Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Are Newer Mini 14s more accurate ?

The Mini has dismal record in the past for accuracy . I have the hots for one and wonder if it is reasonable to expect a 2 inch group at 100 yds from a scoped one ?They have a good record for reliability and I assume that still holds true ! Hoping you folks chime in . I am not interested in modifying one and would be very cautious about buying one that is used .

I got bitten by the bug to own another one about year ago. I had read all the articles about how much the accuracy had improved. I can only speak for the one I purchased, but I couldn't tell that there were any improvements at all.

I tried various brands of ammo as well as most bullet weights. I tried several proven scopes and ended up using a target scope to get the best groups I could. Groups from the rifle right out of the box, with the ammo it seemed to like, would average between 6 and 8 inches at 100 yards. I've done many of the recommended tricks trying to get the rifle to shoot and now have the groups down to almost 2 inches with the occasional 1.5 inch group.

Thanks For your Experience ,. What could you say you did that helped the most .Was yours a new rifle ?I would be happy with one that would do 2.5 groups.Most of my use would be for called coyotes in fairly close timber .I think no scope to start .

My rifle was new and one of the currently made rifles when I bought it about a year ago.

Two things really helped. First was using a smaller gas port. There is a company that sells a package of them in various sizes. If I remember correctly it is Accuracy International. I used the smallest port that would reliably function the rifle. Second, there was a good bit of looseness side to side between the action and the stock. I glassed the sides of the action to remove that play. One other thing I did that I think helped. The fore end has a metal cap that goes into the gas block. I put a piece of spacer material between the fore end and the gas block lip to make that fit very tight.

None of these are hard to do and the fit between the action sides and the stock can really be tightened up by using a piece of plastic card, if you want to try it before resorting to glass bedding.

The reliability with this rifle is very good. I haven't had a single malfunction with the rifle except when I used a gas port that was too small. With the accuracy I'm getting now, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on an animal the size of a coyote.

I degassed mine and installed dual buffers. It shoots into 1 1/2-2” with ammo it likes, but the first shot is an inch or so low at 100. That’s fine for what I need it to do. More importantly, it goes bang, ejects, and feeds every time, without fail. It practically falls apart for cleaning, but runs so clean that’s not much of an issue anyway. It carries like any other rifle and accepts flush magazines, or 10, 20, or 30 rounders. Mine’s SS, so about as carefree as it gets.

It’s funny to me how the Mini gets so much grief about accuracy while the sainted AKs get a pass because they’re so reliable and rugged. I tried an AR first, a Springfield Saint, not a cheapo, and it was little if any more accurate, and had to be kept pretty juicy to run well, especially for trigger reset. Never got used to how it carried either. No doubt an AR is easier to get really good accuracy from, but as a utility piece, the Mini Ranch works just fine for me. Only downside is they’re tough on optics and mounts because of the op-rod banging into the receiver. A PA Cyclops took it just fine, and hopefully the SWFA 1-4 on mine now will too.

Very encouraging ,thank you both .

Accuracy is usually impacted most by the nut behind the bolt.

Yes. Night and day difference.

The old ones sucked so bad (80’s) I didn’t think anything could be so bad.

Insomnia…..

Anyway, 16 inch tactical model, pmc ball ammo, open sights, 100 yards, kneeling next to a bench/structure.

Many years ago, I was issued one of the old reputedly inaccurate Mini-14s. It would put five shots of standard military ball into a nickel-sized group at 100 yards with the issue sights; so I never put much stock in the inaccuracy claims. I have one now made in 2017. It shoots fine, but not as well as the old one.
In any case, a Mini-14 is not meant to be a precision rifle. Despite Ruger’s marketing, it’s intended as a close range fighting tool. If you need high precision, get something else.

The only one I ever shot was easily the most inaccurate rifle I have ever fired. I mounted a scope on a friends and tried to sight it in. I ended up buying three different boxes of ammo trying to sight it in and find something it would shoot. the best would shoot a 3 1/2" group at 50 yards. His daughter did end up killing a deer with it the next Saturday. But it was so bad It was really hard to decide what adjustments to make with the scope. And it wasn't the scope. When she graduated to 243 used the same scope and it was easily zeroed.

I have toyed with getting a mini 14 in the past. Rugged, reliable handy little carbine. What turns me off is the magazines. I'm sure they work fine but why, oh why, didn't they just go with AR mags?! This is true of any mag fed Ruger. Proprietary mags. Makes me nukkin futts!

I had a brand new stainless one in 2007. I never put it on paper with a scope but shooting the iron sites out to 150 yards on silhouette it never had an issue and I never had one failure out of it. I could tell by some of my groups with iron sites it was not a very accurate 223 (6 inches probably?) but it was fine for my needs of general blaster. I have been coyote calling for about 12 season now and I would never take a min14 with me. If the shots were close I wouldn't have an issue with it but not for out here. All that being said I regret selling it.

Two of my brothers have new mini's. One stainless, one blued, both scoped. I've shot them both and they both do 1.5" at 100 yards. I had three of the old pencil barrel mini's and none were as inaccurate as I see people complain about. All thrre were capable of 2.5 - 3" groups at 100 yards. In short yes, the newer models seem to shoot better.

Jeez, I gotta rethink paying thru the nose for accurate ammo if I can buy cheap mil ball ammo that shoots 5 shot sub moa. Hah

They were re-designed a few years back as per an article in RIfle Magazine.

The ones I shot were all minute of five gallon bucket

Not sure about the latest Mini's, but with Ruger currently making excellent in house barrels, I'd say accuracy should be improved over the older ones.

Here's an older one that's now sub MOA. BUT, it did take a few bucks with Accuracy Systems. Glad I had this work done before it got really expensive.

I did the stock work, they did the bedding, trigger job, etc.

DF

Their three point bedding, muzzle brake.