Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Leaving the Mini14 and joining the AR club

The Mini 14 hasn't been working out for me in the accuracy department. I am very familiar with the 223/5.56 but the accuracy of the Ruger is inadequate for my jack rabbit and coyote safaris here in the Mojave.

So, I purchased a stripped AR lower. Now, I need to plan the build of my new "erector set" and have a few questions.

1. For varmint hunting, will a 20" bbl be superior to a 16"?

2. With a heavy bbl would I be able to keep the weight to 7 pounds or less?

Thanks for answering these questions. I need to learn a lot about the AR as this will be my first one. I hope to spend $500 on the entire project.

Thanks!

1. Yes
2. No

Good luck on the $500 budget. I think you can get a fine shooting barrel from 16 to 24 inches, it is the weight of the barrel you will hate. I think it will be hard to keep under 7 pounds with a 20 inch bull barrel, if that is what you meant by heavy barrel. I shoot a 16 inch lightweight barrel and it weighs in right at 7 pounds with scope attached. Look around at some of the options out there, you can find any length you want and any weight you want but it will eat up a lot of that budget. The barrel is the key to success in the AR.

1. Depends on the distance
2. No

Are you familiar with the goofy CA detachable mag rules?

Thanks all. What am I looking at, velocity difference wise with 55gr loads, between 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24" barrels?



Oh, yes.

Good move on you part. I would go with the 16 inch for ease of carrying. Daniel Defense make a good 16 inch M4 barrel Brownell has them in stock.

Mfr Part #:DD9060

Stock #:100-004-633

Each barrel will be different but I've chrono'd enough loads and guns that these figures are pretty close, mind you the 20" is a bolt gun. The load is a 77gr SMK with 24.3grs TAC powder CCI 41 primer LC brass. Work up!


16" 2650fps avg, 18" 2732fps and my 20" LTR 2780fps.

50gr NBT same case and primer, 27grs TAC = 20" 3244fps, 16" 3041fps.

Say it ain't so!

Look for a 20in HBAR weight barrel, I've heard good stuff about Black Hole barrels. Get an A1 stock from Cav Arms. I'd go with a 15in Troy TRX rail.

I left the mini as well, despite how I like the little rifle. I have never owned an accurate one, but now with the firing pin stories I guess I will not get another one.

Since the OP is in California, don't forget the various legal stuff, to have an AR:

http://www.calguns.net/caawid/flowchart.pdf

Yep, I always liked that little rifle. Feels like an M-1 Carbine but in a modern caliber. If'n it would only shoot and not break.

I think they are probably OK for someone who does not shoot tons of ammunition through them. In the early 90's here in Georgia a some fellows came into a man's camp and he laid down on them with a Mini 14, only he lived to tell the story of what happened and he was exonerated for killing them IIRC.

With my 1st Mini 14 I abused it and shoot thousands of rounds of ammo down the barrel including many magazine dumps and never had any troubles. It was't very accurate but back then ammo was cheap and I honesty didn't care. It was just for fun and I enjoyed shooting the surplus ammo at recently emptied cans. The second one I owned (580 series) would out shoot a few brand name AR's that have spent time in my safe. I don't think either rifle read the internet much though.

Not every Mini 14 breaks and there are a lot of inaccurate AR 15's out there. Simply switching rifles may or may not solve his problems.

Terry

I've said this before but I'll say it again, using the factory peep sight, I killed alot of critters. I got a wierd scope mount and scoped it and finally found out how unaccurate it was.

I traded it off for a Ranch rifle as soon as I could and never found one that was accurate.

I don't know how I ever got all those critters killed with that first one.

I guess shooting groups is just not what they're meant for.

Not to be contrary, but I just have not found there to be lots of inaccurate AR15s out there. THe cheapest ones continue to amaze me at their ability to shoot 1.5 moa or less with the right ammo.
The worst thing i"ve seen was one that would shoot nothing but 40s... and that one was a junker barrel.
Of course you have to consider that the barrel is the big thing on accuracy usually... replacign an AR barrel is simple. A mini...not so much.

And some of the more expensive ones amaze me that they don't shoot any better than they do. My one and only Colt was a model 6721. On a good day it was a 2.5-3 MOA rifle. It was very reliable but NOT very accurate. I put together a Bravo Company SPR this year that would only do 2 MOA the majority of the time. I've shot better groups with a Mosin Nagant! I've owned a model 1 sales that was very finicky too.

I agree the barrel is the key to an accurate AR-15 but the plain and simple truth is, not all of them come with accurate barrels.

The last Mini-14 I owned would shoot 1.5"-2" groups the majority of the time with the occasional 1" group. With the re-tooled line these rifles are better than the older ones accuracy wise. Not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination but certaintly more accurate than a few of the AR-15's I've owned in the past.

I guess we all have our own experiences with rifles, I'm just sharing mine and not parroting info I read somewhere else.

Terry

I have had 3 of them, not very accurate but never broke a firing pin. They always always worked. I sometimes wonder if I had shot hand loads in the things could I have done better than 4 MOA. When I lived in Reno in the late 70's a lot of running jackrabbits met their demise at the end of my mini 14, it would take me two to 3 shots to catch up to them but the last one was blood on the snow for sure. Sad for Ruger that they continue on the wrong path with the little gun.

I agree with jimmyp. The Mini 14 has so much potential but Ruger sat on their hands for too long and now the AR's have the market cornered. It was Ruger's to lose and they did. kwg

Mini-14 firing pin problems?? Resources? Mine loves 40 gr and no actuation problems yet...

Ruger firing pin broke