Wahoo, a sexy new 1981' series 182 Mini-14 followed me home...

Holy ****, Hiya Guys ...

I scored & imo I finally scored Big ... Ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper growing up I've been watching & I'm a big fan of The A-Team and I still enjoy watching them from time to time today. I've always wanted one and ever since I got into and started collecting firearms I've always wanted an early 80s A-Team period Mini 14 in the original configuration with the light blond furniture even if it's not a stainless steel variant like they used in the series.

Well, I've had a lot of guns come and I've had numerous guns go and I have some pretty nice stuff in my safe but I haven't been able to lay my hands on an elusive mini like I've been after for quite some time now that I can afford due to prices going thru the roof thanks to Ruger passing the cost of retooling the Mini-14 line on to the customer by jacking up prices. Sure, I've ran across two or three over the last couple of years that I thought about picking up that I passed on because they weren't what I wasCreeking for and they were the crappy models that no one wanted due to being plagued with issues and accuracy problems because of worn out tooling.

With that being said things have been going pretty good lately, I've scored on a couple good deals recently and I was hoping to score on one or two more either for my birthday and/or Christmas since they're only a few weeks apart, and, well, somebody upstairs has been listening because look what popped up on the local gun Grapevine yesterday outta the blue. A Pristine 1981 series 182 Mini-14 exactly like I've been after more than any other firearm :



One thing I find funny is that a local guy that I've done business with in the past turned out to be the one that had this mini all along. It's been hiding in the back of his safe for a long time, he bought it from the original buyer and he's never fired it & apparently the original buyer only fired a handful of rounds through it himself before he put it in the back of his safe and forgot about it and from the way it looks I certainly believe it. Overall condition I'd say a solid 98%, this thing literally looks like it just came out of the box. The bluing is beautiful, no wear marks, scratches or mars from basic use where you would expect to see them and this has got to be the most beautiful tiger striped stock and handguard that I've ever seen & I can't get decent pictures that do the Furniture Justice. It has a clear finish on it that's deep bright and shiny just like the polyurethane like you would see on a gymnasium floor or a new log Cabin home & the tiger stripes seem to light up in the daylight almost as if they had Pearl dust rubbed into them, it's just Purdy' and I can't believe I got this lucky, wow, now I have the perfect excuse to buy some dies and get the 223 brass I have stashed away for my reloading bench loaded up ...

<*(((>< said:

That’s some beautiful figuring! I would love to find a nice mini someday. I have ARs that are more accurate, but I love the action.

Did you get that off Z?

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If you're referring to Z Idaho, no I didn't but I did find it locally .

Riomouse911 said:

Nice! Our office has two or three with the wooden handguards, the rest of the oldies have the plastic ones. The wooden handguards will split and may char if really run hard, so be careful if you're deciding to run bunches and bunches of rapid-fire rounds through 30-rounders without letting things cool down.

Sweet find, the wood is beautiful and the bluing looks unmarked!

Stay safe!

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It seems that's an issue with these nice wood handguards, they may look a lot better than the polymer and aluminum jobs but they have a tendency to burn or char from rapid-firing them and ruining the finish on them. Apparently the original owner of this mini knew that because he bought this aftermarket handguard that came with it to replace it but he never installed it or put this mini thru it's paces.

One thing I forgot to mention is this thing is so new it still has Cosmo in it . Apparently no one has taken the time or the effort to pull the receiver out of the furniture and break the action and everything down and give it a good cleaning ...

mcb66 said:

I believe this is the first time I have ever said this, But that Ruger has a nice stock...

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I know , right ?, most rugers & some marlins have that gawdawful brown mottled finish , kinda like brown gravy for mashed taters' that looks like ass on rifle stocks . The first thing I usually do is send that crap off and refinish'em like I recently done to my 10/22 and I'm fixing to do to my Marlin Model 99 M1-carbine .22, but the stock on this Mini-14 is spectacular to say the least ...

Texas10mm said:

Nice rifle!

But ya know why the A Team never hit anything don't ya?

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Ha ha , yeah, Hollywood blanks ...

desidog said:

Wow, that's the best looking Mini stock I've ever seen.

However, I think that it is aftermarket, along with the wood HG. I know the 181- series already came with the plastic guard, so it would stand reason that the 182's did too.

Have you taken it out of the stock yet?

/Also, good luck recovering your brass! It's be ~50 yards away at your 2-4:00...

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Thanks for the heads up, I have the same issue recovering brass from my SKS as most of it ends up in orbit . On another note some of the 181 / 182 series had wood handguards as Ruger just used whatever they had on hand during the assembly process while making the switch from wood to the aluminum & polymer handguards. I'd seen a lot of 181's & 182's that have both . I haven't had this one out of the stock just yet but I'm planning on field stripping it for a good cleaning and oiling ..