Bought a Mini 14 at the NRA Banquet!

[school of mines]

We a had a Friends of the NRA banquet on Saturday and there was a standard Ruger mini-14 for sale during the live auction. With a little encouragement from my youngest son, we brought it home! I was pretty excited since we always share my AR when we go to the range and now we can shoot together. I haven't owned a mini-14 and was wondering what scope to use on it? Not sure if the recoil/vibration is worse on the mini versus an AR? We are going to use it for plate/gong shooting up to 300 yards.

The money went to a great cause and we had a great time at the banquet.

[uscra112]

Things I've learned about mine:

If it's not the Ranch rifle with the scope dovetails on the receiver, you'll need an aftermarket mount. I researched them and eventually bought a side mount on Gunbroker. They are hard to find. Mine replaces the sliding cover over the bolt holdback mechanism.

Despite the 7 inch twist in mine, it shoots 55 grain bullets better than the heavy ones. That may be the bullets themselves - I have a store of pulled M855s, and I don't think the pulling did them any good. I bought some 75 grainers, but they have to be loaded awfully deep to fit the magazine. Haven't shot any, therefor.

But so far it hasn't cracked below 3 MOA no matter how I load it.

If you shoot milsurp ammo, put buffers fore and aft on the actuating rod spring. Apparently buffers meant for the 1911 pistol work. I cut mine from heavy leather. Without them the hammering of the gas block is pretty violent.

If you don't add the buffers, station a dumpster at about halfway between first and second base to catch brass. I have never seen a gun throw brass like this one!

There's a great many threads on how to accurize these. Such as: http://www.perfectunion.com/vb/

My solution for an accurate .223/5.56 was a third-hand Stevens 200 with a cropped barrel. What with the famine having set in, blasting off ammo at 30 rounds a minute just can't be on my menu anymore.

If you need a scope mount, I will sell you mine.

[school of mines]

Thanks for the great follow up response. The rifle will be mostly a plinker and I am not expecting much accuracy. I really appreciate the info on the buffers. That was definitely something I wasn't aware of!

[bob208]

i have one it is 25 years old. it shoots good with 55 gr. bullets. never tried anything else. i have the side mount on it with the detachable mount. it is a b-square mount. i have an old weaver k4 on mine. can not beat the old steel weavers.

[uscra112]

As a plinker they are indeed great fun. And the fact that they really are a miniaturized M1/M14 is very pleasing.

By now you have found out how easily the field-strip, too. Gotta love that part.

Mine copper-fouls quite a lot with those milsurp bullets, so I do a lot of cleaning. Not faulting the gun, I suspect that it had been shot very little, judging by the condition it was in when I bought it. It may still be breaking-in, so I strip the bore down to bare metal every time I bring it home from the range.

Since it has to be cleaned from the muzzle, I strongly recommend a .17-caliber cleaning rod with a bore guide. I made my own, but most folks don't have a lathe in the house.

BTW with the buffers installed it only throws brass about six feet to the front, so now I can usually find most of it.

If you handload, a load of 26 - 27 grains of Varget or that 844 milsurp powder is nice. It takes 28 grains to get the same velocity as real SS109 milsurp ammo, but the reduced load is kinder to the gun and seems as accurate as anything. 55 grain or 62 grain bullets, I use the same load.

[fcvan]

I had a buddy who went to Ruger Armory school. As with the AR, the Mini is factory rated to 4" at 100 yards. The rifle is capable of much more. Anyway, one of the things that seems to help is re torquing the gas block but I don't remember the ft/lbs required. What I do know is when I loosened and re torqued mine it tightened the groups nicely. Mine is an old 180 model, but re torquing helped the 185s and the 580s. YMMV

[Hardcast416taylor]

One of the best things you can do is to change the gas port orfice from the garage sized one in the gun to a much smaller one to calm down the brass throwing and improve accuracy. Brownells is one of the places that sell a 3 orfice set of different sizes. I have a side mounted and removeable scope mount with a 4X scope on it for varmits.Robert

[school of mines]

Thanks again for all the information. I wonder if Ruger still offers the armorer course? I am intrigued with the gas port orifice change out.

[Combat Diver]

IIRC all new Mini 14s have Integral Scope Mounts. For the best realiablity stick to Ruger magazines. Ruger makes the flush 5rd, extended 10, 20 and 30 rds mags.

http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14RanchRifle/features.html


CD

CD

[uscra112]

Changing the orifice is a tricky procedure. I looked at it, and decided to use buffers instead.

[BruceB]

As I've mentioned here many times now, my good friend NVCurmudgeon and I BOTH bought new Mini-14s in 2010. His is a stainless/synthetic ranch Rifle, mine is a "Davidson's Deluxe" (in Circassian walnut... nice!).

Both rifles wear Leupold scopes... his is a 3-9X of some model, and mine has a Mark AR 1.5-4.5X.

BOTH of these rifles are far more accurate than one would expect from Internet testimony. We are shooting Hornady V-Max 55-grain bullets, and the groups are typically very close to the 1" mark at 100 yards ....AVERAGE. One day, I watched as Bill fired four consecutive groups of five that were ALL in one inch or less.

For the type of rifle they are, we find these results very impressive and very useful. Do not believe all the doomsayers that keep moaning on the 'net.... at least SOME of these rifles will shoot very well indeed.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Changing the orfice is quite simple of a job. First remove the magazine and make sure the rifle is empty of rounds in the chamber. Strip off the stock and top handguard. Strip the op rod as would be done in a cleaning routine. Get the appropiate sized allen wrench to fit the 4 allen screws that hold the 2 parts of the foreend/orfice assembly together. These screws are staked so they will be a bit tough removing them, I used a 1/4" socket allen wrench with a piece of pipe on the ratchet handle as a cheater assist. Once they are all out the 2 halves can be removed revealing the orfice part sitting in the recess in the barrel. Thoroughly clean the areas that were concealed by the halves before replacing the old orfice with a new one of a smaller size. The orfice kit comes with I believe 3 different sized replacements of differing size. I chose the next to smallest size for mine. Now replace the 2 halves, locating the 2 halves to original location is no problem, then replace the 4 bolts tightening them equally so it will be equally drawn down. Re-assemble the rifle as normally done and you are done. I also use a recoil buffer to soften the op rod movement upon firing and they do aid in improving accuracy and do help in shortening the brass toss.Robert