jonboynumba1
Member
Let me say firstly that I am an AR-15 guy (more specifically a 16" RRA carbine kinda guy) If mad max beyond thunder-dome erupted or the chinese dropped from the sky like the Russians in Red Dawn I trust and am VERY familiar with that platform. I started in comblock plow land -graduating from various SKS's through several AK's. I still enjoy shooting AK's quite a bit for fun a few times a year but I just don't consider them serious tools anymore (personal opinion and prefference...not an indictment of all things AK...I've considered several plows my "go-to" carbines over the years before my conversion. That said I've also owned a garand and enjoyed M1 garands and carbines quite a bit and while I've never owned my own M1A...well everyone loves them at some point...I just never married one (yet) 
The point of this is not to say "the mini is the "ultimate weapon period" or prove it to be a dog...I just wanted something "different" that I would enjoy plinking with that could pull truck carbine duty and serve as a general purpose carbine. So the question is is the NEW and allegedly improved Ruger mini a good buy for that type of use>
I always considered the chinese or Russian SKS the "best buy" in affordable semi-autos. Still I've always "wanted" to like the Ruger Mini/Ranch rifles over the years. They look kinda like...well a "Mini M14" afterall. Problem is they didn't shoot very well...granted most of the ones I've borrowed have been WELL used....many quite old. I even got to live my A-team fantasies out with an AE-180 courtesy of the local PD that needed some serviced. I like the way it looks and feels but the sights always sucked...they wouldn't group as well as your average SKS (certainly not as well as a good Russian SKS) Even new ranch rifles I've seen people sighting in a few years back seemed to have a hard time printing anything you'd call a group at 100 yards. So when I started looking at some choices for a new truck carbine I initally skipped over this one. I was considering strongly the insanely expensive Socom 16. Which I really like (bud has one with an aimpoint and bipod) But even at dealer cost they are over $1500 by the time I add shipping and tax...that hurts. I don't think I'd feel good leaving that in the truck either. The SKS...well I've just reached an age where I want an at least passable trigger and flat out required optics are not far away for me. Though I like peep sights and can still use them reasonably well...so I needed both here. While I have no problem with people that want to play army...I've already done that and moved on. I don't need to go through Mogadishu to get home...but it's nice to have the utillity and value of a carbine in the vehicle with you sometimes. I also considered a scout rifle...which also makes sense...it was a close call. A ruger Frontier and decent scout scope would still be far cheaper than a socom 16 afterall!
So then I read Massad Ayoob in a magazine pimping more Ruger products and talking up how good the new Mini's are...they have new sights...tighter specs and updated machining techniques resulting in a better product yada yada yada. While never one to miss an opertunity to be biased towards free gear I've never known him to claim anything good that wasn't at least decent. So I actually got ahold of one at zippy-mart. I'll be darned if I didn't like the way it felt...nice sights and looks and feels like a mini garand or M1 carbine on steroids. It felt like it would be a fun enjoyable carbine. I just hoped it would shoot better than the crappy used ones I've shot in the past. So what the hay....I bought the thing right there..."if it sucks I'll resell it" -says I and bought up some various .223 ammo and ran by the shop for some nato ball. I also mounted a junk-drawer 3-9x32.. scope just to see what it could do and bore sighted it.
After some adjusting of said cheapo scope It did some decent groups....about as good as my best SKS. with floating 1.5-2MOA best groups. Still even with the improvements it will string 4th and 5th shots a bit which usually opens it to 3-5 MOA. Yet let it cool a few minutes and I could usually put 2-3 rounds of federal classic 55gr SP into 1.5-2" Very often 1-1/4" apart on two shot strings. It's no sniper rifle and a good AR will have little trouble besting it...but it certainly has a usable basline accuracy for it's intended role. I shot some reloaded 55gr SP that was a little slower (2850-2925-ish) and it REALLY liked these. I think the secret of the new mini may be in lighter ammo. I'm going to try some federal 55gr TRU "tactical rifle urban" which is in the same range velocity wise. I also shot mixed federal ball winchester ball (55gr) and some M855 as well as Winchester supreme $25 a box fodder (oddly the worst groups...3-4"). It liked the federal ammo and the reloads...I removed the scope.
WOW! This is way more fun! You can shoot standing kneeling and prone and feels like a mini garand plinker. While not quite as accurate you could generally hot water bottles cans and miscelanious junk at will at 100 yards. The sights seemed "roughly on" from the factory. I printed a few groups...my eyes are not what they used to be and all I could do was aproximate the center of the targets ( I normally bring 1" or larger orange dot stickers and put them on white printer paper sheets...didn't have them that day) 4-5" roughly coffee can sized groups seemed to be the best I could do off a sandbag. But I had loads of fun plinking this way...clearly the best setup for fun.
