Ruger Mini 14

[whipcracker]

Anyone own one of these? Are they worth buying? Any recommendations?

[Rob Roy MacGregor]

Anyone own one of these? Are they worth buying? Any recommendations?

More reliable than the AR-15/M-16 due to the bolt carrier dimensions.

I like to think of it as the AK-47 of the 5.56/.223s.

[Rob Roy MacGregor]

Didn't know all that.

I've only fired the R-Mini 14 a couple of times, so those were my first impressions.

Here's a good AK site. http://www.ak-47.us/

Thanks for the info!

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

skip the mini 14. if you want a good ruger, get the 22 pistol. ruger mark II. get the government model with the 6 7/8 inch barrel. that is the King of Plinkers.

Ruger's got a good revolver too. SP 101 in 357.

skip the mini14. mags are expensive and almost all are cheap aftermarkets. Ruger only made his 20s for the cop market. might as well have an AR if you want a 223 since mags are cheap and so are parts and everybody knows how to work on them.

I've seen a magazine pin shear off for no apparent reason in the Ruger mini 14. Makes it pretty useless.

wasting lots of money on guns is for idiots and suckers. shop around and get a few items that are rugged and easily repaired. doppel's comments about aks are well taken. I only advocate getting ars because of what Che wrote in Guerrilla warfare: the insurgent must carry the weapon of the occupation army so that resupply of parts and ammunition is not a problem.

[Granddragon36]

Why not scrap the Rugers all together? Bill Ruger sent all the CONgresscritters a letter begging them to put the "assault rifle" bill in so he could sell the trash Mini-30 and also wrote them all to push the 10 rd mag ban. So Bill Ruger is NOT the gun owners friend. Thank God that he is dead. I do! The Ruger Mini-14 USED to be a good gun for the money, but it is horribly over priced now. Mags are hard to get and aftermarket ones are usually crap.

If you want a "rifle of occupation" and expect USSA military (ala WACO), get an AR-15. If you want a good shooter/plinker, get a SKS and several thousand rounds of ammo at $80/1000 in the Shotgun News. Look at it this way. AR-15 = $800-$1500. SKS=$100-$150. Ammo=.223/$100-1000 to $300-1000 rds. 7.62x39=$79/1000 to $200/1000 depending. Spare parts- AR-$200 recommended. SKS, buy $40 worth of the most likely to break and second gun. The Saiga in .308 is a good gun too.

For more recommended guns, get a sub to The Inde Am at theindependentamerican.freeyellow.com.

[Todd in FL]

Get the SKS paratrooper model. It uses detachable AK 47 mags.


Mini 14 is ok if you have the extra cash.

USA brand magazines are garbage. Precision mags are good. If you are going to put a scope on the Mini 14 make sure you get a ranch model... the other model does not make for a reliable mount system.... and get it in stainless steel w/ a folding stock AND a good slip over-the-sight muzzel brake.

[whipcracker]

Get the SKS paratrooper model. It uses detachable AK 47 mags.



Are you talking about the Paratrooper or the Sporter?

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

why get the sks with detachable mags when you can get a weapon designed to use those mags, for nearly the same price, which is lighter? plus I've not known the modifed chink sks to work that well.

now a russian sks, is a thing of beauty, with the fixed box mag intact...

[Todd in FL]

Are you talking about the Paratrooper or the Sporter?

Not for sure so don't quote me but one of them does. The SKS is a good "plinker" to practice with. For defense to depend on use an AK 47 or AR 15 or M1A1 or similar quality.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

best to plink with the one you're going to depend on. time is limited make practice count.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

of course a rifle is inherently an offensive weapon, isnt it? whereas a handgun is inherently a defensive one. think about that for a second.

in Europe they dont sell military ammo to the civilian market. for example you have hunting rifles in 7mm-08 instead of .308.

[GeNoMe X]

Anyone own one of these? Are they worth buying? Any recommendations?
Get a current manufacture one,the older ones had mediocre accuracy with current.223 ammo.

keep white lithium or molycoat drylube on the gas system channel.regular greases and oils collect powder residue and dirt.

stay far away from ramline or Orlite magazines.

A choate stock is a must have!

Ruger does not sell any replacement parts PERIOD,but Numerich arms does! :D

USA brand aftermarket mags are the best there are.

It is not a machine gun,but with practice and a hel-fire its almost as good,anything beyond is illegal and could wreck your gun.

[Granddragon36]

Get a current manufacture one,the older ones had mediocre accuracy with current.223 ammo.

Do you mean the Mini-14? They are horribly over priced currently. Haven't tried the AK in .223.

keep white lithium or molycoat drylube on the gas system channel.regular greases and oils collect powder residue and dirt.

Good advice for any auto gun.

stay far away from ramline or Orlite magazines.

I've had good luck with Mini-14 Ramline mags and they have a life time replacement policy.

A choate stock is a must have!

Got one on my SKS. They are good stocks.

