Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles AR vs. Mini 14 question

IF he did a run of turned down barrels somehow BEFORE rifling it wouldn't be an issue. Its when they turn em after that can be an issue.

With a float tube there is no barrel tension anywhere. Of course the gas block hanging off is a weight issue, but while I see steel gas blocks I often wonder if an AL block couldn't be made suitable, or at least a block that is steel but ONLY covers just the most bare amount RE weight issues.

I"ll have to see if I can get time to email him today and see what he says.

The ability to do it is there, but then the cost issues may make it tough... Of course it may take a call to Wilson or the like, maybe they could pre turn the countours, leaving enough for the chamber and gas block, and then drill and rifle... might have to be a 100 barrel order though... lots to think about there.

Jeff

The accuracy potential of bull vs pencil barrels has always fascinated me. The TWO things that I KNOW affect accuacy the most in either Minis or ARs are the quality of the rifleing and the CROWN of the barrel in either a bull or a pencil. There is definitely something to this barrel harmonics thing as proven by the B.O.S.S. unit on a .300 Win Mag that I own that I can tune to shooting many diverse loads under an inch but that's another story.

Several years ago we saw Mini-14s at the HOUSTON gunshows that some gunsmiths in San Antonio had shortened an inch or two, recrowned the barrels, and DRASTICALLY improved the accuracy of the generic Ruger barrels. Gary Paul Johnson wrote an article on these coversions in one of the swat type gun mags.

My point here is that many times seemingly junk barrels (pencil or bull) can be made to shoot MUCH better in EITHER platform. The first thing to do is check/recrown the barrel. I have also had great success polishing a rough barrel with the TUBB grit impregnated bullets.

The great thing about the AR platform is that if you ARE stuck with a barrel that you just can't make shoot, it is super easy to screw on a good barrel and problemed "solved"...of course if you have a BAD shooting Mini-14, getting your 'smith to whack an inch or so off the end of the barrel (MAKE SURE THE BARREL IS NOT SHORTENED MORE THAN THE FEDERAL LAWS ALLOW) and carefully recrown the darned thing. You might be pleasently surprised.

PECOS

quality of the rifling is quality of the barrel period. Beyond that its if the chamber is done correctly and the crown has to be. Isn't much beyond that to deal with, light or heavy, though light can be a bit worse on harmonics but reloads solve that generally.

Agreed. Have you (or anyone else for that matter)tried the TUBB FINAL FINISH product to spiff up a questionable bore? If you have not, you should.

Pecos

So what's the consensus on the new Mini's? More accurate? How accurate?

I had to chuckle when someone mentioned how it's so easy (and common) to take an AR carbine and make it a 9-lb rifle! Guilty as charged <g>. Well probably not 9 lbs, but last time I shouldered a plain M4gery I did realize how much I've added to MINE. The plain unmodified one had a whole different feel. And all I've done to mine is riser blocks, scope & rings, a little quad rail replacing the front sight/gas block, and a tac light.

They keep a couple minis on the black rifle rack at my favorite gunshop, just to badmouth them I think. I pick one up every time I'm there and go hmmm.... Wish they weren't so $pendy for what you get though.

Forutnately I"ve never had a questionable bore as all mine are custom tubes.... But I wouldn't hesistate, David is a great guy and I've shot with him a bit and he works hard at marketing things that work.

I had a chance to work for him but at that time in my life I could not afford to move due to family health issues.... Thats one thing I would have loved to do.

Jeff

I have a friend in Tulsa, who has had great success turning down Shilen blanks to a lighter profile out to 22", never heard of an accuracy issue on the 6 or 8 that I know of.

Speaking of light weight barrels, things are coming around. Daniel Defense is offering (at least through one dealer) true LW pencil barrels. Colt is bringing out a flat top 6520 (LW), Bushmaster still makes a 1/9 (I prefer 1/7) twisted superlight and BCM has some due out anytime. Other makers do offer them as well but these are the ones I'd look into.

Might include this info when you talk to WOA, a match SS LW tube would be wonderful. BTW, VLTOR makes a .625 gas block that weighs pretty light.

