Thoughts on the mini 14?

VVelox said:

Hmmm, looking at that a bit more, it looks like it specifically bans the Mini-14 model 5846. The bothersome bit, besides having to pull the flash hider and silver solder something over the threads, is it is a bit ambiguous as outside of the initial announcement for that model, Ruger never really used that name again, instead using numeric model numbers and calling them all the "Mini-14 Tactical Rifle".

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Note the language of the law includes

"(10) All of the following rifles, including any copies or duplicates thereof with the capability of any such weapon:"

We should be careful assuming only 1 particular variant is banned. Relevant cases would have to be searched to find how the courts have interpreted the scope of the language. If it hasn't yet been defined since the law is relatively new, no one wants to be a test case.

illinoisburt said:

Note the language of the law includes

"(10) All of the following rifles, including any copies or duplicates thereof with the capability of any such weapon:"

We should be careful assuming only 1 particular variant is banned. Relevant cases would have to be searched to find how the courts have interpreted the scope of the language. If it hasn't yet been defined since the law is relatively new, no one wants to be a test case.

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Aye. Good point. That makes it all the more confusing, since what that all actually means is curiously not clear from a legal stand point at all.

So aye, definitely safer to just go with a Mini in 7.62x39mm. Although that would be awesome, given the recent American Ranch Rifle that came out that takes the same mags. :3

I've always wanted a bolt action in 7.62x39mm, since seeing that one company that use to rechamber Enfields in it and rework them a bit to take AK mags. :3

EDIT: Make that American Ranch, not just Ranch.

I've owned 3 Mini 14s in my life. The latest is one with the swelled barrel. Most days you'll find me setting on my front porch with the Mini leaning against the bannister in front of me waiting for some varmint to show itself.
The Mini is heavy, 9 pounds as I recall. I put a shotgun 4X scope on it for its light weight. So far of the dozens of critters I shot with it with varmint loads I've never missed. Some at distances of 70 yds.

I have had a bit of experience using a mini 14. Grew up shooting it. I liked and still like the ergonomics of the rifle. It just feels good to me and handles very well. Honestly I prefer the AR 15, but the mini is not going anywhere.

Accuracy has always been plenty "good enough" but never stellar. As a handy little carbine, though a little chubby, it does the job well. This one has always been reliable and never picky with ammo either. Just remember it probably will not ever be a match rifle lol, BUT your match rifle will NEVER carry nor handle like that little carbine.

I figure you will like it if you buy one. Go for it.

redbullitt said:

BUT your match rifle will NEVER carry nor handle like that little carbine.

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This is what it's all about. The closest equivalent has been my old trusty suppressed 11½" XM177 strapped on top of a backpack before it became a bit too collectible to lug around in the woods. At one point I contemplated a lightweight, floated LAR47-build but the Mini is already far more accurate than I am for any real-world game shot and the ergonomics work great offhand. It has a well-deserved place in my gun safe and more often than not, in the deer woods too.

I like the old school miniature M14 look of the Ruger Mini14 and always have. My cousin's Mini14 was reliable, reasonably accurate (we had trouble finding more than 65 yards on the the old home place on the mountains to really test it though). It would be a good ranch or farm rifle to replace a .30-30 for varmint control. I remember it would protect your right front flank with the ejected cartridge casings.

The newer Mini14s are different: I keep hearing Ruger did pay attention to complaints about accuracy and stiffened the barrels.

I recall photos from the November 2015 Paris attacks showing the gendarmerie or police armed with Mini14s or AC-556s in a French spec stock. They have used them for some time now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Mini-14#Mousqueton_A.M.D

VVelox said:

Saving up for one, but that is because being in Chicago and only the Tactical model is specifically banned(as the Chicago AWB overrides the Cook County AWB.

The big question I've been finding myself pondering is 7.62x39mm or .223 Rem. Would love to do .300 Blackout so I could have bullet over lap between it and my .30-30, but would need to double check the wording of the ban to see if it is a specific model or all for the Mini-14 Tactical.

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Find a 6.8SPC version for a good hitting cartridge.

