[James Pruden]

I acquired a used mini 14 a couple of years ago and just put it in the closet. Serial number indicates a 1987 model. Now my nephew is old enough to want to do some deer hunting. I got the mini 14 out and went to sight it in. Much to my dismay, it will not hit an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper but about 3 times out of 5.

I found this forum and have done a lot of reading of the posts about improving the accuracy of the mini 14.

The first step indicated was bedding the gun. Unfortunately, I did not have the bedding material but I did have a hack saw to shorten the barrel. I had already ordered a brake to make it as easy as possible on the nephew's tender shoulder. (I started my son with a .270 at age 11. I guess I'm getting soft in my old age.)

I chopped the barrel off 2 1/8 inches because I could not get the sights to release from the barrel. 2 1/8 inches was just behind the front sight. This still left me with 16 + inches. We are using a scope anyway. I re-crowned the barrel. I filed and sanded the barrel down enough to put the muzzle brake back on. I did a quick touchup with some gun bluing paste. (The muzzle brake is by Smith Enterprise. It is held on with 4 set screws. You have to drill dimples into the barrel to keep it from being blown off.)

I did not do a cold barrel shoot to test for accuracy. After I cut the barrel off, and cleaned it, I shot 10 quick rounds through it to finish the clean up.

I shot first without the brake. I could get 5 shots to stay on the typing paper but they were all over it. Next I installed the brake and did see quite an improvement. It was now down to a 5 inch group. This was still not acceptable.

I now have the gun torn down and am waiting on my bedding material to arrive. I want to get as much done as I can before it gets here.

I do not have any questions about bedding under the slide. That will be quite easy.

I do have questions about what all I can bed back in the receiver area. I have taken some photos. I apologize that I do not have the proper names of each piece. It will take me a few postings to get all of them up here to look at. It looks like I can bed the metal receiver to the stock itself. (This is the piece that aligns the receiver with the stock so the trigger group can lock it in place.) I can bed a very small portion of the receiver to the stock but not very much without gluing the whole thing permanently into the stock.

From the pictures I am uploading, can anyone describe what can be bedded back in the receiver area?

First picture is stock, top view

 

[James Pruden]

Stock view from Bottom

 

[James Pruden]

Receiver

 

[James Pruden]

Bracket that receives receiver

 

[cajungeo]

There is no way to give a detailed "how to bed the mini here", but maybe a few tips. Abraide areas to be bedded, use model clay to block any potential mechanical locks, apply release agent to all metal parts you want to remove.

Bed receiver bracket to stock, bed receiver to receiver bracket, and stock, especially around the recoil lugs, bed top of stock under receiver. Clean up squeeze out, and don't forget in the mag area. Take apart, and clean it up after over night, but don't shoot for a couple days to give it a chance to completely cure.

Now for the disclamer: I don't know what you or other members are capable of in work like this. The above is only if you've bedded before, or are handy with stuff like this. Nother words, don't blame me if you mess up please! I recommend Mike Knifongs Bedding video. It isn't a hollywood production but a down home video on bedding the mini. Its about 2 hr long.

Have you tried other types of ammo? Some will shoot well in your mini, some will not. Each mini is different. Are you using a sand bag, bipod, or bench rest to test your accuracy? are you shooting iron sights or scope? At 100 yds?

 

[James Pruden]

I've tried 4 different ammo's. All shelf stuff. 45gr and 55 gr. Metal jacket's, hollow point, and Remmington coreloc.

I am shooting at 100 yards with a gun vise. (I can group my .270 to about 1 inch at 100 yards with factory loads.)

I am shooting a 3X9 varible Bushnell scope that I took off of another gun. It was working well on the other gun, I just moved up to a 50mm objective.

 

[cajungeo]

Bedding my mini tightened average groups by 3/4" and got rid of an ocasional 3" flyer.
Have you cleaned your bore with a good "copper "cleaner? The copper will build up in the bore, causing inaccuracy. Regular bore cleaner will not touch copper. If there is a big build up you may have to let it soak for a while. You should be shooting a lot better than 5" with a scope after cutting, and recrowning.

Good luck with your bedding job. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[James Pruden]

I had thought of this earlier and have already done a cleaning with Hoppy's #9 and let it soak overnight. It did remove a lot of copper. The second night I brushed it with Birchwood Bore Cleaner. It got a little more copper out but not much. The Hoppy's had gotten most of it. This was done before my last trip to the range and I was still shooting the 5" + groups.

I bought the Acuraglass yesterday and did the bedding job. The gun was needing it pretty bad. The metal on the receiver where it meets the stock was shiny indicating that it was moving around quite a bit. I used my Deremal tool to cut a channel around the top of the stock where the receiver meets it to get some thickness in the Acuraglass. I roughened the inside of the stock up as well to give the glass some extra biting power. It may have been a mistake but I intentionally did not use any releasing compound on the receiver bracket. I did not want it moving around in the stock at all. I'll find out today if I can get the trigger group and receiver back out of the stock. I figure the worst case is I can cut everything out and spend hours with my Deremal tool cleaning the parts back up and install them in a synthetic stock!

If it turns out ok, I'll take some pictures to show what it looked like after in the event that someone else dares to undertake this project.

It will be sometime next week before I can go shoot it. I will be in search of Bambi's dad this weekend with my .270!

 

[cajungeo]

James you did good bonding in the receiver bracket (Ruger calls it a Stock Reinforcement). Some after market stocks such as the Hogue does not have any provision for this part.

A tip for getting your receiver/barrel loose ( as it will fit snugly now) insert a wood board up thru the trigger mag cavity and bang on the floor to brake the receiver loose. It may take another set of hands.

