Mini-14, 180 Vs 181

[Retired W4]

Way back in 1976 I purchased a Mini-14 and owned another 180 series several years ago. As I remember, the 180 did not have the little sliding door on the left side of the receiver for the hold open device. I believe another difference was walnut Vs birch and metal butt plate Vs plastic. Were there any other changes made on the 181? I recently came into possession of an as new 181 and it has a wood upper hand guard. Is that correct?

 

[arcticruger]

Yes the 181 series came with the wood hand guard. I always thought the Mini looked best with that hand guard.

 

[Retired W4]

I can see the need for the newer plastic/composit? upper hand guard. The shroud over the op rod covers the bulge that protrudes slightly under the shooters forward hand. The old wood just looks better.

 

[DGW1949]

Another difference is that the old 180 had a roller on it's bolt much like the one found on today's M14 and M1A rifles. And the earliest versions used a different front sight and hand guard attachment.....There were other differences too, enough that almost none of the internal parts interchange with the 181-up models.

DGW

 

[Retired W4]

Update on that 181 series Mini14: About two shows ago at the ATL Expo Center two of my friends were having medical emergencies and while all that was going on, someone stole the gun off my table. There are cameras all over that place, but as it turns out their video system had malfunctioned and I could not capture the time of the theft.

 

[gunzo]

Quite a few internal changes for the 181 that I couldn't name but after a few years Ruger ran out of 180 series parts & they quit servicing them.

And yes the 181 originally had a wood handguard. The first year of the stainless, 1978 had wood as well, still have it somewhere. I wanted a vented one, & soon Ruger started using them as well.

 

[chet15]

The only early Mini's with walnut stock was the Southport model, early 180- prefix with gold bead front sight. After that small production run of well under 2,000 guns, all Mini's had birch stocks.
The wood handguard disappeared sometime in the 183- prefix.
All Liberty marked guns are in the 180- prefix. The very high 180- guns have no Liberty and are also without the Warning rollmark.
Then you have the GB models... rare in a 180-.
Chet15

 

[rugerguy]

yes, from what I recall , the ones we had to repair in the shop the lugs sheared off, they were a round bolt I believe different than the later flat style and the last one, I had talked with Dick B , service mgr at Ruger and he could not get us any more bolts, and offered to replace with the updated later 182 and up model, for a cash difference, but being mine was a Liberty model , I took it back and put a Ceiner 22 lr conversion bolt assembly in it and sold it to a friend, so its still out there somewhere......