Time to redefine accuracy...Mini 14 surprise

[CLT65]

I never understand the hate for the Mini 14, just based on my own personal experience, but I must have gotten a good one. It's an old 181 series. With good ammo I could always count on 2 1/2" 100 yard groups. From all I've heard over the years that must be exceptional. Lots of hate for the Mini out there.

 

[daved20319]

I never understand the hate for the Mini 14, just based on my own personal experience, but I must have gotten a good one. It's an old 181 series. With good ammo I could always count on 2 1/2" 100 yard groups. From all I've heard over the years that must be exceptional. Lots of hate for the Mini out there.

Mine's also a 181, and I'd say my results were on par with yours. Not sure I'd say hate for the Mini, more like contempt that a glorified plinker, loosely based on a century old military battle rifle, isn't capable of the kind of gilt edged accuracy folks seem to expect from EVERYTHING that goes BANG! these days . A little overstated, I realize, but we've been spoiled by the gun makers, with the production and ready availability of cheap rifles that will do sub-MOA out of the box. I think we've come to expect that if a sub-$400 rifle can do it, anything should be able to. We've lost the recognition that most of the time, good enough is good enough, and the Mini 14 is more than good enough for the uses I have for it . Later.

Dave

 

[CLT65]

I agree. In my experience a good Mini 14 will hold it's own with the average M1 Garand, which is plenty good enough for most things. BUT, I've also heard enough stories about 6 to 8 moa Mini-14s to know that they must be pretty commonplace as well. If my Mini-14 shot dinner plate sized patterns at 100 yards, I would have a very different opinion of it. I'd probably want to take a hacksaw to it!

I think certain rifles get a reputation for accuracy, or lack thereof, that grows beyond reality. The Mini has the reputation for terrible accuracy, so it gets repeated all the time that they are all garbage, and it's just not true. The same goes for the AR. I hear it repeated all the time that the AR is a "MOA" rifle, and everyone has one that will shoot "moa out of the box every time". That's just not true either. Some will, and that's great, but in my experience the average AR is more like a 1.5moa rifle, out of the box. That's still very, very good, but not this ridiculous 1/4moa, every day, all day tall tale some people tell. Yes, I know some people actually can shoot that good, but you read those claims often enough to know most of them are bogus.

 

[Aero Denezol]

That setup gives me consistent 1" groups at 50 yards with a red dot, and I suspect that that's my limit with a non-magnified sight. I'll be putting a scope on it for my next trip just to find out. Later.

I'm curious if you ended up scoping your Mini or not, and which rail/set-up you ended up using.

 

[daved20319]

I'm curious if you ended up scoping your Mini or not, and which rail/set-up you ended up using.

I did put a scope on it, using the UltiMAK rail, but haven't made it to the range yet, hernia surgery has kept me close to home for the last 3 weeks . Hoping to be able to get a range trip in later this week, not only to see what the Mini can do, but also to break in a new rifle, a Howa 1500 Mini-action in 6.5 Grendel . Stock should get here today, ammo on Wednesday, so hopefully will be shooting Thurs. or Fri. More later.

Dave

 

[Spitpatch]

Had two Mini's (at the same time). Spent a year with them, modifying, testing, loading, (scoped one):

They were extremely effective at hitting the side of a barn (as long as one was inside the barn). Never tried them shooting around corners. Maybe that was my failure.

 

[Pops1911]

A little off topic, but close enough. I have a Mini 30 that I love. It has proven itself to be accurate [but not a tack driver] and reliable. Mounted a less expensive red dot on it. As long as I do my part it will ring the 300 yard gong shot after shot. YRMV

 

[Spitpatch]

I will defend the concept and never denigrate these rifles. I WANTED a blue/walnut semi-auto rifle primarily for durable,accurate and reliable varmint caliber gun for Horse/ATV transport that never had to be maintained. These guns fulfill ALL but the accuracy requirement. For those clamoring for the result of 2 years with two rifles, the best they did was 2.5" to 3.5" at 100 yards.

There have been brief rumors and whispers that a Remington Model 742 auto was chambered in .223. If that had ever materialized, I would not have bought a Mini or an AR.

Having carried Stoner's invention in the war, I never carried another until I knew the previous President was elected. I then got on a mission and joined a group purchase of employees at jobber cost from a major manufacturer and ended up with a DPMS AP-4. This is all the gun I dreamed of with a subtraction of walnut offset by an embarassingly surplus of accuracy.

It is a VERY boring gun.

 

[Spitpatch]

One more thing in support of these guns: It is quite arguable that the entire concept became one of undercutting Colt's near monopoly on US (home issue AND supplied to other countries) small arms franchise.

The Mini-14 got sold for 30 years-plus to nearly every country (or insurrection) that couldn't afford a Colt's AR.

I'll say right here: the gun is handy in the hand and swifter than the AR to pull from a transport case and fire.

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Many of the old Minis did not suffer from the same problem of making patterns instead of groups. Ruger at one time took some that were quite good and did all kinds of measuring to try to see why. From what I heard they came up empty. So you may well have gotten hands on one that was quite good. Only way to tell would be to put a decent scope on it and see what it does. Back then the "normal" with them was in the area of 5 MOA at 100 yards. For many that was fine. One of the biggest problems was not so much the far from great accuracy as much as the way the POI would start to move as the rifle got warm. Many of them were all but impossible to site in due to this.
Now I have heard that they have re done the Mini and they no longer suffer from this but have not seen one in person to have it tested.