Last -just for fun I remounted the scope and loads 5 rounds and tapped a 16 oz water bottle 5 for 5 at 100 yards without re-adjusting anything. For general utillity purposes I really like this rifle with the little scope on it...around a farm or ranch it certainly would keep pests out of the pasture and if pressed I'm sure it could handle "any" type of predator you needed to drop to a couple hundred yards. Without it it really handles and feels nice in hand...a joy to plink with...certainly as accurateas or better than the average surplus plinkers we all love to drag out on the weekends. I had no malfunctions with the factory mag....so I orderd a handful of factory 20's this morning. Expensive yes...but I trust good factory mags to work and TANSTAAFL.
It isn't a 1MOA match grade rifle...it's barely anything you could call a 2-2.5" rifle though for a few fast shots it will do that from what I've seen. Certainlky if you wanted to baby it with long waits between shots it probably would prove out to that (which is what Ayood claimed Ruger says the new minis will do) Is it a night and day difference? No Is the ruger finally as accurate as a decent SKS?....YES! It also has very likable GI looking aoerature sights that are a joy to plink with...a decent trigger a robust gas system relativesly few parts and it's even purdy! Add to that that it is easily scoped for when my eyes just don't do even aperatures anymore and well. I like it! It won't replace the SKS as a best buy in this nitch...but for those of us that just don't want commie junkers anymore (even though we secretly still kinda like em) well. It finally is the rifle it should have been from the start! I'll say Ruger has dome well here...a slightly beefier BBL. would have been nice but it does seem a little stouter...even if most of it is on the outside portion of the bbl. STill it balances and shoots well enough for a handy fast carbine. I can honestly say my only complaint is that I have to buy $40-50 mags through alternate sources...Ruger needs to pull their heads out of the collective arses and start selling hicaps through regular dealers (it would have been nice to be able to order them wholesale at the shop) But it will do what I bought it for and is twice as fun to shoot as I expected. If they'd sell 20 and 30 round mags through dealers they'd sell a BAZILLION of these things! Lowering the price $50 wouldn't hurt either IMHO
It aint no AR-15...but it sure is a fun little carbine. I'd hate to go up against someone with good basic marksmanship skills and a suply of reliable mags. It certainly could be a usable tactical carbine for the average homeowner who is not going to go all GI Joe and buy an evul "assault rifle" Mostly I just wasn't dropping $1100-1500 for this nich and I didn't want a commie plow or another AR for my truck. It feels more "right" in hand walking around the back pasture than an AR-15 Pretty handy little camp carbine for riding around working at the hunting club...I'm sure it will come quickly to shoulder if I see a coyote out on the powerline cut-through. I believe I'll keep it!
The point of this is not to say "the mini is the "ultimate weapon period" or prove it to be a dog...I just wanted something "different" that I would enjoy plinking with that could pull truck carbine duty and serve as a general purpose carbine. So the question is is the NEW and allegedly improved Ruger mini a good buy for that type of use>I always considered the chinese or Russian SKS the "best buy" in affordable semi-autos. Still I've always "wanted" to like the Ruger Mini/Ranch rifles over the years. They look kinda like...well a "Mini M14" afterall. Problem is they didn't shoot very well...granted most of the ones I've borrowed have been WELL used....many quite old. I even got to live my A-team fantasies out with an AE-180 courtesy of the local PD that needed some serviced. I like the way it looks and feels but the sights always sucked...they wouldn't group as well as your average SKS (certainly not as well as a good Russian SKS) Even new ranch rifles I've seen people sighting in a few years back seemed to have a hard time printing anything you'd call a group at 100 yards. So when I started looking at some choices for a new truck carbine I initally skipped over this one. I was considering strongly the insanely expensive Socom 16. Which I really like (bud has one with an aimpoint and bipod) But even at dealer cost they are over $1500 by the time I add shipping and tax...that hurts. I don't think I'd feel good leaving that in the truck either. The SKS...well I've just reached an age where I want an at least passable trigger and flat out required optics are not far away for me. Though I like peep sights and can still use them reasonably well...so I needed both here. While I have no problem with people that want to play army...I've already done that and moved on. I don't need to go through Mogadishu to get home...but it's nice to have the utillity and value of a carbine in the vehicle with you sometimes. I also considered a scout rifle...which also makes sense...it was a close call. A ruger Frontier and decent scout scope would still be far cheaper than a socom 16 afterall!
