Mini 14. To buy, or not to buy?

[Starvin]

If you gotta go 80's style A-Team then you have to get the stainless.

It's the less-than-lethal weapon! Designed to shoot out the tires of vehicles, causing them to flip, and their dazed occupants to stumble out unharmed!

[AK-J]

It's the less-than-lethal weapon! Designed to shoot out the tires of vehicles, causing them to flip, and their dazed occupants to stumble out unharmed!

LOL! Where's the like button?

[mrkalashnikov]

Lol @ the Lame Team. Those boys would expend hundreds if not thousands of rounds during a firefight, yet nobody ever got a scratch let alone killed.

[Helen Keller]

Trees threw off sparks when hit too.

[alismith]

Trees threw off sparks when hit too.

Well, we do have rubber trees. I guess it's not too much of a stretch to imagine a "metal" tree.

[El Laton Caliente]

My wife loved the mini 14 I last had and I thought it sucked. She shot it better than I could. She has not shot a rifle much since I sold it. I made a mistake...

Get her what she wants... She is happy, you are happy.

I would stick with the new ones they group a lot better. I've had an old 180 and 181... just don't go there. I like the design, but they just aren't all they should be.

[Viking350]

I bought a mini 14 first. It shot okayl but was heavy compared to the AR 15 I bought later. I ended up trading the mini 14 for a M1 Garand.

Just remember that jewel of wisdom. If momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy.

[tank_monkey]

I think everybody has at one time flirted with buying one at the very least, but more than likely bought one and "hated" it. Why on earth would I want one?
Truth is I'm shopping for my wife. She wants a semi auto rifle that shoots 5.56 (she really likes the lack of recoil and slinging lead quickly). Though I'm trying to convince her to stick to AR's for a list of reasons, she likes the Mini. She's more of a recreational shooter than anything, she doesn't care to thumb her nose at liberals, and as a range toy a Mini would serve her just fine I'm sure. It is a much prettier looking gun hands down but for the money a Mini costs, I'm absolutely baffled by why she wouldn't just have an entry level AR. She may not be very SHTF conscious, but that rifle will need cleaned some time. So why not buy a weapon she knows how to strip and clean (and as a bonus find spare parts a dime a dozen)? I understand why a Mini14 would appeal to her, but mags for it are shitty and not nearly as common, why not stick with a platform we have mags for? Maybe if I can get my hands on one of these wall hangers to take to the range for a day and show her what a piece it really is I can talk her out of it.

Now I'm no stranger to Mini-14s. I own about a dozen of them in different configurations. They're great for varmint guns or tin can guns. But my eyes were open a few years ago when I was visiting a friend who owned a ranch on the Texas border with Mexico. We came under fire from a long distance out. Now they weren't hitting anything but you could hear the occasional 'whizzing' of the bullets flying over head. We ducked behind a berm and I wanted to load up a full mag into my carbine that I was carrying. Now I"m used to quick magazine changes under fire with an M16. The fucking Mini-14 was a bitch to reload under stress. You have to rock it in just right. The AR-15 style of slapping it in is FOOL PROOF. I'd take that from a mag swapping vantage point over ANY gun and that includes the ubiquitous AK, which I myself have also had problems with doing mag changes under stress. I swear by the AR platform. No one needs to mess with a magazine change not working due to your adrenaline blasting through you when you're facing bad guys.

[FunkyPertwee]

Now I'm no stranger to Mini-14s. I own about a dozen of them in different configurations. They're great for varmint guns or tin can guns. But my eyes were open a few years ago when I was visiting a friend who owned a ranch on the Texas border with Mexico. We came under fire from a long distance out. Now they weren't hitting anything but you could hear the occasional 'whizzing' of the bullets flying over head. We ducked behind a berm and I wanted to load up a full mag into my carbine that I was carrying. Now I"m used to quick magazine changes under fire with an M16. The fucking Mini-14 was a bitch to reload under stress. You have to rock it in just right. The AR-15 style of slapping it in is FOOL PROOF. I'd take that from a mag swapping vantage point over ANY gun and that includes the ubiquitous AK, which I myself have also had problems with doing mag changes under stress. I swear by the AR platform. No one needs to mess with a magazine change not working due to your adrenaline blasting through you when you're facing bad guys.

I'd like to hear the rest of this story.

[Aggressive Perfector]

^As would I!

Anyway, I explained to her why it was junk in comparison to the AR, but my buddy Dustin has one sitting in his safe (for sale, guess why). We're going to take my AR's out and let her shoot my bare bones AR as well as my "tacticool" set up and Dustin's Mini 14. Then she'll have her side by side comparison and she can figure out what she likes best. I'll buy her whichever she sets her mind on. I realize it's her choice (even if it is my money ), but I don't want one laying around not being used just because it looks pretty. If she really likes it, she'll have it.

[rshaneck2002]

I sure hope the barrels are better these days? My past Mini sucked big time after 50 yds, at 100 it ain't exactly a shooter in my book and for Ruger to take such a rd and just plain ruin it with this rifle is a joke. at least with the 7.62 version you know why. I sure hope their piston version AR's are better? don't know? and at that price do not want to know. The mini I had got sold in a year after purchase, that was 12 yrs or so ago. Really never had much luck with any Ruger rifles I have ever owned in the accuracy dept, including .270s and 25-06. I quit buying them a long time ago, never had one that would do better than 2.5 MOA with any ammo at all and believe me, I tried with several rifles for over 20 yrs. Pretty as hell, but not no shooter in my book by a long shot. Some people swear by them, I am not one in that camp.

[was_peacemaker]

Ironic enough the NRA just came out with an article. The 8 things you didn't know about the Ruger Mini-14. I thought number 6 was stretching it a bit.

It’s said Bill Ruger felt that, with better timing, the Mini-14 would have been the military’s choice as a successor to the M14. As we all know, history favored the AR-15 design that Colt had purchased from ArmaLite, instead, and the M16 was born.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/arti...-ruger-mini-14

[raxar]

Ironic enough the NRA just came out with an article. The 8 things you didn't know about the Ruger Mini-14. I thought number 6 was stretching it a bit.



http://www.americanrifleman.org/arti...-ruger-mini-14

I've heard that before. It's not outside the realm of possibility, the US army was has always had the habit of investing in stupid shit.

[Schuetzenman]

I've heard that before. It's not outside the realm of possibility, the US army was has always had the habit of investing in stupid shit.

Legislator backed pork. But along those lines the military has historically not been forward thinking about technology. Why do you think the Springfield Rifles had a magazine disconnect? Because the Generals thought the troops would waste ammo otherwise. Meaning they were still thinking Trapdoor Musket in mentality.

[Helen Keller]

Meaning they were still thinking Trapdoor Musket in mentality

just like the rest of the world at the time.

Countries like france and italy would have had an awesome arsenal BUT.. cant be wasting ammo like that.