Really enjoyed this thread. Funny, it has all been said here about the comparison.
My 1 pristine safe queen mini-14 is never going to shoot like my AR's.. Ever. I came to grips with that a long time ago. Honestly, if I was getting 1.5-2.5 groups in a 5 or 10 shot group out of my mini-14, I'd think I died and went to heaven.
I bought the mini off a TX State Trooper in '05, headed for the bayou just after Wilma hit NO and the LA coastline. At the time, I bought it for the M14 open-bolt cool factor, pristine condition, and to bolster 5.56 friendly platforms.
I've never been sorry for a nickel I spent on my mini. It has functioned flawlessly. I still own it for the reasons I bought it, beauty, fun factor, and SHTF factor.
But.. if I am finding society is breaking down, I can put a mini in a pre-trained friends hand.
End of story.
The problem with that idea is that he probably won't be able to hit anything with it under about 25 yards and that will be iffy.
To answer the original question, for most of the life of the Mini 14, "yes, they are that much more accurate than the Mini,". About any store bought AR is adequately accurate for whatever purpose short of competition and many are accurate for that task too, dependent upon the type of competition.
The caveat is that supposedly the new Mini's are more accurate. I don't know what year it changed because to me it makes no difference. They weren't accurate enough for many years so lots of guys got soured on them. Combine that with the fact that most times you can buy an AR as cheap and possibly cheaper than the Mini and you have a situation that is "why?". The only possible reason I can think of is the guys that just hate the aesthetics of an AR and those guys are dying off at an alarming rate since most of us alive now have been seeing the AR since we were kids.
