Mini-14 advice wanted

[gunsandrockets]

Last of the Mini-14's: a short story

I have fond memories of a Mini-14 I sold off back in the 80's, so in 2006 I purchased a new one in SS. Now I know the accuracy reputation of the Mini, and I wasn't expecting anything fantastic, just something similar to my last one, which was a blued 181 series Mini-14 and could put a five round group into four inches at 100 yards using the factory iron sights and ball ammo.

But disaster! My brand new pretty SS Mini-14 is a dog! I had to move back to fifty yards just to measure the group size. It's so bad I can't even adjust the sights far enough to get a rough windage zero.

And the irony is Ruger discontinued the Mini-14 within a year or two of my purchase. That may explain why my Mini is such a dog, as it might have been one of the very last ones manufactured by Ruger. God knows what barrels were being shipped out with the last of the line.

So, on to the question: what do I do now?

One option is to ship my Mini-14 to one of the specialists who rebuild and accurize them. Though at a minimum cost of somewhere above $500 (ouch!).

Another option is to beg Ruger for help. Is that even viable? Has anyone else dealt with Ruger in a similar situation? How did Ruger treat you?

In any case, I'm open to helpful advice and suggestions.

[Lead-Thrower]

Well, first of all, Mini's are not exactly known for their accuracy... I have one and would not use it for any precision shooting. Also, what is this about the Mini-14 being discontinued? I have not heard of this, and even if it was true, I would wonder why Ruger would discontinue their most popular rifle...

[gunsandrockets]

current Ruger Mini

Ruger stopped making the original Mini-14 and SS Mini-14 back around 2006. Now they only make the descendants of the original Mini-14: the Mini 30, the Ranch Rifle, the Target Rifle, and the Tactical Rifle.

The original Mini-14 had a spring loaded ejector (like the M-1 rifle), a cheap non-folding adjustable peep rear sight, and no receiver mount for Ruger scope rings. The early early Mini-14 even had a wooden handguard (mine did, puchased back in 1978!)

http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Mini-14#History

[asme]

First, ask Ruger, they have fine customer service.

Something cost-effective that'll always help is a Har Bar or an Accu-Strut. Google either of them, you'll see how they work and what they do to increase accuracy.

[Notblake]

Qft on the new mini's being a vast improvement.

[Suvorov]

Step One - Go to www.perfectunion.com and spend a day or two on that website. It is to the Mini14 what Calguns.net is to Kalifornia gun laws.

Step Two - Try some of the "do it yourself" accurizing techniques that are listed at perfect union. Many of them are simple and can have dramatic effects on your rifle.

Step Tree - try different loads. What ammo were you shooting? Is the front sight crooked (this will cause you to have to make large windage adjustments to your rear sight)? You say you have a "new" mini - is this a 580 series rifle? Does it have the thin barrel or the newer tapered profile barrel? Try mounting a scope/optic and see if you can get it to group well.

I have a older 580 series rifle that has the thin barrel. With some light work I have gotten it to be a solid 2 MOA rifle with match loads (never less that 1.5 MOA but I don't expect that from the mini). I have been in general, impressed with the newer 580 series guns with the tapered barrels that I have seen shooting at the range. If you have one of those, it really should be shooting 3-4 MOA groups with regular ball.

Last Step - This is the hard one to swallow - Is it you? Are you able to group well with your other rifles? I only mention this because when I purchased my 580, it had been a couple years since I had done any serious rifle shooting and lets just say, I wasn't helping matters at all.

Calguns has a lot of good info, but it is tends to be AR (and sadly in the hang as much **** off your AR as possible) centric. Perfect Union is really the place to go for your Mini-14 needs.

[Seesm]

Yeah most of the people on here are haters of anything not AR... Minis and Kel-Tecs and some other will get you a pile steamy brown stuff... I have em all and love them all.

