In 1979 at the Walmart in Norman, Oklahoma they had Ruger Mini-14’s on sale for $188.00; I bought three of em’. Back then they had the wooden hand guards on em’.
Walmart has been in and out of the gun business so many times it's hard to keep up with what they've had or haven't had. Honestly, I was still in high school then and seldom went to Walmart as our county was about a decade off of having one. They had one in the next county though, but I seldom went there. I bought my first Mini from a semi-local gunstore probably two or three years after that. It was stainless with a wooden stock and still had the wooden handguards such as you describe. Beautiful gun. Not too long after you buying yours and IIRC the price was a hundred dollars higher than that, at least. Of course it was stainless though and those had very recently hit the shelves.