Carl N. Brown said:

I like the old school miniature M14 look of the Ruger Mini14 and always have. My cousin's Mini14 was reliable, reasonably accurate (we had trouble finding more than 65 yards on the the old home place on the mountains to really test it though). It would be a good ranch or farm rifle to replace a .30-30 for varmint control. I remember it would protect your right front flank with the ejected cartridge casings.

The newer Mini14s are different: I keep hearing Ruger did pay attention to complaints about accuracy and stiffened the barrels.

I recall photos from the November 2015 Paris attacks showing the gendarmerie or police armed with Mini14s or AC-556s in a French spec stock. They have used them for some time now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Mini-14#Mousqueton_A.M.D

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British police liked them too in N. Ireland.

Add me to the list of people who were trained on the mini-14 and still like the platform. No, it's not a real accurate gun. We all know that. But given the choice of mini-14 or AR platform, I'll reach for the mini every time. It's just so simple by comparison.

I had a Mini-14. Notice the past tense, which was due to the ho-hum accuracy, and I also don't care for the Garand action. Traded it for something I wanted and haven't fretted a moment since about that decision.

charliefrank wrote:
I have heard the older ones had issues with the barrels.

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I have not heard that.

I have a 181-series Mini-14 that I bought in 1979 and my father has a 182-series bought a bit later. Within the 200 yards of open space where we do most of our shooting, it will put my 60 grain handloads on target, so I don't know what the unspecified barrel issues were supposed to be and the thousands of rounds put through both rifles would surely have turned up a problem if either of these were impacted.

I bought ARs for both my sons for the reasons already stated, but I will continue to keep my Mini-14 as my primary 223 rifle, probably until the day I die.

FL-NC wrote:
They only function reliably with Ruger mags,...

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jmr40 wrote:
Mini-14 mags are way more expensive and only available through Ruger.

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I beg to disagree. I have a Mini-14s and my father has one as well. Between us, the only factory magazines are the 5 round ones that came with it from the factory. The remainder of the two dozen magazines we have are all third party and over the 7 to 38 years since I acquired them, none of the have ever given any problems.

I'm not saying that all third-party magazines are reliable. I have owned (past tense) third party magazines that were not reliable, but that's a far cry from making a blanket statement that they only function with factory magazines which is manifestly not correct.

.45cultist wrote:
They were more fragile and less accurate than AR back in the day.

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More "fragile" in what way?

Minis have been positively regarded for reliability. Mine never suffered from hundreds of miles of bouncy back county jeep trails, 4-wheeling, and I never had failures to feed, fire or extract/eject.

I think that I paid around $175 for my first Mini-14, back in 1973.

I used it to shoot West Texas coyotes in order to attend UTEP. The first three 'yotes paid for the rifle, and it did a good enough job to finance three semesters of college.

I don't own a mini 14, but have two friends that do. One older, one much newer (the rifles, not the friends!). The newer one's don't stink like the older ones did. It's actually a decent rifle. And even the older ones weren't garbage. They just had a lighter weight barrel that didn't handle sustained shooting very well and the original rear sights were the source of most accuracy complaints. Throw a scope on and use it as a hunting rifle, they were just fine. So...

If you really want a mini, get one. However, if you're just looking for a semiautomatic .223, you can get a decent AR for less than the cost of a mini 14 and spare magazines won't cost you a fortune, there are more choices for mounting optics and a better trigger, should you desire, is a fifteen minute job if you take your time.

Right now is the best prices we're likely to see on AR type rifles. Shoot, even the 7.62 variants have come down in price lately, though not as much as the 5.56.

These threads on the Mini 14 are kinda like ones on different calibers, ones on the AK vs SKS, or the AK vs. AR. Those that like them give the good points of the Mini platform: reliability, more conventional looks, good enough accuracy (newer ones), etc. Those that don't like them give the negatives: high cost relative to AR or even AK's, limited options for upgrading/personalization things like scope rings, triggers, barrels, etc, more often than not less accurate than AR, expensive mags, etc. Occasionally, someone has a jewel of an accurate Mini 14 or the opposite experience which is a lemon.