You clean using the same products I use. In a used rifle, I would assume the previous owner NEVER cleaned it, and clean accordingly. It is easier to brake loose the bedding after over night, as it is still somewhat soft. Just don't shoot for a couple of days. Make shure a mag will still fit in there. You may have to knife out some excess epoxy. Keep us posted.

 

[James Pruden]

Well I finished the bedding job today by breaking it loose and cleaning it up. I also bedded the trigger group in the two spots that it has contact with the stock. I don't know if that was necessary but it did it anyway. I had more trouble getting the trigger group out than I did getting the receiver out. I also bedded the metal slide tin to the stock. Since I bedded the receiver bracket, this part cannot come out so I went ahead and bedded it in. To break it loose, I put the plastic end of a screwdriver against the receiver and struck the point with a hammer. It took a couple of nice blows but once I got the bond between releasing agent and the Acuglass broke, I was able to work it on out without additional hammer work.

I am attaching a picture of the bedded stock. I was not comfortable bedding the receiver to the receiver bracket. There were to many ways to get it mechanically locked in. I may come back and bed this one area later. The green spot near the front on the receiver is where I had put a piece of scotch tape on the reciver to fill a dimple in the receiver.

The channel that I trenched into the top of the stock worked very well for bedding the bottom of the receiver to the stock. If I had not trenched the channel, the epoxy would have been very thin. None of the epoxy is visible when the receiver is installed on the stock.

I may take the Mini with me this weekend and scare the hell out of some deer. I won't be shooting at the deer with the mini. I may shoot at some rabbits though. I want to get everything in the gun acquained with there new neighbor, the bedding material. I plan on shooting about 50 rds before I go back to the range and see what the bedding did to the accuracy.

 

[cajungeo]

Looks like ya have all the bases covered, except I have one question. Did you bed the receiver recoil lugs? I don't see any epoxy in side the Receiver bracket. This is the most important part as the recoil lugs lock in the receiver to the stock. They move as one. If not bedded you may still have movement. I also used tape especially the notches on the rear of the recoil lugs. If you didn't you can still bed the lugs.

 

[James Pruden]

That was the area that made me nervous. I will bed it on in pretty soon. At least if I get mechanically locked with the bedding material, I will know where it is! There was such a large surface area, I decided it was best to do that area as a seperate step. I will probably do that next week.

Thanks,

 

[cajungeo]

I did mine all in one step. I rehearsed it 3 times. Did it in 20 min. the whole thing. I did not have model clay, couldn't find any so I used mylar packing tape, and release agent.
It needs to be done! You can do it, Go For It!

 

[James Pruden]

I may put some modeling clay in the slots that the trigger group latches and then tape on top of that. You could get locked in really easily when you bed that area.

I am going to shoot it some this weekend. I stoned the trigger group today and did some other work. It is still a semi-automatic. I have my trigger pull down from a measured 9 lbs to a reasonable 3 bls. This is another tricky process. To much and you will fire a minimum of 2 rounds everytime you pull the trigger. Once when you pull and another when you let off.

I'll bed the receiver to the recoil lugs next week and post another photo with the recoil lugs bedded in the event some one else gets brave enough to try it.

Some of the other members are welcome to jump right in and give their comments! This is NOT a private conversation.:2guns:

 

[cajungeo]

We appreciate your pictures it will help others as a picture is worth 1000 mispelled words. I plan to get a digtal camera in the future, but can't afford one now. thanks

 

[Satan2655]

James: Just curious, why you didn't use any dye to try to somewhat match the color of your stock? Didn't the Acragel kit have the epoxy dye packets?

 

[James Pruden]

I beddeded the receiver to the recoil lugs yesterday. The attached photo is my finished product. Notice that at the back of the receiver there is very little Acuraglass. The tape and clay that I used prevented the Acuraglass from getting in that area. I was still parinoid about getting locked in. This should still stabalize the receiver.

The receiver now fits like a latex glove. Before I started, I could take the trigger group out and the receiver would literally fall out of the stock. (With it being unbolted at the front of course.) Now it is a very snug fit. When you take the trigger group out, you must lift the receiver straight up to get it out and it is still a snug fit.

Now I just have to wait for 3 more days before I go and shoot it to see how much good I did. My previous groups had a lot of room for improvement.

 

[cajungeo]

Good job, let us know how it shoots.

 

[James Pruden]

Since you cannot see any of the bedding material when the gun is assembled, I did not see any point in trying to match the color.

This was my first bedding job for any gun. Adding color was just one more step. Since I had to mix 3 different times, (twice on the first job since I did not mix enough to get it all covered and once to bed the reciver to the recoil lugs), I would have had 3 different colors. Now all are the same color!

I have a bit more work to do on the barrel. I have shortend it but have not yet re-installed the front sight since I will have to modify it a bit to fit it on the shortened barrel. I have a simple muzzel brake on right now. My eyes are prohibit me from using iron sights any longer so I use a scope. The front sight would only be used by my son. After I shoot it a bit, put the front sight back on, and re-finish the stock, I will post the photo of the finished gun.

 

[Kalifornia Citizen]

Good first job! For pictures at least, the contrast in colors makes it really easy to see where the the glass is. I also bed between the trigger group and stock. I wrapped the working part of the trigger assembly in black electricians tape to keep epoxy out. I also put some playdough in which turned out to be the wrong thing to do. Some instructions said to use modeling clay. But since it's water-based, it made rust! Arrgh!

I used release agent and made double-sure that I wasn't creating a locked-in situation. Though I've read that Marine armories purposely glued M-14 metal to stock for the ultimate in a tight fit!

I had to use a wood chisel to unstick the receiver away from the stock. Not too much force, just a couple of easy taps. Thanks for the pictures!

KC
:usa: