Our office had three of those older Mini-14’s, two came with original wooden hand guards and one was shiny, polished stainless. As
@1KPerDay posted, the older Mini-14 guns don’t have the milled in scope ring attachment points and folding rear sight that the early style ranch rifles had.
Since you said you were newer to the Mini-14 game, here are a couple of pics of an older and newer stainless steel Ranch Rifle to show the scope mounts built into the receiver.
A 195-series Ranch Rifle with a scope mounted and the folding rear sight (in a camo Ram Line stock.)
View attachment 1174879View attachment 1174880
This is a newer 583- series with the integral scope mount points and non-folding rear sight.
View attachment 1174881View attachment 1174882
Ultimak and Amega make a replacement hand guard with a picatinny rail built in, that’s about the only way to mount a scope/dot on that older Mini without drilling/tapping holes. (I don’t know if there is a non-drill option for those older guns, I think there was one made that replaces the cover on the left side of the receiver?)
As for the hand guard scope mounts, the stock hand guard is held on with a spring steel clip that holds it to the barrel with a tongue/groove at the front. If the Ultimak/Amega mounts use this attachment method to the gun, they wont be the most secure mounts.
As an option, if your old Mini is in really good shape it may be worth some bucks as a collectors item. It would probably sell for enough to buy a newer model if that crosses your mind.
Cool old gun, good luck finding whatever you need to make it what you want.
Stay safe.