Am I the only one on here familiar with the Winchester Light Weight Military Rifle of the 1957 trials?
The same trials that saw the introduction of a scaled down AR-10 called the AR15 were mainly against a rifle that at least looked like a Mini-14 though was something more like an M1 Carbine. It had a carbine style trigger group and a carbine style tappet style gas system.
It also featured a … wait for it... pencil weight barrel ( it even had lightening slots or grooves where the mini barrel was thickest) to make a five pound with unloaded magazine weight.
Because of this light weight barrel it also suffered from inaccuracy in the form of wandering shots as the barrel heated up.(lets not get into the fact that so did the pencil barrel AR15s and that using a sling or bipod could give you a significantly different zero than that rifle over the sand bag back in basic you did)
Anyhow ten years before the Army actually adopted the AR15 as the Service rifle in 1967 as the M16A1 (limited standard status along side the M-14 even earlier in 1964) and 14 years before Bill Ruger showed his Mini-14 to gun writers, the Army had already turned down something much like his Mini in favor of the AR15.
I will say after my three years of bad experiences with the pencil barreled XM16E1 and its approved after adoption name of M16A1that when I finally got a Mini in hand in 1976 I was all for the mini. It needed some improvments back then, many of which have, a mere forty years later, been addressed, mainly the sights and barrel, but also the gas system port size.
Before I upset the Mini owners let me say I have no issues with anyone wanting or using a mini, the security force at at least one reactor facility I know of used them BTW, I will say that In that decade I eventually settled for NEITHER rifle.
I thought after research then and after trying them that the AR-180 was a better combat and sport rifle than either the SP1 or Mini-14. It was far more reliable in my experience than the M16A1 or SP1 and more accurate than the Mini-14.
Unfortunately few seemed to agree with me and except for a few fits and starts here and there (and why did the later Armalite in name only bugger it up?) the AR 180 fell by the wayside and watched the AR and the Mini troop on as it lay in the dust.
In the early 1980s while on duty in Germany I had no assigned rifle. As HHB Divarty XO I had a jeep and trailer in the field and of course my own personal car when not on duty. Packed away in my alert bag for "go to war" calls was a broken down Mini-14 and three 20 round magazines and a five rounder. Go figure.
Today I do own and use an M4gery in preference to a 1970's era Mini, times and things change.
I will say that comparing a new made M4gery (even a PSA Kit on a "whatever" lower) to a 1973 Mini 14 is pretty silly. How about you guys try comparing a Mini to a 1970 XM-177E3 or early "old Sarge" 16 inch(the only thing out there was pencil barrel) "CAR15" kit gun? I assure you the Mini does not look near as bad compared to those.
-kBob