From what I've seen, the mini 14's are very popular with people who carry their rifles in their trucks for casual varmit shooting around the ranch lands out here. Or as the rifle left near the door for protecting the barnyard from predators or pests.
They have the rep of running forever w/o care. They handle like a good carbine, their triggers are pretty good as is and they are plenty accurate enough.
No, the average mini doesn't shoot as well as the average AR-15. But with a little tweaking, which doesn't cost much, they are into 2 MOA or less.
The new target version is every bit as good as the better made AR-15's from what I've seen.
I've owned an AR-15 and I've shot several minis, including some that were tweaked a bit.
I haven't shot but one AR-15's that had as good a trigger as alot of the Mini's I've shot. I hear that such animals exist or can be retrofitted, but I haven't shot one that was any better.
I prefer handling of the mini's frankly. Shorter, lighter and cheaper. All it seems to take to make them shoot better is retorguing the gas block, some glass bedding and, maybe a recrowning of the barrel. None of this is terribly expensive. E

E,

Get yourself a high quality AR-15 and not a cheap blaster and I bet your mind would change a bit.

The AC556 and AC556K Rugers were also one of the fist assault rifles to come standard with a 3 shot burst control. The selector is on the rear of the receiver, to the right of the rear sight, and has three positions, semi, 3-shot, full; safety is in the usual place.

The AC556 really needed the 3 shot burst control becuase it is perhaps the least controllable 5.56 full auto I've ever shot. Which makes sense, since most would agree that perceived recoil is greater on a Mini than most other 5.56 rifles. Still, I thought the AC556 was seriously cool (I didn't get to shoot the K model), and I'm still a fan of the Mini-14.

Dude, on this post you are WAY behind the times. I'll hand you a stock grade AR with a 60 buck wholesale cost 2 stage trigger on it that has a 35 buck tune job that will shoot circles around any mini you could find and do all that work to...

60 buck wholesale cost 2 stage trigger on it that has a 35 buck tune job

Damn, I'll take one of those, where do I send my money

I'm sure Jeff just dropped a zero in the excitement of writing his post.

I can't believe this thread is still going on, but I do like the the posts on it. I know a great deal about the Mini-14 and the AR-15, having had both. I will never own another Mini-14 and yes I have tried the Mini-14 Target with the harmonic stabilizer gizmo; It's a total waste of time, especially for the money.

And as I said at some point in the past; remember, Hannibal, Faceman, Murdock and B.A Baracus never hit anything with their Mini-14s.

Actually not at all on the zeros... RRA 2 stage NM triggers before all the election hype would go wholesale a few times a year at 60 bucks, its why I keep a few hanging in my safe... unfortunately I ended up with about 12 extra lowers for safe keeping days and don't have 12 extra triggers.....

Given a bit of time, I kinda expect the bottom to fall out of the AR market and things to go back to normal pricing, after all you can buy lowers now at times for almost under 70 bucks... I"ve seen 70 and72 already.....

Jeff, just messin with ya Actually I just pick up a RRA 2 stage NM triggers and LPK for 99.00, which I thought was a screamin deal. Probably should have bought a bunch at that price.

As usual, I misread the post. I thought you were talking about a $60 rifle (complete rifle.)

I should have stood in bed. (It's friggin' cold here in South Texas, where is that global warming?)

No contest, I'll take a quality AR any day of the week, plus a good trigger isn't that hard to come by. My target AR is a 1/2" gun, try and do that with a mini.

I can get 4moa out of a revolver, 2 moa out of some of them. Hence I can't imagine accepting that level of accuracy from a rifle when it isn't that hard to get 1 moa, and good ones will do 1/2 moa.

The only advantage I can see of the mini is it costs less than an AR.

Thanks for the thoughts, Rost. Perhaps I've missed something. Remington claims that their R-15's have a new and improved single stage trigger. I should check them out.
I can't help but wonder about that however. How come I need to buy an after market trigger for a rifle that's suppose to be so accurate ? The stock AR's I've played with were very accurate. But w/o even a half way decent trigger, the only way you'd know it would be to shoot them off of a bench.
I can't help but wonder about a few other things as well. For instance, am I going to miss that coyote at 100 yds with a Mini that "only shoots 2 inch groups ?" That means my shot would be off a maximum of an inch at most.
Then there is this bussiness of reliability. I've noticed that the current AR's all seem to have the dust covers that the military needs to keep crud out of the action. And they all seem to have the chamber assist knob to make the bolt close on the next rd. if the chamber is too dirty. If these things work so well, even with 500 rds. through them, why are thses things necessary ?
The Minis don't have these things and never have. They shoot forever inspite of being left in pickup trucks with all the dust and crud that collects on such guns out here.
When fired, the Minis really send their cases flying, which assures that they work. The so called inaccuracy they have is the result of some loose chamber dimensions. That's done so they work. Regardless as how dirty and neglected they are.
No, they aqren't used to shoot ground squirrels and parrie dogs at 400 yds. But as a handy, tough, reliable ranch and pickup rifle, they work very well. E

The Mini-14 does not have a forward assist? When did they redesign the op-rod? How are you able to pull the op-rod back now?