It may have a purple barrel, but my Mini-14 is a shooter!

[ab4ka]

I took my mini-14 out today to put it on the bench and sight in my new red dot as well as see how accurate it was.

I started at 25 yards and wasn't on the paper. My first thought was "oh boy". I moved my target to 10 yards and once I got it dialed in, the holes were touching.

I moved my target back out to 25 yards and after some small adjustments it would hold 1/2" if I held it steady.

I moved out to 50 yards and didn't have to adjust anything and if I held steady it would keep 1" groups. It was tough to hold at exactly the same place as the dot pretty well covered the center of the target.

I didn't bother going to 100 yards on a target, but I could hit stuff that was down by the backstop.

Overall I was tickled with it. For a '79 vintage mini with a cheap red dot and Wolf ammo (not to mention I'm not the world's greatest rifleman) I was quite pleased with it.

 

[Tslepebull]

I have one about the same vintage as yours. Aside from slinging my brass into an adjoining state mine has been flawless and I get similar groups using the peep sights. I shoot mainly my own reloads with 25 gr of H-335 under Winchester 55 gr FMJ with spent military brass. If civilization ever takes a dump and I need to head to the hills my Mini will be the carbine I take with me.

 

[Black Fly]

Congrats on a good shooter. An idea for shooting longer range with reddots. Get yourself some of those sticky orange dot targets of different sizes. If you can adjust your dot size down a bit, do so. Now move the target out until you can just barely see a little edge of the orange around your dot. Black dots work better for red dots, but are harder to find. You will be surprised at the level of precision you can shoot. I've been reteaching myself to shoot open sights, where I use a similar technique.
Bfly

 

[Quietdood]

Good to hear you're finally pleased... just took patience.

 

[TCGuy]

Aside from slinging my brass into an adjoining state mine has been flawless and I get similar groups using the peep sights.

I have a Mini-14 Ranch Rifle, and it does the same thing. It also throws the brass slightly rearward, and once my son was shooting it and I noticed the brass was hitting a truck parked BEHIND the shooting line. Not good for pleasant relations with other shooters. I quickly remedied the situation...

 

[blume357]

It finally dawned on me that one should use a red dot just like metal sights and sight them in so that the point of impact is on top of the dot not behind it.