I bought this lil guy some years back when I lived in a freedom-hating state. Turns out after a ton of rounds down range, I prefer it to its much more customizable and scary-looking black 5.56 cousins. Excellent trigger out of the box, love the safety mechanism, the action, and it just fits me like a glove.
For years I left it stock, but recently I’ve began to mess with it a bit. An Accu-Strut under the barrel, a Samson Hannibal upper rail, and a TruGlo green dot reflex to begin. I love the Hannibal rail with its optic cut, but unfortunately you can’t cowitness with the stock sights, so I removed the rear and that’s currently where I’m at.
Next on the list is to remove the front sight post. These are a bit difficult and underneath the front sight the barrel’s OD is slightly smaller. Since I don’t plan to run a front sight or a muzzle device (love how it shoots fireballs,) the plan is to chop the thinner bit off the end, clean it up, and re-crown it. Removing that (less than 1") should leave me with 17" and change for the barrel.
After that, I plan to pick up a wooden stock, strip it bare, stain it black, finish it, and replace the stock polymer one. Minus any screwups, a bit of grain should still be visible and hopefully it’ll have a nice modern but still classic look. The only thing I’m undecided on is if I should leave the stainless bits with their current matte finish or sand and polish them down to a brighter shine.
Also considering a trigger job and some gas bushings (so it doesn’t throw brass 300 feet or make it rain on the shooter to my right, but that’s also part of the fun.)
I’ve never shot one. I’ve ALWAYS wanted one. I have a soft spot for Rugers, but I’ve wanted a Mini-14 before I even knew what a Ruger or any brands even were.
My shooting buddy has a wooden stock one and it’s great. I’ve looked at those and the stainless models. I almost bought one this last go round but I convinced myself I needed another AR, a dissipator. We call the mini-14 the “non scary black rifle” for the underpantsy crowd.
these always remind me of an AK-47 reliability with the capabilities/options of an AR-15 all wrapped up in sheep’s clothing. There’s just something about them I really do like.
It’s a really old issue that people just still parrot repeatedly on the internet as truth.
So there’s basically two types of Minis when you get down to it. There’s ones with serial numbers that begin with 180 and ones that begin with 580. The 180s are the older models which were equipped with a pencil barrel. Once the barrel heated up, these had a tendency to suffer from barrel whip and rounds began to walk. It didn’t always happen, but it was a common issue.
Ruger made a number of improvements to the rifle come the 580 serials. I don’t remember the exact time of the changes but I believe it was roughly 18 years ago (definitely more than 15,) the biggest of which was a much thicker barrel to alleviate the issue. Look at the picture I posted, see just past the gas block where the barrel is thick and tapers down? That’s the easiest way to tell, I have a 583 series.
The newer 580-series rifles are 1.5-2.5 MOA out of the box depending on ammo/shooter/conditions/etc, pretty much the same accuracy as an out of the box AR. Hardo internet operators with zero Mini experience just love to keep parroting the accuracy thing as if it wasn’t resolved a long time ago, though.
The Accu-Strut I added under the barrel has been known to be a huge help on the older rifles with the barrel whip as it acts not only as a stabilizer but also a bit of a heat sink. I added one on mine not out of an accuracy necessity but for the heat sink, to reduce vertical kick, and for the look.
I thought about the A-TM stock, but I didn’t do it for two reasons:
I think the walnut looks much better on a black Mini compared to a stainless one and I didn’t want to bother paying over $300 for that stock to have to completely strip and refinish it.
That, and…
My shooting buddy already has that exact setup. Can’t be a copycat. That’s why I’m gonna find and customize a wood stock of my own.
i’ve always felt that the mini 14 was always a gun that was kinda filling a slot because our government forbid us from having the real deal, and once that the law expired, and we could have the real proper ar15, the mini-14 kinda went the way of the dodo to me. Its like it stood for our opression by the government to me, so i’ve never had any interest in it. im sure its a fine rifle, but i just never could get down with it.
