Mini 14......Or not?

[TangSafetyM77]

Mini's are cool

My standard mini will do 2 moa with Winchester Q3131A with open sights. I have a 3.5 lg trigger job, reduced size gas port and have beeded the rifle, this is my CQB mini, fast to shoot, fast on follow-up shots:

 

[TangSafetyM77]

Anit-AR mini

Or, if you really want to bend your wallet, you can go a little nuts with the mini:

Shilen Heavy barrel
2 lb trigger
gas port, shok buff
Hogue stock
Burris 3X9 scope
Weigand scope rail
tuff-kote black finish

1 moa on a good day, first round is usually a flyer since it is not recoil loaded. It likes the 45 grn hollow point Winchester varmint thant come in the 40 round value packs.

In all seriousness, (I noticed you are in Oregon) if you go with a mini, I have a great mini 'smith in Beaverton that does great work to tweak your mini. A $30 trigger job alone can make a world of difference.

Ditto on PMI mags.

 

[SodaPop]

I think those are the two nicest Minis I've ever seen.

After I shoot out the barrel on my SS Mini I'm gonna get a heavy barrel.

How much was the Weigand mount? I got a B Square mount with my Standard, but I don't like it all that much.

 

[TangSafetyM77]

Soda,

Glad you like the mini's. Weigand mount was 50 bucks, see it here: http://www.jackweigand.com/ranch.html

But it won't fit your Standard mini, only the Ranch model. When I first got my Standard mini (first one pictured) I think it had one of those B-squares on it. They thread onto a replacement side plate and then have 2 set screws, right? I loc-tited the dickens out of that thing, and even my gunsmith could never get it to hold zero. In my experience, mounting a scope on a Standard Mini is an excercise in futility. The only way to do it properly is to drill and tap the receiver. Most folks won't even attempt that anymore, especially on the stainless mini's...something about the steel being too HARD?

Anyway, I still have not succumbed to the AR bug; for what I have in the HBAR mini I could have bought a nice one. But I just love the mini design, and already had a big stash of PMI 20's and 30's, so I decided to build something a little different. Here's a test target from the H-Bar mini, firt time out after bedding the Hogue stock.

 

[GW45]

CENTERFIRE SYSTEMS

Centerfire Systems has Mini-14 Mags that work - I have (10) 20 rnd mags from them and they are guaranteed to fit and function - I love mine, no problems so far.

The rifle has a few things added to it:
Hogue rubber stock
Eagle scope mount
Eagle HK sight/muzzle break
Eagle heat shield
B-square bi-pods that fit perfectly over the back of the muzzle break and cover the gap between the heat shield and muzzle break, (I have them folding backwards so they dont stick out a foot in front of the muzzle) Simmons Expedition 3x9x42 scope on top

Love mine.....

 

[SodaPop]

Tang-

tuff-kote black finish

Did you put that finish on there or did it come like that?

 

[TangSafetyM77]

Black finish

Came like that, Soda. It had the Shilen Barrel on it when I got it. Best my 'smith and I can tell, it was probably done by whoever did the barrel change. It's appears to be a baked-on polymer-type finish, seems OK, but not overly "Tuff". It was done over carbon steel, not stainless.

Tang

 

[SodaPop]

How much was the barrel? Did you have to change out the whole gas block to have that barrel put on?

 

[TangSafetyM77]

Shilen barrel

Soda,

Like I said, the heavy barrel was on the rifle when I got it. You can get them from Brownell's, and I think they are in the $250-300 range, but I am not sure. This barrel gets thinner under the handguard, so it has the factory gas block. A true bull barrel DOES require the use of a heavy gas block, which really runs up the cost.

 

[SodaPop]

I've seen a lot of the custom Mini 14s and wasn't too keen on the looks of them. Some of them looked a little too stubby for my tastes.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I can't see why a heavy gas block can't be home made. There's really nothing critical about it. The gas port and gas piston (especially with relation to the "slide") are about all that matters when it comes to function (and the barrel length in you want a longer barrel). Of the gas piston itself, it's a non-moving part and serves only to channel the gas that operates on the slide. It's quite unlike the M-14 with a moving gas-piston.

 

[Forseti]

Don't get the mini. Get an AR instead. I almost made the mistake of getting a mini for my first rifle, and someone pointed out that for a "little" more money I could get an AR...

Instead, I went even more crazy, and built an AR myself...kit gun. Fantastic decision. Great gun.

The best thing about the AR-15 is how amazingly customizable it is. Get one, and then tweak it until it does what you want. Its tough to do that with a mini.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

has anyone had a replacement barrel put on a mini that was the same dimensions as the factory barrel? I'm thinking a bull barrel isn't necessary, just a new one.