chet15
Hawkeye
An interesting gun was just found by a RF lurker. Seems that a recent purchase of his was centered around firearms made in 1999 during Ruger's 50th year of history. This person bought a stainless Mini-30 from a dealer because it had the 1999 50th Anniversary sticker on the box (thinking the gun was also made in that year), but since Ruger used up their leftover 50th boxes over the next few years, this person got a 2001 produced stainless Mini-30.
Now for the interesting part. Seems the catalog number on the end of his box is KMini-30BAO-P. Upon receiving a phone call from this individual, at first the only thing I could think of for "BAO" was barreled action only. Ruger has actually listed barreled actions (the #1 action and barrel for example) as "BAO" in past price lists.
But the funny thing was, the catalog number for the stainless Mini-30 has a "P" which is the abbreviation for Zytel stock.
The next morning I went to look for the KMini-30BAO-P catalog number in the reference and remembered some info we'd learned only a year or so ago.
Seems that in the 1998-2001 time period, Ruger exported a couple different "very special" models to England, models which would conform to their stringent firearms laws. Two of these were the 21" barreled Super Redhawks in .357 Mag. and .44 Mag. The others were the "BAO" Mini-14's and Mini-30's.
In this case, "BAO" is the abbreviation for "Bolt Action Only"!! Which means that in order for those guns to go to England, Ruger left the gas port system out so that the individual has to pull the bolt back every time to fire the gun.
Here's the funny thing. I wonder how many of these "overrun" guns were sold here in the U.S. to unsuspecting buyers thinking they were getting an autoloader???
If anybody has a chance to pick up a BAO model, they are rare!! A contact from England once said there were maybe only 50 to 100 of the Mini-14's in two different models (Ranch and non-Ranch). He did not know a quantity for the stainless Mini-30, but I would also assume "very rare!!".
Chet15
Now for the interesting part. Seems the catalog number on the end of his box is KMini-30BAO-P. Upon receiving a phone call from this individual, at first the only thing I could think of for "BAO" was barreled action only. Ruger has actually listed barreled actions (the #1 action and barrel for example) as "BAO" in past price lists.
But the funny thing was, the catalog number for the stainless Mini-30 has a "P" which is the abbreviation for Zytel stock.
The next morning I went to look for the KMini-30BAO-P catalog number in the reference and remembered some info we'd learned only a year or so ago.
Seems that in the 1998-2001 time period, Ruger exported a couple different "very special" models to England, models which would conform to their stringent firearms laws. Two of these were the 21" barreled Super Redhawks in .357 Mag. and .44 Mag. The others were the "BAO" Mini-14's and Mini-30's.
In this case, "BAO" is the abbreviation for "Bolt Action Only"!! Which means that in order for those guns to go to England, Ruger left the gas port system out so that the individual has to pull the bolt back every time to fire the gun.
Here's the funny thing. I wonder how many of these "overrun" guns were sold here in the U.S. to unsuspecting buyers thinking they were getting an autoloader???
If anybody has a chance to pick up a BAO model, they are rare!! A contact from England once said there were maybe only 50 to 100 of the Mini-14's in two different models (Ranch and non-Ranch). He did not know a quantity for the stainless Mini-30, but I would also assume "very rare!!".
Chet15