ruger mini 14

[rossim92]

anybody have experience with the ruger mini 14 in the .308. i hear the barrels are thin and subject to warping when hot therefore affecting poa

[Scott Tschirhart]

The Mini 14 was never made in .308.

Back in the early 1980s Ruger made something similar and called it the XGI. I shot Peter Kokalis’ XGI quite a bit. I thought it was a great idea and it shot well. But fir some reason Ruger abandoned the XGI project.

[rossim92]

The Mini 14 was never made in .308.

Back in the early 1980s Ruger made something similar and called it the XGI. I shot Peter Kokalis’ XGI quite a bit. I thought it was a great idea and it shot well. But fir some reason Ruger abandoned the XGI project.

ty

[AJMD429]

.
Are you referring to the "308" in the form of the 7.62x39...? They called it the "Mini-30".

I don't know about those, but the Mini-14's in general have a reputation that the early ones were not very accurate due to thin barrels, however I owned a couple back then (1980's) and they could easily hit a basketball at 100 yards, which is about as good as most folks can shoot a moving target from a standing position, which is what those guns were really designed for.

The newer ones have more rigid barrels, although it is kind of like the Colt Target Sporters, where they have the grenade-launcher profile barrels that are thicker towards the muzzle - I'd think that would NOT be a good design, but reviews are pretty good.

There is a place called Accuracy Systems that makes add-on components that accurize the barrels by stiffening them externally - in the process making them look like a miniature M-14 (LOL - hence Ruger's original name - "Mini-14")

One of their really fancy setups - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=reaqOlLDH6M
They have more ordinary fixes too - https://www.accuracysystemsinc.com/index.php

Since I have an AR that is sub-MOA, the role for my Mini-14 is a 'grab and shoot' gun that all the family knows how to operate intuitively (the charging handle is the deal-breaker for the AR-15 and the casual users). The Mini-14 I have ALWAYS works, NEVER fails, and at the distances a home-invasion or similar altercation would occur, 'accuracy' is not an issue; just reliability and simplicity.

I do have one of the Accuracy Systems setups (with adjustable gas block) on an older Mini-14 but I've never really tested it; I probably should.

I bought it cheap at a gun show because... lt looks cool.. This is a website photo of a similar setup:



I will say the two main criticisms of the Mini-14 other than the "less accurate than an AR" thing are the trigger-guard safety, which everyone says is so terrible, but it was good enough for the Garand and the M-14 and the M-1A, so I'm just not that bothered, nor am I by the 'rock-in' magazine insertion - I think that's because I grew up with a Mini-14 as a teenager (half a century ago... ), and only got my first AR-15 when I was 40 or so years old, so the Mini-14 seems more 'natural' to me. I actually like to modify the AR's I have by putting a side-charging upper/bolt carrier setup on them - the fragile and totally-non-ergonomic 'charging handle' is awful; I know in 'combat' supposedly you only chamber the first round the day you step out afield, and supposedly never have an empty chamber and closed bolt for the rest of your combat tour, but that isn't my farm/homestead reality...

[rossim92]

The Mini 14 was never made in .308.

Back in the early 1980s Ruger made something similar and called it the XGI. I shot Peter Kokalis’ XGI quite a bit. I thought it was a great idea and it shot well. But fir some reason Ruger abandoned the XGI project.

my bad, maybe i was thinking of another rifle similar to it. not the m1 garand, what paratrooper rifle did they use in the korean war?, was that a .30 carbine?

[rossim92]

.
Are you referring to the "308" in the form of the 7.62x39...? They called it the "Mini-30".

I don't know about those, but the Mini-14's in general have a reputation that the early ones were not very accurate due to thin barrels, however I owned a couple back then (1980's) and they could easily hit a basketball at 100 yards, which is about as good as most folks can shoot a moving target from a standing position, which is what those guns were really designed for.

The newer ones have more rigid barrels, although it is kind of like the Colt Target Sporters, where they have the grenade-launcher profile barrels that are thicker towards the muzzle - I'd think that would NOT be a good design, but reviews are pretty good.

There is a place called Accuracy Systems that makes add-on components that accurize the barrels by stiffening them externally - in the process making them look like a miniature M-14 (LOL - hence Ruger's original name - "Mini-14")

One of their really fancy setups - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=reaqOlLDH6M
They have more ordinary fixes too - https://www.accuracysystemsinc.com/index.php

Since I have an AR that is sub-MOA, the role for my Mini-14 is a 'grab and shoot' gun that all the family knows how to operate intuitively (the charging handle is the deal-breaker for the AR-15 and the casual users). The Mini-14 I have ALWAYS works, NEVER fails, and at the distances a home-invasion or similar altercation would occur, 'accuracy' is not an issue; just reliability and simplicity.

I do have one of the Accuracy Systems setups (with adjustable gas block) on an older Mini-14 but I've never really tested it; I probably should.

I bought it cheap at a gun show because... lt looks cool.. This is a website photo of a similar setup:



I will say the two main criticisms of the Mini-14 other than the "less accurate than an AR" thing are the trigger-guard safety, which everyone says is so terrible, but it was good enough for the Garand and the M-14 and the M-1A, so I'm just not that bothered, nor am I by the 'rock-in' magazine insertion - I think that's because I grew up with a Mini-14 as a teenager (half a century ago... ), and only got my first AR-15 when I was 40 or so years old, so the Mini-14 seems more 'natural' to me. I actually like to modify the AR's I have by putting a side-charging upper/bolt carrier setup on them - the fragile and totally-non-ergonomic 'charging handle' is awful; I know in 'combat' supposedly you only chamber the first round the day you step out afield, and supposedly never have an empty chamber and closed bolt for the rest of your combat tour, but that isn't my farm/homestead reality...

i think it is the m-1A like the looks of them, just not the price

[samsi]

I remember the XGI, they even ran ads for it before they pulled the plug. Rumor has it that possibly a couple hundred were actually produced. There was also the short-lived Deerstalker, which looked like the Mini-14/XGI action wrapped around the 44 magnum. I've never seen one of those in the wild either.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I actually had a Deerstalker. Great idea but poor execution.

[2ndovc]

I have a fairly new Mini 14 that I really enjoy shooting, but I prefer my Springfield Scout. Only to be outdone by my National Match.

jb

[GunnyMack]

Yes, the M1 carbine that was chambered for the 30 Carbine.

I have a Ruger Deerstalker, mine is quite accurate though it does not like 300 for bullets as much as I wish it did. It's also the only gun I have ever dropped a scope on and didn't have to turn a turret, dead on our of the box!

[BobM]

The PD I retired from has Mini 30s in the cars for a couple years around the late nineties or early oughts. I bought USA magazines in ten and twenty round capacities and about half of the magazines would work. The guns ran better with American made ammo. The senior instructor at the time was a Vietnam era Army veteran and thought it was a more reliable design than the AR. I bought Black Hills and Corbon duty ammo which was more accurate than the ball ammo. One of them had to be returned to the factory early on as the trigger assembly would fall out upon firing.
Post 9/11 I traded them for ARs with which the officers performed better, especially after I was able to install Aimpoint dots on them

[AJMD429]

.
I think the main impetus for the Mini-30 was the few years of really inexpensive 7.62x39 surplus ammo. For a 'knock-around' truck-gun kind of purpose, the gun and ammo seemed to be a good combination, although the factory flusn (5 round?) magazines were really the most practical.