is a mini 14 good enough?

[smoakingun]

I am hoping to attend an appleseed riflemans boot camp with my son this winter. there is a long range component to the training that will stretch us out to 500 yards. I plan to shoot it with either my fal or my ar. My son however wants a mini 14 for the event. My hesitation is that the rifle may not be accurate/consistent enough to do the job. Does anyone here have any experience with one beyond 100 yards?

 

[DnPRK]

Get a Mo-Rod, Accu-Strut or Har-Bar for it. Then shoot good quality ammo, like Black Hills 69gr SMK. That should tighten up the groups.
Black Hills 69gr SMK 50 round count box
http://www.mo-rod.com/
http://www.accu-strut.com/
http://www.har-bar.com/

 

[Bamashooter]

+1 on above post. mine shoots moa and it has accustrut,triggerjob, and i reload my own ammo. that has definatly helped my groups. my mini shoots my 60gr.sierra varmiter better than 69gr.SMK's. polishing the gas block surfaces and recoil buffers has helped my mini shoot better also. if you are going to use it in an appleseed i would recommend using the same ammo throughout.

 

[KMO]

Is a Mini-14 good enough for this event. It sure can be. And, if memory serves me, there have been other entrants in this event using Mini-14's in the past. By the OP first post, I'm left wondering if a new Mini-14 might be purchased for this event, or if the OP's son will be using a rifle already owned. If it will be a new Mini, all the more reason to be confident. The changes Ruger has made are a nice improvement, and the new Mini-14's are definitely more accurate right out of the box. If it is an earlier version, it can certainly still be used, but you might consider a barrel stabilizer to add some performance.

 

[TMUSCLE1]

I read that you mentioned out to 500 yards. Are you sure this is really 500 yds? I ask because the normal Appleseed shoots are SCALED to shoot a man size target at 500 yards but you are really at 25 yards. I'm also hoping to do an Appleseed shoot this winter.

 

[THORN74]

i took my m1a(m14) to my first appleseed back in april. the mini14 would be fine, but i would reccomend u go with a 22lr the appleseed guys prefer the 10/22 but a marlin 759 would be fine too. u would want to get the tech sights (millitary appature sights) for either before u go and a 1.5" canvas gi sling also.

the 22 would not only be cheaper, but the lesser recoil would allow u to really consentrate on the tecniques they are teaching. i was one of 2 guys with a .30 cal rifle and there were many .223s (ARs mostly), then there were the 22lrs, by far the 22lrs were the more successful shooters as far as the rifleman score is concerned.

tmuscle is right though, u will be shooting 99% of the time at 25yrd with scalled targetsfrom 100 to 400 yrds. day one is all prone work, day 2 is sitting and standing. at mine we did shoot a few rounds at 100 yrds at a steel/armored target, that was alot of fun.

 

[Dougw47]

Ruger Mini 14's

Why does the American Public accept a product from Ruger that comes from the factory with 5+ in groups at 50 yards and requires someone to buy an after-market gadget (strut) on a $700 rifle? Just to make it do what it should out of the box? People are crazy!

 

[Sarge]

Why does the American Public accept a product from Ruger that comes from the factory with 5+ in groups at 50 yards and requires someone to buy an after-market gadget (strut) on a $700 rifle? Just to make it do what it should out of the box?

I've never given $700 for a Mini and never will.

Why? I reckon they just like the darn thing.

 

[Crosshair]

Why does the American Public accept a product from Ruger that comes from the factory with 5+ in groups at 50 yards and requires someone to buy an after-market gadget (strut) on a $700 rifle? Just to make it do what it should out of the box? People are crazy!

They do it with AR's all the time. Aftermarket trigger, sights, magazine, buffer, stock, handguard, etc.

Add to that the ARs cost hundreds of dollars more than a Mini.

Part of the problem is that nobody puts a 20x scope onto their Mini and uses it for target shooting. Mine only has a 1.5-4.5x32 scope. Good enough for shooting coyotes, BGs, deer (where legal), but not good enough for shooting the 10 ring.

It's like comparing a F-150 to a ford Mustang and complaining that the F-150 isn't as fast as the Mustang. Compare a rack grade AR with a 4x scope to a Mini with a 4x scope, shoot rack grade ammo, and that supposed accuracy from the AR just evaporates.

From the bBench the AR does have an advantage. In the field you simply can't tell the difference between a new Mini and an AR.

 

[THORN74]

doug, the m16, m14, and even the legendary m1garand in their rack grade condition are all 4MOA battle rifles. true many of them are cappable of better than 4 MOA, but for the US military issuing these rifles with 4 MOA accuracy is not an issue.

why would u expect the same or better from a ruger mini-14 when its NOT a military weapon. 5"+ at 50 yrds (or 10 MOA) might be acceptable to some, and if not DONT BUY ONE.

