Mini 14????

Question

Is there really a diff. beetween the ranch and the other? how accurate are the mini's i really want one i love thoe's but i want the accurateC

how many yards will it shoot accurate?
and is it trust worthey

Answer 1

I know several people who have mini-14s and the accuracy varies in each rifle. From what I could tell those who only fired a few shots at a time from their rifle had better accuracy than those who often used the weapon as a can plinker. When I fired one I was shocked at how quickly the barrel got hot. After 5 to 10 rounds don't let your hand get anywhere near the barrel you can fry an egg on it! These weapons were all in .223 I am not sure how the .30 would perform but in my experience with different calibers I would think the .30 would have much better accuracy.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Yes, there "were" differences between the Ranch Rifle and Standard. The ORIGINAL Ranch Rifle had a fold down rear peep sight and single blade front sight, and it was tapped for scope mounts. The Standard Mini-14 had fully adjustable rear peep sights with the single front blade.

The NEW Ruger Mini-14's are all "Ranch Rifles", HOWEVER, they come with fully adjustable rear ghost ring peep sights, and a "protected" front blade like other service rifles. It is tapped for a scope as well.

The OLD Mini-14's were "hit or miss" (pardon the pun) with accuracy. They weren't tack drivers, regardless of who was squeezing the trigger. Some were only good for 3-6 inches at 100 yards - not impressive. They're fun to plink with out to 100 yards.

The NEW Mini-14's have been AWESOME from what I've seen. They upgraded the barrel and changed the rate of twist on ALL of the new models. With a scope, I hit 5 for 5 shots off the bench at 300 yards....the best part...I was hitting a TENNIS ball. This was just a standard Ranch Rifle, in Stainless.

I'd suggest you look, and shell out for a NEW production model Mini-14..the one I shot hit 300 yards within 2 inches easy.

The old models I fired weren't good for nearly that.

Answer 3

All Minis for the past few years are Ranch rifles. In the earlier models, the Ranch model had scope bases and different (lower) sights for scope clearance. The "non-Ranch" models had M14/M1 Garand style sights that were very high and hard to place scope mounts.

They are a medium ranged rifle, not a long range accurate one. I think they do make a heavy barrelled one these days, check the Ruger website.

Answer 4

I had the old model with the thick iron-sights -it's unreasonable to attempt to judge the inherent accuracy of the gun with these crude sights which are intended only for man-size targets under battle conditions. But I was confident that if I had to hit such a target, I could. I never thought of it as a varmint or small-game rifle, more as a back-up to my defence shotgun.

Likewise, the Mini's typical diet of mil-spec ball is hardly comparable to the stuff you'd feed a heavy-barrel varmint rig.

If by trust-worthy you mean reliable, well I put tens of thousands of rounds thru it and don't recall a single jam. I mean rattling off one 30-round clip after another, it keeps on tossing brass like a SAW. But that old model had a perfect trigger for rapid-fire, you probably won't find a trigger like it today.

Answer 5

The biggest difference on themini vs the ranch rifle is that the ranch rifle is set up for a scope, the mini takes a scope but it is always in the way of the ejecting brass.

Answer 6

I had a Mini 14 for a couple of years and it was a great gun, I highly recommend it for a camp gun. It was the gun, I threw behind the seat of the pickup and used for varmints on my uncles land. Definately not a tack driver, but very reliable, inexpensive and could handle tons of abuse. Lots of aftermarket stuff for them to improve on it if you want. Mine was fairly accurate, I could get a 3" group without much problem using iron sights at 100 yards. I had the ranch version but never shot one of the other types, so can't comment on it.

Answer 7

I used to have one of these in a .223 cal. It was made in the early 90's. It was not a very accurate rifle. In fact, I had trouble hitting a sheet of plywood at 100 yds. with open sights. ( I've been shooting for better than 35 yrs) I put a scope on it , which did improve it some but was still a piece of crap. I shot hand loads in it as well as several different factory loads. It didn't matter. It still shot about a 6 inch group. Yes this was a used gun when I bought it and I knew it. A new gun has to be better than this one was.

Answer 8

Any gun, is only as accurate as the person squeezing the trigger, regardless of gun make, caliber or what scope you put on it.

If the shooter, can't hold the target when squeezing the trigger, no gun will be accurate.