Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scope advice for mini 30

Gents,

Need some advice for my new brush gun. Picked up a mini 30 in 7.62x39 for hunting the thick stuff up here. It’s the tactical model with the short barrel and it has great irons.

Plan is to add a low mag optic on qd rings when I need stretch things out a bit to 200 yards or so max.

Anything decent out there without costing a fortune? Thinking maybe a 2-7 or something?

My own experience was the low powers scopes couldn’t be mounted far enough back for hunting with a bunch of hunting clothes. My choice was a longer scope or shortening the stock. Ended up putting a VX-1 3x9 on it as I wasn’t willing to shell out the coin for a VX3 2.5x8. I like these rifles for hunting at timber rifles when I don’t feel like packing a pump in 35Whelen around. Would never push it past a 100yds or so....

They stay pretty flat out to 200 yds so id push it in a pinch but its a shorter range game up here...200 yard shots are unheard of.

Oddly this version has a heavier barrel than minis typically have and its not a bad shooter.

I wouldn’t be scared of a Leupold 2-7 or 2.5-8 for your application

Aimpoint

I second the aimpoint, put one on friends mini 30 tactical 1''-1.25"or less at 100 yards, rang the 8" gong 10 for 10 at 200 yards. Just some middle of the load range handloads I thru together for sight in. Can't remember the powder, used some 123 or 125 hornady soft points and Federal LR primers.

quick target acquisition both eyes open. Put the dot on it and hit it.

I have a Redfield 2-7X (made by Leupold) on mine. It fits the compact rifle well. Doesn't shoot very well with anything. Bore slugs .3105". Tried both bullet diameters and many powders. Also installed a reduced diameter gas bushing to calm it down. Fire-lapped the barrel in an attempt to make the diameter more uniform. Going to try barrel tuning weights next since that made a big difference on my friend's. My Ruger American in 7.62X39 is a tack-driver.

Before you mount a scope, install a buffer of some sort. Might look into de-gassing it a bit too. The op rod whacks the receiver pretty good, one reason they’re reliable, but it’s tough on optics. A Hawke 2-7 wouldn't hold zero for long, but a SWFA 6x42 seemed to hold okay. I ended up replacing the rings with the rail, and put a PA 1x prism on it. That seems to be doing the trick so far.

Not a tactical guy, but I really like mine, especially with the 5-round mags.

Hornady steel-cased SSTs have done a fine job for my grandson out of his Howa Mini. Punched right through a 200-pounder’s shoulders last week.

Go to perfectunion.com and ask this question on the Mini 14/30 forum. Think about an Ultimak rail and a scout scope or red dot.

kwg

1-6 for home defense/ plinking/ really thick stuff
2-7 or 2-8 for hunting purposes.
I run leupold 2-7 on my Cz 527 in 76239 and don’t need any more

+1

I don't like red dots for hunting. The dot set at one temperature gets brighter and brighter as it gets to last light hunting or the reverse. Would the Leupold 2.5X scope work for you? Simple, cheap, robust.

I carried a crossbow with a red dot a good bit earlier this season until my new scope showed up. The Sparc 2 is adjustable, and I checked it as lighting conditions changed to make sure it was visible and sharp.

An original Burris FF is auto-only, and can be troublesome if the lighting where the target stands is different than where you are, a common condition even at the range. I found sunglasses can help, for target shooting anyway.

Despite the problem with the brightness, that little FF has soldiered on for years, on all kinds of stuff. Can’t say that for some others, actually any others. The FF3 is even better, feature-wise anyway. Time will tell how it holds up, but huntsman22 has a bunch I think, and I doubt he’d suffer any crap.

You might want to look at a 1-4/6x scope of some type. The huge FOV on the bottom end makes target acquisition lightning fast, with a well fitted rifle it is faster than open sights. The 4x or 6x on the top end makes 200-300 yard shots pretty easy.

I use the 1-4's almost exclusively on my combo gun and drillings for coyote hunting, with some practice I can even shoot birds on the wing with the shotgun barrel and scope. One thing nice about the 1-4's is their straight tubes, they can be mounted close to the bore on the combo guns.


they work well on bolt action too


On my bolt actions I've gone to 1.5-6x4?mm scope as they also have the large FOV for close in work and more X's for longer range stuff. Most modern bolt action rifles have stocks designed for larger objective scopes.

Except an aimpoint is about a thousand times more durable and reliable than anything leupold makes.

I've never set the "temperature" on my aimpoint, but the brightness is adjusted in about .4 seconds....

I mean at the end of the day it is a mini 30, so if you want to stay true to form get the leupold (that way everything will suck). If you want something of value involved in the situation get an aimpoint.

What erich said. A 1-4/6x an SWFA with an illuminated reticle that you can turn on as needed would be my choice. On 1x you can pick up the sight picture nearly as fast as a red dot, with the power turned up it’s just like any other crosshairs scope. It would be the most do all scope that you can put on it.

I agree with this.
Great pictures by the way !