The Mini-14, a historical perspective.

[NOTABIKER]

If you are a fan of WW 2 wood and steel combat rifles and you like the 223 round how could you not want a Mini 14 or Mini 30 ?. i have bought and sold many fine guns that i wish i had the money to keep all of them. As my interest changed i had to sell some to buy my latest obsession.
My Mini 14 has never lost its place in the safe.

[imarangemaster]

Of all the guns I have (including AR15s), the only guns I like more than my Mini-14 is my Mini-30 and my 1976 Navy Arms built (pre-Uberti) 1860 Henry in 44-40. The 1860 Henry was the assault rifle off the Civil War!

[johnk518]

Only thing I had problems with was the name "mini" but that worked into my favor keeping most away. It's a great simple gun.

[tomk556]

Well, there are a lot of dead enemy combatants from the 30 Carbine in three wars: WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. In the pacific theater and Vietnam, where it was used a lot under 100 yards it was great. On the open hillsides of Korea where they tried to use it as a 300 yard rifler, it sucked. 110 grain bullet at 1970 fps generates 900 ft lbs at the muzzle, and around 650 ft lbs at 100 yards.

My dad fought with one on Iwo Jima, and he said it never let him down, not even the night of the big Banzai charge. His brothers also fought with carbines in the pacific and they came home too. I dropped a 200 pound Black Tail Deer at 100 yards with a single heart lung shot with a carbine. If you use it within its limits, its great. An FN P90 5.7 would suck at 300 but it too is not designed for that.

Well said. Apples to oranges. The M1 Carbine is an exceptional weapon and probably the best (hate to call it, it) "personal defense weapon" ever fielded.

[imarangemaster]

Well said. Apples to oranges. The M1 Carbine is an exceptional weapon and probably the best (hate to call it, it) "personal defense weapon" ever fielded.

You hit the nail on the head. It was designed as a PDW for officers, radio operators, mortar and machine gun crews, and the like. It worked so well, they actually produces 6.5 million before 1945! Only slightly more than 4 million M1 Garands were produced in the same time period.

[pratchett]

People keep saying they don't like new-design Mini-14s due to old-design Mini-14s. Every new-design I've fired has just been crazy accurate within 100 yards, which AFAIK was what it was designed for. I very much doubt most people who poo-poo the accuracy of the Mini can shoot an AR with irons significantly and consistently better.

If you can, great. I own both and love them. I'd buy more of either.

[imarangemaster]

I actually like the new Minis a little better, and I have been shooting Minis since 1982 (and ARs since 1974). My 186 series older mini, though, does have a 1/7 twist barrel, and gobbles up MK262 MOD1 77 grainers. I do confess also that I prefer the 584 series Mini-30 to the Mini-14. If a Mini-14 is an M1 Carbine with a hard on, the Mini-30 is an M1 Carbine on Viagra!

[USMCM16A2]

Well,


Those who don’t think the Mini can shoot, here is some news for you. I have 2 Mini-14 rifles. Birch blued, stainless in a Tupperware stock. Both are equipped with True Shot barrel stabilizers, Accuracy Systems recoil springs, buffer technology buffer pads. Accuracy Systems trigger springs, which cleaned up the trigger pull to a nice clean 2 stage pull. The factory gas block was replaced on both rifles, Accuracy Systems of course.
With that said, both rifles will hit the 400 yard small gongs 5 of 6 shots. It is not an AR, for sure. But if there are those of you that love the Garand turn bolt system in 5.56 NATO, this is your rifle. A2

[USMCM16A2]

I ordered from Buds, 5802 a birch Mini-14 in stainless! A2 #3 for me.

[n8vrmind]

My previous post mentioned my negative experience with my first/last mini14. Maybe it was a lemon 583-. Still, it shouldn't have left the factory in the first place.


Just my opinion, if Accu strut and other mods are needed for mini14 run optimally then the Ruger ain't doing its job. Reminds me of Glock fanboys who modify 90% of their pistols and tout "Glock perfection"

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[lordmorgul]

The Mini-14, a historical perspective.

My previous post mentioned my negative experience with my first/last mini14. Maybe it was a lemon 583-. Still, it shouldn't have left the factory in the first place.


Just my opinion, if Accu strut and other mods are needed for mini14 run optimally then the Ruger ain't doing its job. Reminds me of Glock fanboys who modify 90% of their pistols and tout "Glock perfection"

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[n8vrmind]

My expectation for a NIB $900 mini14 was fairly low.. Just for it to function reliably with factory mags, which it didn't. There are other owners on PerfectUnion.com forum with similar experience as myself.

Not to rain on your parade, just sharing my *****ty experience with Ruger product.

I am glad your mini14 is working well for you.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[lordmorgul]

My expectation for a NIB $900 mini14 was fairly low.. Just for it to function reliably with factory mags, which it didn't. There are other owners on PerfectUnion.com forum with similar experience as myself.

Not to rain on your parade, just sharing my *****ty experience with Ruger product.

I am glad your mini14 is working well for you.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[USMCM16A2]

N8,


It’s a shame that the Mini-14 did not work for you. I hope you got your money back. I love the M1 Garand, but it is too damn heavy. I love the M1 Carbine, but don’t care for the caliber.
So as has been said, I can have a baby M1 Garand in 5.56 I am happy. A2

[drclark]

One advantage with the mini14 is the garand style action will be easier to "permanently" fix the magazine and convert to load with stripper clips when Newsome bans all detachable mag featureless rifles...