My personal take is Mini-14's represent continuity with rifle design up to the M-14 (another controversial platform) and reflect a different age where look and feel were as important as pin point accuracy. The AR's represent a break in manufacturing and design of rifles which is reflected in its look and feel. My heart is with the look and feel of the Mini but my head is with the advantages in customization and accuracy advantages for the AR. I have AR's, but currently no Minis, as I have other rifles to fit the traditional role like the SKS.

boom boom said:

a different age where look and feel were as important as pin point accuracy.

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Certainly.

I know that it took me a long while to warm up to the AR15, even though I had used an M16 in the service. A Mini-14, with a wood stock, just looked and felt like a "real" rifle.

boom boom said:

My personal take is Mini-14's represent continuity with rifle design up to the M-14 (another controversial platform) and reflect a different age where look and feel were as important as pin point accuracy. The AR's represent a break in manufacturing and design of rifles which is reflected in its look and feel. My heart is with the look and feel of the Mini but my head is with the advantages in customization and accuracy advantages for the AR. I have AR's, but currently no Minis, as I have other rifles to fit the traditional role like the SKS.

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I kind of feel you on that one. Every time I heft my SKS, I go, "now that's a gun."

The AR is just so much aluminum and plastic. I have nothing against those, but I get hands on enough with those materials as it is. Right now, I'm typing this post on a laptop with plastic keys and an aluminum case. It's nice to grab a 9 pound chunk of hardwood and milled steel every now and again.

hdwhit said:

More "fragile" in what way?

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He may be referring to the habit of early Minis to crack the gas block upper band. Improved heat treating supposedly took care of that.
Then there's the occasional case of broken bolt lugs, but this happens on ARs with some frequency too.
These are the only mechanical issues I know of......

Its sorta funny that some will cite the price of a Mini as too much but have truck payments that are almost that much. And a Mini-14 will still be on the job long after that truck is in the salvage yard.

Ratshooter said:

Its sorta funny that some will cite the price of a Mini as too much but have truck payments that are almost that much. And a Mini-14 will still be on the job long after that truck is in the salvage yard.

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The "value" of a gun (not a collector gun- something you are just buying to use) is measured by me against the price of other guns that do the same job (performance-wise) as good or better than the gun in question, along with durability and overall utility. Measuring the price of a gun against the payments of a vehicle (a necessity for most of us) makes no more sense to me than measuring a gun's price against that of your rent or mortgage, monthly food bill, utility bills, etc.

FWIW, my first gun that I bought myself was a mini 14 in 1986, when I was 19 and had the $. I shot it, and loved it. Joined the army in '87 (where I stayed for 23 years), where I was issued the M16A1. Since I was a private with no $, I continued to shoot and love my mini 14. I attended SF Weapons training early in my career, and had the opportunity to use just about everything out there, along with all of the US weapons- with us getting the "latest and greatest" first. Somewhere along the line (1990?) I was able to dump the mini and get into AR's. By that time I was fairly well trained in them, probably better than most people, while continuing to train on weapons developed, and travelling the world and encountering everything out there- either working with our allies or being on the receiving end of those weapons. So in 30 years of either being in the military or as a contractor,along with a little bit of competitive shooting, I used the A1, A2, various CAR-15 variants, the M4, and some of the later piston-type AR's, and who knows how many civilian variants. Hard to convince me that there is a better rifle than those in the AR class, especially considering the pricing and options available lately. Just my 2 cents.

Forgive me for even thinking about this, but imagine if Mini14-fanboys saturated every AR thread with suggestions why (they think) OP should forget about buying an AR and get a Mini instead. Not that any pattern had emerged or anything...

Measuring the price of a gun against the payments of a vehicle (a necessity for most of us) makes no more sense to me than measuring a gun's price against that of your rent or mortgage, monthly food bill, utilitybills, etc.

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It may not make sense to you but it did to a couple of other people.

I like this old saying: "The quality remains long after the price is forgotten"

I Think I paid $600 or so for my Mini. But I don't remember for certain. But it does the job I wanted it to do and i like the way it feels and looks. It was worth every cent I paid for it. And I have paid for and bought a lot of things I thought that in the end were just a waste of money for the service received. Like a lot of the doctor visits I have made with no benefits to me at all. For what I spent there I could have paid for several ARs or Mini-14s and had something to show for it.