So then I read Massad Ayoob in a magazine pimping more Ruger products and talking up how good the new Mini's are...they have new sights...tighter specs and updated machining techniques resulting in a better product yada yada yada. While never one to miss an opertunity to be biased towards free gear I've never known him to claim anything good that wasn't at least decent. So I actually got ahold of one at zippy-mart. I'll be darned if I didn't like the way it felt...nice sights and looks and feels like a mini garand or M1 carbine on steroids. It felt like it would be a fun enjoyable carbine. I just hoped it would shoot better than the crappy used ones I've shot in the past. So what the hay....I bought the thing right there..."if it sucks I'll resell it" -says I and bought up some various .223 ammo and ran by the shop for some nato ball. I also mounted a junk-drawer 3-9x32.. scope just to see what it could do and bore sighted it.
After some adjusting of said cheapo scope It did some decent groups....about as good as my best SKS. with floating 1.5-2MOA best groups. Still even with the improvements it will string 4th and 5th shots a bit which usually opens it to 3-5 MOA. Yet let it cool a few minutes and I could usually put 2-3 rounds of federal classic 55gr SP into 1.5-2" Very often 1-1/4" apart on two shot strings. It's no sniper rifle and a good AR will have little trouble besting it...but it certainly has a usable basline accuracy for it's intended role. I shot some reloaded 55gr SP that was a little slower (2850-2925-ish) and it REALLY liked these. I think the secret of the new mini may be in lighter ammo. I'm going to try some federal 55gr TRU "tactical rifle urban" which is in the same range velocity wise. I also shot mixed federal ball winchester ball (55gr) and some M855 as well as Winchester supreme $25 a box fodder (oddly the worst groups...3-4"). It liked the federal ammo and the reloads...I removed the scope.
WOW! This is way more fun! You can shoot standing kneeling and prone and feels like a mini garand plinker. While not quite as accurate you could generally hot water bottles cans and miscelanious junk at will at 100 yards. The sights seemed "roughly on" from the factory. I printed a few groups...my eyes are not what they used to be and all I could do was aproximate the center of the targets ( I normally bring 1" or larger orange dot stickers and put them on white printer paper sheets...didn't have them that day) 4-5" roughly coffee can sized groups seemed to be the best I could do off a sandbag. But I had loads of fun plinking this way...clearly the best setup for fun.
Last -just for fun I remounted the scope and loads 5 rounds and tapped a 16 oz water bottle 5 for 5 at 100 yards without re-adjusting anything. For general utillity purposes I really like this rifle with the little scope on it...around a farm or ranch it certainly would keep pests out of the pasture and if pressed I'm sure it could handle "any" type of predator you needed to drop to a couple hundred yards. Without it it really handles and feels nice in hand...a joy to plink with...certainly as accurateas or better than the average surplus plinkers we all love to drag out on the weekends. I had no malfunctions with the factory mag....so I orderd a handful of factory 20's this morning. Expensive yes...but I trust good factory mags to work and TANSTAAFL.
It isn't a 1MOA match grade rifle...it's barely anything you could call a 2-2.5" rifle though for a few fast shots it will do that from what I've seen. Certainlky if you wanted to baby it with long waits between shots it probably would prove out to that (which is what Ayood claimed Ruger says the new minis will do) Is it a night and day difference? No Is the ruger finally as accurate as a decent SKS?....YES! It also has very likable GI looking aoerature sights that are a joy to plink with...a decent trigger a robust gas system relativesly few parts and it's even purdy! Add to that that it is easily scoped for when my eyes just don't do even aperatures anymore and well. I like it! It won't replace the SKS as a best buy in this nitch...but for those of us that just don't want commie junkers anymore (even though we secretly still kinda like em) well. It finally is the rifle it should have been from the start! I'll say Ruger has dome well here...a slightly beefier BBL. would have been nice but it does seem a little stouter...even if most of it is on the outside portion of the bbl. STill it balances and shoots well enough for a handy fast carbine. I can honestly say my only complaint is that I have to buy $40-50 mags through alternate sources...Ruger needs to pull their heads out of the collective arses and start selling hicaps through regular dealers (it would have been nice to be able to order them wholesale at the shop) But it will do what I bought it for and is twice as fun to shoot as I expected. If they'd sell 20 and 30 round mags through dealers they'd sell a BAZILLION of these things! Lowering the price $50 wouldn't hurt either IMHO
It aint no AR-15...but it sure is a fun little carbine. I'd hate to go up against someone with good basic marksmanship skills and a suply of reliable mags. It certainly could be a usable tactical carbine for the average homeowner who is not going to go all GI Joe and buy an evul "assault rifle" Mostly I just wasn't dropping $1100-1500 for this nich and I didn't want a commie plow or another AR for my truck. It feels more "right" in hand walking around the back pasture than an AR-15 Pretty handy little camp carbine for riding around working at the hunting club...I'm sure it will come quickly to shoulder if I see a coyote out on the powerline cut-through. I believe I'll keep it!
