Does a Mini 14 barrel strut work?

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I've got the Accu-Strut on my 186 Series Mini-14 and it really helped the accuracy end of it. Would be nice to know the distance of the target though.
 
description says 50 yards and if that's just shooting 1 round per second for proof testing it looks good to me.
 
Anything clamped on to stiffen the barrel and act as a heat sink works. I used two of the mini-maglite barrel adapters with 6 inches of 5/8" steel conduit on my old 181-series ranch rifle. Went from pie plate stringing patterns at 100 yards to consistent under 3 inch groups with cheap steel cased ammo.
 
I like my old Accu-strut. I haven't benched it but it took off-hand groups from 9-inch paper plate size to tennis-ball sized at 50ish yds. I hit 200-yd torsos in 3-guns easily.
 
It might depend on the Mini. The newer series Mini's have stiffer barrels, and seem to have better accuracy out of the box than the older versions. I sent mine off to John Baker at Great West Gunsmithing for an accurizing package and he didn't recommend a strut. Mine had the shorter barrel though so maybe that's why??? Anyway, I don't think it can hurt anything, and of you like the looks, go for it.
 
Lots of folks have reported that either slightly shortening the barrel or adding a muzzle brake/ flash hider have made notable changes in accuracy toward the good. Also some report that tuning the gas block by either putting in a gas restrictor or just being sure all the screws are the same torque has helped Mini accuracy.

Apparently ruger made the barrels to exactly the wrong length with regaurd to barrel tuning for barrel whip and either a bit of weight out on the muzzle or slightly less barrel length change things for the better.

I want a flash suppressor that was available way back like the late '70's or so. It was a slip on that look like a miniaturized model of the M-14 flash suppressor and it had protective ears for the front sight to complete the mimic though part of that long front blade would have shown to the rear of the ears.
Sure would look neat.

I can't look at a Mini 14 or Ranch RIfle without still wishing Ruger had released the XGI with options like 7-08 and .243 in addition to .308.

kBob
 
Bet this fellow likes his strut :cool:

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I have one of the newer 581 minis with 16 inch barrel. It was about a 1 1/2 minute shooter at 100 yards first 3 rounds from a cold barrel. But a 20 round mag slow fire the group would open up to about 5 or 6 inches. I installed a true shot strut with a #2 UTG barrel mount. The rifle is still 1 1/2 moa cold barrel but it keeps the 20 round slow fire group in about 3 inches now, which I'm happy with. I've taken running coyotes with it out to 250 yards. It's a great little carbine and they're a blast to shoot.
 
It helped a good deal but anything over 55 grains and our old Mini shoots patterns rather than groups.
 
1Kperday,

Thanks for posting. Yes like that sort of. Someone back in the day made that same slip on with ears and someone made a pin on that replaced the front sight an m-14 style sight with ears.

My wife would likely not be pleased with me bolting things onto her rifle though. Back when we first got it I explained that Minis shot progressively worse after they got hot. I think she correctly pointed out that if she shot hers enough to make a difference at home defense ranges that something would be very wrong with the universe. She used it for her house gun when she lived alone in another city before we were married.

-kBob
 
From my own experience with an old 183 series I can say barrel struts work. The strut doesn't have to be solid material to stiffen the barrel. It can be a hollow tube. The points on the barrel you clamp it is important.
I made 2 struts some years back. One was a solid bar of aluminum and the other was an aluminum tube filled with silicon caulk. IMHO the second one performed better.
I ended up removing the strut from the Mini, glass bedded the stock, cleaned up the trigger and replaced the gas piston orifice. This old 183 series still shoots under 2"
 
I think the Mini 14 is a beautiful gun, I love the look of it.

I put an AccuStrut on mine, and it cut down a lot on group size, I was still "stringing" vertically about 4" on 50 yard groups. Maybe that gun, but I also had an AR that was inside 3" at 100 yards.

I'm not a rifle guy, I went with the AR and I'm guessing that the Ruger is now in the hands of a happy and satisfied owner
 
I put an Accustrut on a 581 series Mini-14, and it seems to have helped quite a bit. I also cleaned up the trigger, although I did leave it a two stage. I can run through a 20 round mag with no stringing at 100 yrds. I have to admit I like the way it looks, too.
 
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