains is usually more effective than whacking it with 55 or 70 grains.

I wanted to see what I could do with minimal purchase price and extras. My rifle was $600, new, "in my hands". The stock cost $75; gas block $83 + $9 shipping. The 'scope cost $230 as a closeout from Natchez Shooter's Supply back in '91 or so. Most guys spend $1200 for a fresh "black rifle". I have several, sub-MOA capable rifles but they are, well, expensive.

The point of my exercise was to see what a basic rifle with minimal tweaks might be capable of.

Let us all know how the 6.8 works out!

 

[GunTech]

def4pos8

What is the twist in your Mini? I use 2230 with good success, but I never managed to get a good velocity SD with #41. I tend to use Federal match primers with ball, CCI BR with stick.

Do you sort brass by weight?

BTW, looking at quickload, 27.5gn 2230 under a Nosler 69gn should be way overpressure ( i.e. dangerous). Any signs of excessive pressure on the case? The heaviest bullet I could find with reloading data for 2230 was the 64 gn Berger, and that max is listed at 22.5gn 2230. Quickload extimates the pressure with you load as approaching 100,000 psi, and the load listed previously shows 54,915 from 22.5gn under a 64 gn bullet.

 

[eliphalet]

Had and unfortunately sold a 181 series Mini 14 that would consistently shoot under 2" groups over the hood of my pickup and had one under 1". Not too bad for a off the shelf pre ranch Mini, all were only 3 shot groups. I used mixed military brass and usually Speer 52 grain HP's, the MOA was with 50 graine PSP's also with military brass all using IMR 4198.
Until I started reading these forums I didn't know what a gem I had.

 

[stubbicatt]

Ruger recently released their MOA Mini14 which is supposed to do this off the shelf. It has a funky looking barrel weight at the end of the barrel. Perhaps it is a la BOSS system of the 80s or 90s.

If it does MOA, that's great! I like Ruger products, but they are typically very robust and not particularly accurate. This might reverse the trend.

http://www.ruger-firearms.com/Firea...type=Autoloading&famlst=61&variation=Mini-14® Ranch Rifle

 

[jerkface11]

Guntech I really like that rifle. What stock is that?

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Keep up the good work and please keep us posted.

I attempted to upload an image of the target but my bloody Nikon and software can't reduce the image to less than 1024KB.

Download Irfanview (assuming you're running Windows). It's a free image viewer with some simple editing functions, which will allow you to easily resize your photos.

 

[GunTech]

It's an Accuracy International Chassis system, and fits the Reminton 700 series (or in this case, a Remington 40x).

http://www.tacproshootingcenter.com/AICS.html

http://www.snipercountrypx.com/c-268-accuracy-international.aspx

 

[Will Learn]

beat me to it

 

[tinroad37e]

Def4pos8

I will post a thread on here after I buy one and take her to the range. I see one on gunbroker right now. I heard Gander Mountain down here in Texas has them in their stores. Right now I am debating whether to put a scope or red dot sight on it. The first thing I will do is sit it in a Hogue stock.

I have 3 of the Ruger 44 carbines. One is the older model my father bought me as my first deer rifle when I was 11 years-old. I have two of the newer models. One I will give to my son. They're basically the same design as the mini's, and are great little brush guns. I bought the second one that is basically new and with a small power scope for $400. Ruger doesn't make them anylonger. I couldn't pass it up. You rarely see them on Gunbroker or Auction Arms, so I guess the current owners like them enough to keep them.

 

[def4pos8]

Gun Tech

APOLOGIES TO ALL!

Thank you GunTech. I am a text-book example of being careful about what you read on a blog. I should have checked all of my specs, especially after not typing the cartridge OAL properly.

My AA2230 charge weight was 23.5 grains. I will edit the original post.

 

[def4pos8]

GunTech

Regarding rifling twist: I don't know.

Of course, Ruger doesn't mention it in the handbook and it's not plainly marked on the barrel like my black rifles. From magazine reviews, I vaguely recall that it was 1:9 or 1:10. It's NOT as slow as my old Mini but obviously not as tight as the 1:7 of my AR-15. My "best guess" is 1:10.

 

[GunTech]

Thanks def4pos8

Didn't want to lose a THR member

I'm really intrigued with the adjustable gas port info. It makes sense that reducing gas pressure would help, as the reciprocating mass in many semi is a big factor in accuracy.

More research is needed.

 

[def4pos8]

GunTech

My primary motivation was control of the brass but a strong secondary motive was control of the op-rod. I had read books relating the struggles of John Garand with the M-1, the Springfield (MA) folks with the M-14 and Stoner/Colt with the AR-15 in determining proper operating pressures and bolt acceleration (or the lack thereof).

I figured that Ruger has to make such large margins for all the possible variables today that slowing it down some couldn't hurt. Of course, that's the whole marketing strategy of Accuracy Systems. At least in my case, it appears to have helped.

 

[Art Eatman]

I bought or traded into four Minis, all made in the early days and the newest no later than around 1983. They all shot about 1.5 MOA with a K4 on top.

If the adjustable gas block is contributory to improving accuracy, I'd halfway like to find an old Mini and do some tweaking.

Art

 

[trbon8r]

I've only once in my life shot a 5 shot MOA group. That was with a match conditioned M1 Garand with iron sights at 200 yards. The reason I only achieved this once is because I don't shoot off the bench with a 10 power scope with my rifle held in a vise where the shooter is reduced to little more than a trigger puller.

You can split hairs all you want over whether a rifle is a 1 or 1.5 MOA rifle. It makes little difference in the field or at the range once you take away the bench and artificial support. Unless you have a rifle that is complete crap, it's the shooter that matters.

 

[Art Eatman]

To me, trbonatr, the bench is where you test a rifle to see how good it is, and to sight in. There's load development and testing, of course.

From a purely hunting standpoint, the three-shot group tells you all you need to know about the gun's consistency. The other test requires first shots from a cold barrel to see if it stays sighted in, day after day. (Moisture changes, oil in barrel from cleaning, whatever. What might be called "stray" variables.)

Five- and ten-shot groups are better regarded as ultimate tests for both quality of rifle and skill of shooter.

Equal validity, varying only with a person's interest...

, Art

 

[def4pos8]

trbon8r

Thank you for the wonderful compliment! I don't think of myself as an expert, just an enthusiastic amateur (for 27 years).

OK, the group I fired was about 1 inch (I used a Washington dollar as a gauge.) fired during absolutely lousy conditions. Gusting winds were forcing the center of my reticle off of the bull. I have an old, Lyman tripod base with a sandbag rest on top -- no other "devices".

What tickles me about all this is that I was able to pull off this miracle when I figured there was no way to actually have these things punch holes near each other. My intended task was to zero a newly-installed 'scope.

I'm not a bench rest fanatic. If anything, you'd have to label me as a half-baked Zen practitioner. I don't aim at the "x". I practice a form.

I have some really neat hunting stories from good days in the past, but they require a MINIMUM of six beers to relate. . . .