[Marlin Hunter]

I had a Mini-14 ranch rifle. It was a total POS. At 100 yards with a 3x9 scope my bullets were hitting the 2 targets next to me. At 25 yards with a scope I was getting 12+ inch groups. Iron sights were the same. The only thing it was good for was shooting mud puddles.

[popeye4]

Try Ruger, they MAY help, but if the gun goes "bang" they may say nothing is wrong.

Then, if you have eliminated yourself as a problem, sell it and get a more capable rifle. Sure, you can spend a grand on it to get it to shoot like an AR, but then you'll have an $1800 Mini-14.....

Sorry, the AR is a superior platform. People like them because they work. I also have a Mini 14 Ranch Rifle, and it sits in the very back of the safe, NEVER sees the light of day. As Jeff Cooper said, only accurate rifles are interesting, and my Mini is not at all interesting, 6"-8" groups at 100 yds. (I liked the Mini-14 a lot more before I bought one.)

[dfletcher]

I had the pencil barreled Ranch in 223 - never again. I sent it to Accuracy Systems, had a heavier threaded barrel installed (gas block) and 3 point bedding, shoots under 1" @ 100 yds. Maybe the shorter, heavier Ruger factory barrels are better.

Couple of friends of mine are doing work on Minis in OR - I was up there last weekend, they had 4 of them lined up. All pencil barrels, all to be removed and replaced.

[eric2063]

In addition to the DIY suggestions here on CALGUNS I increased the accuracy of the Mini-14 I had by putting an AmegaRanges Mini-Scout-Mount on it. The only reason I could think of for the increase in the accuracy was the mounting system make the barrel more rigid and reduced or eliminated movement of the barrel as the bullet traveled down it, which I kind of confirmed when I went through the Mini-14 Armorer’s class.

One of the procedures and tools they instructed us on was to specifically check if the barrel is straight This was done as an acceptance test and is part of the yearly maintenance regimen. I half jokingly asked the Ruger factory rep instructing us why the Mini was such a poor accuracy platform after we covered that part of the lesson plan
He said they were never intended to be sub MOA guns, next question please

[thayne]

Mini-14 hasnt been discontinued. My pencil barrel shoots great. Its no sniper rifle, but can get the job done out to 200 yards.

[wsmc27]

I had a Mini-14 ranch rifle. It was a total POS. At 100 yards with a 3x9 scope my bullets were hitting the 2 targets next to me. At 25 yards with a scope I was getting 12+ inch groups. Iron sights were the same. The only thing it was good for was shooting mud puddles.

Uh huh. Sure.

Guess we got lucky...our 28 or 30 year old Mini shoots really REALLY well. It's a keeper.

[jwb28]

See post 7.
I have an "older" 1998 stanless mini and put a houge (SP) stock, bedded the action and had the trigger done. Think the total was about 150 ish. Last weekend I took it out and shot a sub 1" 4 shot group, pulled the 5th. But still less than 1.5". It was closer to 85 yards though, couldn't get to 100 where I was. And it was with a hand load. Some minis will shoot with a little work.

[jlem]

I have had 3 minis and everyone shot just fine ( 2 inch tops at 75 yards with regular sites ). If I had a scope I am sure that it would shoot 1 inch just fine since I know that the front site was moving because I could see it moving. I think that alot of the crappy minis have crappy shooters behind them. I have been shooting since I was a boy and maybe that is why I have never had a rifle that shot horribly. A shooter with a gun that is shooting a foot wide pattern either grabbed his shotgun on accident or needs to slow down, breathe, hold and pull the trigger slow untill it goes off by surprise. When I was learning to shoot as a kid I would litteraly sit their pulling slowly thinking that It should have went off by now and then BOOM, the bullets went where they needed to go everytime. Now I know that a Mini will not live up to a sniper rifle, but there is no reason besides the shooter why it should not shoot accurately with an experienced shooter.

Now it is always possible that you got a bad Mini that was built out of specs at the factory, just like it is possible to get a bad AR. If a mini was made correctly at the factory it should shoot just fine and accurately. I would contact Ruger and request them to fix your Mini.