Activity greatly diminished

curt mini14 said:

have you been living under a rock a little over modded here im really supprized we can say THE.

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You cannot, you're banned.🤣

Joking aside, there are quite a few threads on the subject. Now that the AR-15 platform:

• has dropped to $300, $500 for a decent one
• is a modular platform
• "modern"

the interest in Minis has fallen like a rock. However, with some States banning "scary guns" there's a renewed interest in the Mini as it looks "more traditional" and we're gaining new members. The supply of M1s is exhausted, which is part of what drove the Mini popularity initially when people couldn't get a $300 M1 and ARs were somewhat unobtainable--that's all changed.

Old guys are also dying off and younger guys are joining, just not as quickly.

And yes, several people were pretty pissed when things reached a breaking point and they no longer were allowed to degrade people based on color/race/ethnicity or call them names because they disagreed. It's that type of conversation that drove off many core members as it has nothing to do with Liberty or firearms, so it was killing membership and had to be dealt with.

WI_Hedgehog said:

You cannot, you're banned.🤣

Joking aside, there are quite a few threads on the subject. Now that the AR-15 platform:

• has dropped to $300, $500 for a decent one
• is a modular platform
• "modern"

the interest in Minis has fallen like a rock. However, with some States banning "scary guns" there's a renewed interest in the Mini as it looks "more traditional" and we're gaining new members. The supply of M1s is exhausted, which is part of what drove the Mini popularity initially when people couldn't get a $300 M1 and ARs were somewhat unobtainable--that's all changed.

Old guys are also dying off and younger guys are joining, just not as quickly.

And yes, several people were pretty pissed when things reached a breaking point and they no longer were allowed to degrade people based on color/race/ethnicity or call them names because they disagreed. It's that type of conversation that drove off many core members as it has nothing to do with Liberty or firearms, so it was killing membership and had to be dealt with.

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I agree that the mini is overpriced for what it is. The AR has truly become "America's Rifle", and there is massive competition among the manufacturers and parts distributors. That said, I just paid $1000 for a New Tactical model ( sku #5889 ), the one with the speckled brown stock.

I paid $500 for my first AR, nearly 40 yrs. Ago, but before that I bought a stainless model mini 14 for $300. It was my first center-fire rifle. At the time, I was friends with a home based dealer, from work.
He said: "here are your choices, for $500, you can either have this Ar-15, or you can have this Mini-14 and a 1000 rnd case of ammo". I took door #2. And haven't looked back since. I still have that Mini, and will probably be buried with it!

Interesting how the price cycles have gone between these two firearms over time. I remember when during the first election of Obama, the run on "assault rifles" was in full swing, a basic M-4 was going for $2200-$2300. A mini 14 was about $1000, just as it is today. Seems like the price on Mini's has been a slow, steady trajectory.

I wonder if that will all change again? The recent ban law passed in Washington State pretty much bans everything ( including the SKS ) except for the basic Ranch configuration Mini 14/30.

I hope new demand for the mini 14/30 brings more traffic here. There is much info that can be shared by myself and others.

Condorcet said:

I'm new here, after lurking about a year or two. I joined thinking that I'll run across a post that pushes me over the edge to actually buying a Mini 14 or mini 30.

It's the fear of not having a rifle that isn't accurate "enough" after having spent some big dollars (for my finances).

How much is enough accuracy for me? That's kind of hard to say. I do know that if I bought a mini that I'd probably be looking at having Accuracy Systems do a rework on it for another big hunk of money to get something "accurate enough" for me.

I am a sadist in letting my bank account know I have doing that in mind. My checkbook whimpers in fear that I'll do it.

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The Newer mini's can be plenty accurate for most users/owners. That would be the ones starting with serial # prefix 580 -584 with the Taper barrels. Some of the early 580 series did have the old pencil thin barrels, so avoid those. In general, these newer mini 14s should be capable of 2 MOA groups, with the ammo it likes, after about a 200 round break-in.

Where the mini 14 starts to have problems, is when someone does magazine dumps with them ( multiple rounds fired in fast succession) the mini's bullet impacts tend to walk around the target when the barrel gets hot. This seems to be less of a problem with the shorter tactical version barrels. Also, barrel whip effects will be reduced with a flash hider, or other attached muzzle device.

Venting off, or sinking off some of that barrel heat also helps with accuracy. A cheap modification, that also helps with weight reduction is to replace the factory handguard with one from Choate. They are usually in stock at Midway USA. A more expensive option would be to add a rail from Ultimak or Amega in place of the handguard. That would entail loosening the gasblock screws in order to install them. While you're at it, might as well replace the factory gas bushing with a reduced diameter bushing from ASI. I would recommend one with a .045, or .050 inside diameter to reduce the gas pulse, and resulting slamming from the cycling of the Action. This would also reduce barrel whip, which can contribute to inaccuracies.

The main thing, is if the Ruger Mini platform is desirable to you. And if after modifications , 1.5 MOA is acceptable to you, then I think you would be pretty happy with it.

The ASI upgrades are very nice, but are you really willing to have $2000, or more into a mini, that is far removed from the lightweight, handy and practical carbine that Ruger designed it to be?

If I were looking for a dedicated varmint blaster, I would be looking for a Tikka, or maybe a savage bolt action in a varmint caliber.

For a semi automatic rifle, 1.5 MOA is in my "enough accuracy" range. If I could get my SKS into that level of accuracy probably be happy enough with that. The SKS is nice as a trim and slim carbine - after ditching the bayonet hardware, though a pain to load. I glass bedded my SKS receiver fore and aft, haven't been to the range yet to see if I can get it at 2 MOA or less.

I have a bolt action Zastava mini-mauser in 7.62x39 that I'm happy with. That has a 20" barrel.

Were I to get a mini-30 I'd want to have a 20" barrel on it to get full velocity out of the cartridge. I don't think that would grossly affect the mini's "lightweight, handy and practical" nature too much. I've been thinking that the Ruger Mini and SKS for my purposes are more of an upgraded version of the M-1 military carbine and most suited for ranges of under 200 yards.


It always struck me that the Ruger mini-14 had too short a barrel for the relatively puny cartridge it fired. I mean that since wind drift is a problem for the .223, the round needs all the help it can get velocity wise . Though a 22" barrel might look ungainly on a mini.

Maybe the problem is too long a familiarity with the .270 Win has warped my mental outlook about velocity and flat shooting rifles.