 

[L_Killkenny]

Why does the American Public accept a product from Ruger that comes from the factory with 5+ in groups at 50 yards and requires someone to buy an after-market gadget (strut) on a $700 rifle? Just to make it do what it should out of the box? People are crazy!

There's a bunch of bunk right there. My older Mini Ranch would easily do 3" - 100 yard groups with crap ammo (Silver Bear I think) and 1.5" with reloads. That was when they were $350. The newer models that you reference costing $700 shoot even better from all reports. 5" groups at 50 yards my butt. I've never seen anyone get groups that bad outta ANY Mini-14.

As for the original poster............ If it's truly a Appleseed you will not be shooting 500 yards. Oh, and you and everyone around you will be sick of your brass chucking Mini by the end of the day (I swear any person within 50 feet should be required to wear a helmet to avoid flying brass with Mini's, LOL), take a rimfire.

LK

 

[Dougw47]

don't call me a liar...

I reported my experience...Ruger could not/did not fix it...you may have been lucky...I may have been unlucky...mine were purchased in the late 70's and 80's, but I have seen similar results in the last ten years at the range.

I would not buy another...Australia bought what was it...50,000 for their military and dumped them. YMMV

 

[benogil]

Um, cdnn has S&W AR's for $599, the old argument an AR costs more than a mini is no longer the truth. I still prefer the mini. But an American rifle manufacturer making an inaccurate rifle still galls me.

 

[chris in va]

My son however wants a mini 14 for the event.

I wouldn't go buying a Mini 14 just for Appleseed, unless you plan to really shoot it afterward.

 

[rickyrick]

You can't really compare a 1970's mini to the current versions....

and I see all kinds of accurizing tips for all sorts of rifles.

as far as I have read about appleseed is that it's based on 25m scaled targets like the army uses ehen an automated range is not available. (( I haven't attended appleseed)). In that case, the mini should perform well

I wouldn't talk anybody out of buying a rifle that they wanted unless it was dangerous, the mini is safe.

buy the rifle that your son wants, if within your means. why settle.

 

[hoytinak]

Next Appleseed I go to I've decided I'm going to use my Mini-14. It's an older one and it'll shoot 3-4 MOA all day long with Wolf ammo. I've just been trying to find some better sights for it as I don't want to use the scope that I keep on it. I've already got my Rifleman patch using my 10/22 so I'm not going for that, just going for a fun weekend of shooting.

 

[demigod]

My old Mini won't group for sh1t either. I haven't tried to mod it to shoot good since it's too hard to clean the bore anyway. I haven't shot the thing in 10 years or so.

Once you've fired even a mediocre AR, the mini is hard to go back to.

People don't HAVE TO mod the AR to get good accuracy out of it. Most aftermarket junk people hang off the AR does nothing to improve accuracy. Guys just like to accessorize the hell out of them.

 

[Big Shrek]

The reason the A-Team used Mini-14's is that they wanted to be able to aim at folks, yet not hit them

Yeah, I know....old joke...sad but true

 

[ISC]

I've never seen an M16 that could only shoot 4 MOA. Maybe some old A1s with shot out barrels from full auto and tracer fire.

less than 1.5 MOA is average for a run of the mill M16. All of mine cost under $650 and shoot between 1-2 MOA. Even my old A1 which was built from demilled military parts shoots 2MOA. I'm not even an especially good shot, I didn't even shoot expert the last time when we qualified.

I've never seen an old mini 14 that will shoot 2 MOA much less exceed it. I here the new ones are better though. In all fairness, I also never had the patience with the three I had to wait 5 minutes between shots, which is supposed to increase accuracy markedly.

All that being said, a mini will do just fine for an appleseed shoot, you'll never be sure how much of the increased group size during the rapid fire phase is from your degraded marksmenship and how much is from the mini's notorious heat stringing.

 

[Crosshair]

ess than 1.5 MOA is average for a run of the mill M16

No it is not. Not with military ammo and not with iron sights. The guys over at the Box-O-Truth have been over this twice.

With a MATCH AR they often couldn't get get less than 1.5 unless they used a quality ammo. A rack grade AR is going to do much worse.

Educational Zone #8 - 5.56 Military Ammo Accuracy

Educational Zone #21 - Accuracy of AR15 Ammo - Part 2

I've seen plenty of ARs at the range and have seen this mythical accuracy to be just that, a myth. The only way to get that supposed accuracy is to use handloads or very high quality ammunition and a quality AR. A rack grade AR won't cut it unless you get lucky.