Mini- 14/30 Give me the low down!

[Sig685]

A bit of misinformation about the early series Mini's barrels. The OD of the Mini barrel is virtually the same as a M-14 barrel. The M-14 never gets the same gripe. One of several causes of the barrel moving its poi is due to the Mini's over powered gas system and slide, putting a lot of stress onto the barrel. The early Mini's will settle down and shoot well when the gas system is re-worked to reduce the recoil.

Agreed, it takes skill and a bit of work to improve a Mini, and some people are not up to the task. But as a carbine it can be made to hold its own against other CARBINES.

If you take a stock Mini-14 Carbine and compare it to a stock M4 Carbine, the former simply does not hold up. If you say that with enough work, effort and money are poured into the Mini-14 it can be made the equal of the M4, you're simply whistling past the graveyard; that is no longer a Mini-14 it's a heavily customized carbine. If I put in the extra effort, money and work into an M4 as you did to bring the Mini-14 up to the level of the M4, that heavily customized M4 will be far better than the heavily customized Mini-14. I can do more to an M4 with greater ease and less money to make it outstanding than it will take you to make the Mini-14 adequate. In other words, it's a losing proposition and no amount of fast talk is going to change reality.

The M14 is NOT an accurate weapon as issued. If one wants to make it a match rifle, it requires a lot of work and attention, and to top it all off, you need to redo this every season if you are a serious competitor. Yes, the M14 has been reissued in recent years as a DMR rifle, but one of the big problems was finding people who knew how to make it accurate and who could then maintain them over time. If you pick up a match accurized M14/M1A by the handguards, it is no longer a match accurized rifle.

On the other hand the AR15 once you spend the minimum effort needed to make it a macth weapon, will remain so from then on, unless of course, you burn out the barrel or adjust it with a sledgehammer. But apart from that, it stays accurate, even if you drop it. Not so the M14/M1A.

You are nw here, else you would know that I have railed against the large pieces of metal moving off center on a Mini-14. I have also explained that obviously, a significant part of accurizing a Mini-14 would be dedicated to shaving down these pieces of metal and trying to tame the action. However, even with that, the barrel was/is crap, thin or thick is not the main issue here, as much as the quality of the barrel.

All this to say that your post simply underlines and even restates what I have been saying for a long time now, the Mini-14 is a bad design but it also confirm that with proper advertising you can get people to buy anything.

 

[wetidlerjr]

If you take a stock Mini-14 Carbine...yada, yada, yada...to buy anything.

 

[fossils and guns]

Having two mini 14's and a 30 I've now switched over to the dark side with ARs. For some reason I like them better... but the odd thing is my two AR's, as of this moment, are not proving to be the nail drivers everybody talks about. My first one is slightly more accurate than my better mini14 but not by any great amount.

I did the same; I love my Mini 14 (ATI Tactical with 16in barrel) and the fact that I don't have to clean it as often as my AR's. However, it's not even close in accuracy to my Armalite, and certainly not my Colt (both with 16in barrels). All three are fun to shoot, but I prefer the iron sights of my AR's, and they have less recoil.

 

[ky wonder]

well i have both a bushmaster m4a2 , and a 181 series mini that is stock except for the adjustable gas block ( easier to find my brass) and I enjoy both of the weapons.

i can tell you that at the local gun club, 3 gun matches, it seems to be a 55mini / 45ar population distribution, with equal results as far as winning is concerned, and cost as well as age of competitors could be the driving factor for this population, the black guns have really seen a bigger cost spike in the last year, and there are more older shooters shooting the mini's. while the younger shooters who like to hang everything but the kitchen sink on a rail goes for the ar platform

the minis are very particular about the magazines that they will accept while they work well with factory mags there are a lot of aftermarket mags that are not reliable in various guns while the ar's feed from most any servicable ( clean and not beat up)mag i have seen.


i like the feel of the mini better than the m4 and for close quater combat with a semi automatic , the mini is loaded and behind the bedroom door while the ar is locked in the safe,

my son and i are both long range percision shooters and niether of these guns are going to make the cut for that purpose, for less money than either of these carbines will cost new, you can get a savage tactical in 223 with the accu trigger system that is as out of the box accurate as rifles that cost three times as much with legacy names.

so i close with this! get a clean used mini and shoot it since you already have a ar, and if you dont like it you will always be able to get your money back

 

[Rumrunner]

I have owned 4 mini's and still have two of them. I need optics in my old age, so I no longer have the standard models. I have a 1999 All WX mini that I had the "GunDoc" do a trigger job on ($45.00 at that time), and it has a muzzle break on it. I use it for coyote hunting mostly. With 55 grain Ballistic tips, I get constant 3 shot groups of 1.5" at 100 yards. I get 2.5-3" 200 yard groups ( it has a 3x9 scope on it). I have fired just under 2,000 rounds from this gun, and have shot it until the barrel was too hot to touch. I have never had any type of malfunction with it. I have not shot for groups when the barrel is extremely hot, but still get the same groups when it is very warm. Again, I use it mostly for hunting now.
I have an NRA Mini with a redot on it, and no other work done on it. I blow through 20 and 30 round mags with it faster than I can really afford to. I have no problem with milk jugs free hand at 100 yards with it when doing this. Certainly not precision shooting, but I sure dont feel I am giving up anything to any "fighting" rifle in the same caliber.
If I want to shoot precision, my Savage 12FV in 223 will shoot 10 shots under an inch at 200 yards. It might do better, but I can't.
Bottom line, The mini is a fun semi-accurate and durable gun. I am not an AR fan, mostly because I am a Ruger fan, but also the mini fits me better. I think it boils to personal feel and desire between the two. Cost may also be a factor for many. I was not in the military, or maybe I would be more of an AR fan. I chose what felt best to me and never have looked back.