You are right. Why do you think he normally shoots at 50 yards? Nuff said

 

[CountryGent]

I never understand the hate for the Mini 14, just based on my own personal experience

Ditto. I've shot a bunch of the decades and still have one in the line-up. The one I have is accurate enough for its purpose. It does seem like luck of the draw though. This day and age there are so many options for a cost-effective, reliable, and accurate .223, I totally get that the Mini doesn't make sense for a lot of people. But the Mini bashing threads reminds of that scene in Blazing Saddles "I didn't get a harumph outta that guy!"

 

[Alexx1401]

You are right. Why do you think he normally shoots at 50 yards? Nuff said

This was a post from back in April you just found. Keep looking and you will find maybe next month or so where this is what I was responding too from him;
Now, I have a 2 MOA RDS on my Mini, and it's sighted in for 50 yards. At 300 yards, I could barely see the gong, and the dot covered most of it. But after a couple of shots to figure out just where it was hitting (surprisingly, pretty much dead on), I was ringing steel like I knew what I was doing .
That his Mini would do that says he got one of the good ones. The norm back then from these is you could hit it once or twice and then the POI would start to move so much you were no longer hitting that thing at that range. Also as I said I have "heard" that Ruger has improved these greatly now so this is not an uncommon thing. To get one that would ring steel at 300 yards. Have not seen it, but have heard they found what they did wrong.

 

[daved20319]

You are right. Why do you think he normally shoots at 50 yards? Nuff said

I never said I normally shoot at 50 yards, only that I have the Mini sighted in at 50. Which is the same distance I sight in any long gun that doesn't have a magnified optic, my 60 year old eyes aren't up to much better, and unless it's some kind of dire emergency or a lark, I won't be using such guns for shots much beyond 100 yards. See the post above, not only was I hitting a 12" plate, but I handed the rifle over to my shooting partner, told him my hold, and he promptly started hitting it, too. BTW, that was the first time I EVER shot anything at 300 yards, and it's created a whole new obsession . Ammo was some 55 gr. FMJ handloads I had left over from my AR, I considered it blasting ammo, but it turns out it's better than I realized. And before anyone asks, no, I haven't gotten the scoped Mini to the range yet, for a variety of reasons, but it may well happen this week sometime. Later.

 

[No_Regerts]

Got my mini sighted in at 25, gonna shoot at 100 next week!

 

[Deavis]

Back in the day I had a few.

Best results (I did this three times) were when I cut the barrels at 16" and installed the Choate flash hider / front sight.

That device gave you a square post instead of the nebulous rounded triangle of the factory gun.

I believe the shorter stiffer 16" helped a lot with harmonics too.

Every one of them was greatly enhanced in the accuracy department. The one I had the longest was a 2 MOA gun.

 

[Deavis]

I also had a few of the ranch models. They would never group consistent.

 

[Husky]

Ok, here's my experience with a mini 14. Had one when they first came out i bought one. Didn't like it so i sold it. Got another a couple of years ago. Something wrong with the barrel, ( corrosive primers i suspect and no cleaning by former owner) probable why the 14 inch group.. Sent it back to Ruger knowing they could not replace barrel,and would would probable offer new gun at a deal. Got new gun for about $650. Shoot new gun after cleaning the dirty barrel. Key holed bullets at 50 yds. Took home and ran patch down barrel, no rifling!!!!. Sent back, got new one. 6" group at 100 yds. Not good enough. Complained, got another new rifle. Same thing, 6" at 100yd'. The annoying thing is they sent me target with the third one that showed 2 by bullets almost touching at 50 yds. The problem was it was a photo copy of a target!! It wasn't even shot out of my gun, because mine would only do 3" at 50 yds!! And that's using the ammo that they said they used. I would say spend your money on a good AR platform, rather than wasting money on a Mini 14 that shoots no better than they did when they first made. If you must have a mini 14, buy one as cheap as possible and send it to some place like Accuracy Systems and have it fixed to shoot 1 1/2" at 100 yds for about $600.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Ok, here's my experience with a mini 14. Had one when they first came out i bought one. Didn't like it so i sold it. Got another a couple of years ago. Something wrong with the barrel, ( corrosive primers i suspect and no cleaning by former owner) probable why the 14 inch group.. Sent it back to Ruger knowing they could not replace barrel,and would would probable offer new gun at a deal. Got new gun for about $650. Shoot new gun after cleaning the dirty barrel. Key holed bullets at 50 yds. Took home and ran patch down barrel, no rifling!!!!. Sent back, got new one. 6" group at 100 yds. Not good enough. Complained, got another new rifle. Same thing, 6" at 100yd'. The annoying thing is they sent me target with the third one that showed 2 by bullets almost touching at 50 yds. The problem was it was a photo copy of a target!! It wasn't even shot out of my gun, because mine would only do 3" at 50 yds!! And that's using the ammo that they said they used. I would say spend your money on a good AR platform, rather than wasting money on a Mini 14 that shoots no better than they did when they first made. If you must have a mini 14, buy one as cheap as possible and send it to some place like Accuracy Systems and have it fixed to shoot 1 1/2" at 100 yds for about $600.

I know Im bringing this dead thread back, But I think Ill take your advice and try to get the best deal possible and but used.. Despite the accuracy complaints, the collector in me keeps seeing mini 14's for sale and Im having a harder and harder time time talking myself out of it, especially since Im already AR rich at this point and cant find a C93 for a 5.56 alternative rifle.

 

[Boboclown]

Get mini-14 with accu-strut, make it a mini m14.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Get mini-14 with accu-strut, make it a mini m14.

Thats the plan. Ive seen the accu-strut and aesthetically even if it provides no drastic function or improvement.. it looks like an M14 which is probably why I want one despite the negative feedback about them.