Ruger's Mini-14 Tactical Rifle Big Block Mustangs, Waylon Jennings and Basic Training ...

My time in the military was an adventure…challenging, rewarding, educational, and character building. There was free travel to exotic locations and an out of sight – out of mind Congress and the Nightly News where no more than a distant memory. It was a time of transition, maybe transformation. The M14 was giving way to the M16 and Air Force basic training range qualifying was still done with an M1 carbine. I believe it is some of these associations that made the little Ruger Mini-14 Tactical seem so familiar to me, even though I was seeing it for the very first time.

The limitation of the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1, for my purposes, not its original mission, has always been its anemic cartridge. The limitation of the AR 15, for my purposes, not its original mission, has always been its excess weight and video game gadgetry appearance. Ruger shuffled those two decks and ended up with firearms that holds the exceptional appeal of the M1 carbine, but chambered for useful cartridges. Smart move.

The Ruger Mini-14, as described by Ruger literature, is a gas operated, box magazine fed, autoloading rifle. The Ruger utilizes a gas operating system that is similar to the Garand, however, the Mini-14’s has a fixed piston and moving cylinder, rather than the M1’s long stroke piston acting on its operating rod. Magazine feed is more closely related to the M14 or M1 Carbine than the M1 Garand, as the Mini-14 doesn’t signifying it is empty by bopping the shooter on the head with an ammo clip and then mashing the shooter’s thumb on reload. Also, very much unlike the Garand, the Mini-14 is short, light and fast handling.

No, this isn’t the result of my handloads…

It takes but two or three minutes to get the Ruger stripped down to this condition and there is little reason to go much further as this gives access to anything that would need to be cleaned or serviced. The only place where any type of tool is required is when pulling the trigger housing assembly. A 0.250″ punch or similar is inserted in a hole at the rear of the trigger guard and lifted, which releases the guard from the catch on the trigger housing. Beyond this step, all springs and assemblies are removed by hand, orienting parts to a disassembly as instructed by the owner’s manual. Popping off the spring clip retained top handguard assembly by applying, as the manual reads, “substantial thumb pressure” is a test of thumbs and will on a new gun, but the shooter can be certain the guard will not come off accidentally during live fire.

The gas operating system is not like the AR 15, there is no gas flow and residue directed into the gun’s bolt through a long gas pipe. A small volume of cartridge generated gas, metered by the gas block, flows through a stub gas pipe and into the cylindrical cavity at the front of the slide assembly. The pressure drives the slide rearward, which unlocks the bolt, extracts the empty case and ejects when near full travel. At full open, force from the slide spring drives the slide assembly forward, strips a fresh round from the magazine and feeds it into the gun’s chamber. Then the bolt is driven fully home where it rotates into a locked breech condition.

I have to admit I spent quite a bit of time looking to see where the actuating gas exhausted. I have to assume, because the volume of gas expended is so small and the interior of the handguard and stock are so well heat shielded, there is no primary exhaust point to locate. I went so far as to tape sheets of white paper over the handguard vents and seams and then fired the gun and searched for a carbon trail, but not a bit of soot was to be found. Closest I got was a minute wisp of oxymoronical smokeless powder… smoke drifting from the upper vent when I pulled the paper. As I said earlier, the Mini-14 is a clean shooting gun. Polar bears are rejoining, everywhere. The seals? Not so much.

Ghost riders in the sky..

The sighting system, the metallic sighting system is a combination of ghost type aft and post type front. Both front and rear are winged to protect them against…stuff. The rear is fully adjustable for windage and elevation, which is always handy. I often wonder why they call them ghost sights. I suspect, for me, it’s because that’s how much of a chance I have of hitting anything with them that is farther out than a few feet. My eyesight limitations, not the gun. For those wishing a more conventional peep sight arrangement, there is always the Williams Sight product from Brownells listed as item# 962-100-143 for about $37. Actually, when I did a search on Brownells there were over eight pages of accessories for the Mini-14. Everything from adjustable gas blocks to bull pup stocks and sight / light rails. Sorry. Wandering here a bit. I get around these kind of toys and my imagination starts checking into possibilities.

Fortunately, Ruger is nice enough to include their integral scope mounts and a set of their proprietary rings with every Mini-14 so I dug up and mounted a light and very compact variable power scope. mount and ring alignment were good as only a small amount of adjustment was required with the laser boresight to get the set up zeroed.

I assume the Mini – 14 hadn’t read the articles…

I’ve always read that the Mini-14 is inaccurate and has less luck keeping groups together than… Eric Clapton. Shooting Federal 55 grain soft point Power Shok ammo, my wife put up a 3/4″ 3 shot 50 yard group and I shot a 1 3/4″ group at 100 yards. To put that into proper perspective, the M1 Garand was approximately a 3 MOA gun as issued, as was the M1 carbine. The Ruger shoots about the accuracy level of other centerfire autoloaders from Browning and Remington and better than an out of the box spec AR 15. For those wanting a lot more, there are target versions of the Mini-14 as well as a raft of gunsmiths and accessory suppliers that can get you there.

During the live fire portion of the check out, the gun digested ammo from Federal, Hornady, Remington and Winchester, plus as well as my creative handloads with Speer, Hornady, Sierra and Nosler bullets. Whether magazine load with a few or twenty rounds, there were no feed problems and no problems cycling. Accuracy was comparable to the Federal ammo groups noted above. Under 2″ MOA for a handy truck gun, in my estimation is great. I was pleasantly surprised with the gun’s shooting performance and with its handling manners. The stock geometry is right for fast shooting. The Mini 14 is a bit butt light and forearm heavy, but the short pull keeps the gun in close to the shooter so balance is not an issue.

Joe, please stop…

I know, I do go on. I like the Mini 14 more than my AR 15. It is lighter and feels like a… gun when I am firing off rounds. It is durable; both blued surfaces and the tough synthetic stock.

The Mini can run a little warm if fired rapidly, continually and extensively, but so does every other gun I own. Something about high pressure and high temperature confined to a small space. The Mini is a great rabbit gun, squirrel gun and eliminator of stubborn coyote populations. It is a good recreational target shooter.

Going Mini-14 Tactical doesn’t mean the other kids with AR 15’s will be having more fun. I am pleased to say that it is possible to, just as the case with the AR 15, spend thousands of dollars on third party accessories, custom gunsmithing, non standard chambering and sub MOA accuracy guarantees. Alternatively, you can select from any of the other seven variations on the Mini-14s theme offered by Ruger in .223 Remington or 6.8 SPC chambers, or even opt for the very similar Mini-30 chambered for the 7.62 x 39mm and still stay way far south of $1000 for any and all.  Nice gun and lots of shooting fun.