Honest groups with a 582 series Mini 14

These are 3MOA circles at 25 yards w/ aperture sights:

GR

I took my 5816 Ranch down to the range yesterday and had a fine time with it,really enjoy that carbine. I have a Tech Sight on it and can achieve very accurate results when I get my head forward,eye up close to the aperture. If you come across any American Eagle 50 gr HP (AE223G) in these scarce ammo times,scoop it up,these carbines love the round.
I also have the Leupold VX1 Freedom Hog scope on my AR...A fine piece of kit,basically a German #4 reticle at a great price.

They are not as bad shooters as people make them out to be.......I mean If you needed to shoot a coyote at 200yards,? you could, a groundhog?, sure you can!
That's what the rifle was designed for. I shoot 100 yard targets a lot.......and I wish my range was longer. I'd like to try 200/300 + yards some day.

It’s absolutely within “minute of man” and that’s what its purpose was. You’re right, the only real legitimate complaint about them is price in my opinion.

Over the years I had a couple. I never had any real complaints and when they were priced at 1/2 the cost of an AR I felt they were an excellent choice. But over the years prices have flipped. An AR is now at least $200-$300 cheaper than the Mini's. If I could buy one at the same price as an AR I'd add another to the collection.

But when I'm shooting 1" groups at 200 yards with a 10.5" barreled AR pistol it's hard to justify the money.

I see good enough; that kind of accuracy was normal in “the old days” - we have been spoiled with new technology and manufacturing (I am not complaining). You will have fun shooting that rifle.

That is fine accuracy. The older stainless Mini I owned couldn’t have come close to the 100yd groups of the OP...It couldn’t stay on a 8x10 piece of paper.

I am in the process of selling one... but I will shoot it back to back with a 20” PSA with irons this weekend before i do.

Personally I find them a lot more handy than an AR.

I bought my current Mini when Obama got re-elected nearly 8 years ago. It’s the 3rd I’ve had over the years. I hardly target shoot it, mostly just to zero. It has replaced a .22 as my porch gun because I’ve found the .22 not to be enough gun for groundhogs. I’ve hit small groundhogs at 70 range finder measured yards with the Mini. With varmint loads it will make a mess of a groundhog. The Mini is plenty accurate for my usage. When the Mini was introduced it was all steel later the butt plate was changed to plastic. I did put an aftermarket steel butt plate on mine. I like all steel guns over the alternative.

That I can build an AR for under $400 and at least match if not edge out a Mini’s accuracy, does not help it’s case. I find it odd that we can call an AR which prints 3moa inaccurate JUNK. But everywhere I go I find those who call the Mini’s capability “Good Enough”. LOL.. Hey.... whatever ya gotta tell yourself, cool with me. I’m simply remarking on the irony apparent in us. I have a good friend who’s owned & used the same Mini for close to two decades. It wasn’t even accurate by CHINESIUM AR15 standards, when it was newer. The “Baby” 14 was never my cup o’ tea.. but I don’t look down on anyone who chooses it. Not for a second. That said, I don’t believe any Mini matches my ARs built with high quality parts.

David Hoback said:

That I can build an AR for under $400 and at least match if not edge out a Mini’s accuracy, does not help it’s case. I find it odd that we can call an AR which prints 3moa inaccurate JUNK. But everywhere I go I find those who call the Mini’s capability “Good Enough”. LOL.. Hey.... whatever ya gotta tell yourself, cool with me. I’m simply remarking on the irony apparent in us. I have a good friend who’s owned & used the same Mini for close to two decades. It wasn’t even accurate by CHINESIUM AR15 standards, when it was newer. The “Baby” 14 was never my cup o’ tea.. but I don’t look down on anyone who chooses it. Not for a second. That said, I don’t believe any Mini matches my ARs built with high quality parts.

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It’s about intended design. The Mini was never intended for a precision shooter. It was designed to eat what it was fed, get rid of the spent casings and hit a man sized torso somewhere. It lives up to that design spec to this day.