Ruger does not sell any replacement parts PERIOD,but Numerich arms does! :D

Just because they will sell them, DOES NOT mean they have any! I have NEVER got any of the needed parts from Numrich, ever. They only get them from scrapped guns (how many people will scrap a gun for what Numrich pays?) and then have a waiting list a mile long. Have YOU ever got any needed Mini-14 parts from them? Bolt, gas block, firing pin? I'd be interested in buying some!

USA brand aftermarket mags are the best there are.

Runs hot and cold. I've had various USA mags that worked and some that were trash.

It is not a machine gun,but with practice and a hel-fire its almost as good,anything beyond is illegal and could wreck your gun.

At even a modest 300 rounds a minute, how many minutes can you practice? Better a single, accurate shot than a hail of misses.

The Independent American Magazine (theindependentamerican.freeyellow.com), the BEST magazine out there!

[MadScienceType]

USA brand aftermarket mags are the best there are.

I wouldn't know about the ones for the Mini-14, which I have no experience with (but have heard very mixed reviews about as well) but the USA magazines for the AR15/M-16 are absolute trash. Dunno, maybe you got lucky, but the ones I've seen and used were just about worthless.

Chinese SKS rifles are a real mixed bag. Some are functional and others are downright dangerous to the firer. They're made essentially by hand in coolie-slave factories. Gunsmith whose book I read claimed that they come into his shop all the time. Some have a screwed-in barrel while others are pressed in. He said he'd found several that had screwed-in barrels pressed into the receiver and vise versa. Not cool. If you have to have an SKS, spend the extra cash and get a Russian-manfactured one or splurge on an AK, which, as others have noted, isn't a heck of a lot more than an SKS. I don't like the idea of a fixed-mag semi-auto. You run out of ammo real quick and stopping to top off a fixed mag isn't real healthy idea in any SHTF scenario I can think of.

Doppel,

If you get an AK in .223, I think that you can use AK-74 mags in them that have modified followers. They're a lot cheaper than buying the .223 SAR-3 mags floating around out there. Joeken (www.joeken.com) has advertised these modified mags in SGN, but I didn't see them on their website. Joeken's gun stuff is nothing great, but they have pretty good prices on mags and such.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

"hel-fire" is a toy for amusement purposes only. you cant do aimed fire at full auto at the hip. you cant do aimed fire without a proper cheek weld and that would prevent the bounce which is the actuating principle behind the helfire device. anyhow, you dont even need to have a so-called hell fire to simulate auto fire from the hip. you just hold the thing at your side and kind of float it in your hand, feel, the bounce, and let it rip. I've done it with tons of diff semiautos.

but hel-fire or this method regardless, it isnt aimed fire. aimed fire is what does in the bad guys. hel-fire is goofing around. practice aimed fire not goofing around. is it your rifle or your gun? one is for killing one is for fun.

for sustained, aimed, full auto fire, what you need is a MG belt fed on a bipod. anything short of that is off less significance than aimed semi auto fire from rifles.

waste not want not

1s1k

[Granddragon36]

Why the AK all the time? Why not a good bolt gun? I can sit out in the open at 600 yards and plink at you with an Ishapore SMLE No. 1 in .308 ($150-$200) or FN Mauser (about $200 after S&H) in .30-06 (in the SGN, VG bores) all day in perfect safety. Sure for some things a self-loader is great, house cleaning, close range combat (jungle and some urban), but get out in the wide open and guess what? You are SOL. I can look out the window in the down town here and see for over a mile (on the ground floor) in three directions. Ever try shooting through cover with a .223/7.62x39? Yeah, the 7.62x39 (SKS/AK) beats the snot out of the .223, but the .308/.30-06 beats the crap out of the 7.62x39. So if you do NOT want to shoot through walls (say at your house and using it as home protection), use a .223 with varmint bullets, or load special light loads (you can often find mil surplus plastic bullet "target" loads for the 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R that work great for this) that won't go through five houses. Don't worry about sighting your gun in for 20 foot shots, you won't be using the sights anyway. Just point and click.

Sure the AK uses 30 round mags, ever been in a fire fight and try to shoot one with a 30 rounder in there? You will want to get as low as possible and the mag won't let you! Go try it right now on the floor. How low can you get? I guarentee in a firefight it WON'T be low enough! Are you looking at fighting pitched battles where you need unlimited fire power? I'm not! Anyway if they really want you, "they" (gov't) can and will burn you out. Dozens of cases to look at, Phillie, Waco, Michigan, etc. If that doesn't work, then they might just bomb you. The gov't has done it before. The point is you want to get in and get out PQD. If they can't trap/find you they can't nuke your ass. Run and duck! pop up and down. Hit and run. Real life, not jerk off dreams.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

good points GD worth considering. one hit is worth a thousand misses.

I think the Gibbs redo of the Enfield jungle carbine in 308 is an all around winner for many of the reasons you explored.