I used to work at a place where a law enforcement officer kept documentation, a binder, of each group and load fired with his mini 14. This was 1990's and these were scoped with low power leupolds. There were many pages all showing groups on the same target type and I believe fired at about 50 yards. The groups were all more than 3 shots, I think 5 shots. These were all around 1.5" groups approx. at that range

mrmike7189 said:

View attachment 930885 They are not as bad shooters as people make them out to be.......I mean If you needed to shoot a coyote at 200yards,? you could, a groundhog?, sure you can!
That's what the rifle was designed for. I shoot 100 yard targets a lot.......and I wish my range was longer. I'd like to try 200/300 + yards some day.

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I think a more faithful rendering of the m14 reduced to 5.56 could be acheived.

How can you tell what series your Mini is?

I bought mine in the early 90s I think? Cant remeber for sure, but its barely Minute of Man...but to be fair, Ive shot it very little, and I used cheap surplus Nato ammo if I recall.

Megawatt maker said:

How can you tell what series your Mini is?

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First three digits of the serial number (before the dash).

.455_Hunter said:

First three digits of the serial number (before the dash).

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Also the front sight. The “older models” have a blade front sight the “newer models” have more of an m16 style wing sight.

David Hoback said:

That I can build an AR for under $400 and at least match if not edge out a Mini’s accuracy, does not help it’s case. I find it odd that we can call an AR which prints 3moa inaccurate JUNK. But everywhere I go I find those who call the Mini’s capability “Good Enough”. LOL.. Hey.... whatever ya gotta tell yourself, cool with me. I’m simply remarking on the irony apparent in us. I have a good friend who’s owned & used the same Mini for close to two decades. It wasn’t even accurate by CHINESIUM AR15 standards, when it was newer. The “Baby” 14 was never my cup o’ tea.. but I don’t look down on anyone who chooses it. Not for a second. That said, I don’t believe any Mini matches my ARs built with high quality parts.

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There's more to a gun than what happens when you bolt it to a bench. OP was simply showing one part.

amd6547 said:

That is fine accuracy. The older stainless Mini I owned couldn’t have come close to the 100yd groups of the OP...It couldn’t stay on a 8x10 piece of paper.

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Minis are overgassed from the factory. Great for Mini-action reliability. Bad, sometimes extremely so, for accuracy. Often those older Minis can be fixed up by simply replacing the gas port bushing and evenly tightening the gas block. This is also why it earned the reputation for wrecking scopes.

Mine shoots minute-of-enemy and thats good enuf for me. Its an early one, not meant for scoping, so I just run the peep aperature and its fine.

The only mods are a G3 sling and an aluminum butt plate traded from a REALLY early 10/22.

Being overgassed has nothing to do with accuracy. AR carbines are the most overgassed rifles made. Yet they have no problem achieving exceptional accuracy.

But once again....tell yourself whatever ya need to to justify the purchase. Doesn’t affect me.

My mini family consists of an older series 14, a 6..8, and a 30. They all shoot good. Compared to my 700, no, compared to other auto loaders. Yes. Good shooting with yours.

It was designed to eat what it was fed, get rid of the spent casings and hit a man sized torso somewhere.

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It certain does all that...especially gets rid of the casings. I had one for years and finally asked myself why I kept a gun that shot groups 3X as poorly as my worst AR and threw my brass where it could never be found....in fact, I suspect NASA could use a mini-14 to put brass onto the moon if they tweaked it just a little more. Somewhere out there is a Lagrange point where all my 5.56 brass is orbiting together.

I have an "older" Mini 14 from 1980. I don't know why everyone bashed them especially for accuracy. They are just like any other rifle. You have to find out what it likes. With 45-50 grain bullets mine won't keep it on a 6" target at 100 yards. 55 grain gives me about a 5 inch group but when I go to 62-63 grain and even 77 grain, I can get them easily to 3" or better sometimes if I do my part. And they really aren't designed to shoot at 100 yards anyway. Its a 50 yard gun in my opinion, and there are several loads that will shoot 1-105" groups at 50 yards and thats plenty good for me. With a 30 round mag, I am better at 50 yards than I am with my 2 AR's and both AR's will shoot better off a bench, but if push came to shove, I'd grab the Mini 14 in a minute. If I get into anything that that gun with a 30 round mag won't get me out of, then nothing will

berettaprofessor said:

Somewhere out there is a Lagrange point where all my 5.56 brass is orbiting together.

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It’s probably sharing that space with my 9mm Makarov brass.