gatling
Blackhawk
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Mini 14 Loads
- Thread starter gatling
- Start date
Lngstrt
Single-Sixer
You know ....... Back in 82-83 I had a Mini. I'd swear it was a 180 series but probably a 181. I had a scope mount that replaced the rear sight with a Bushnell Sportview 3-9 scope.
My neighbor and I had it out west of Denver at "that place guys go off in the .... " that every state/town seems to have. We were shooting at soda cans at a paced off about 200 yards.
That's not MOA but if you can hit a soda can every time ..... When I read about Minis being less than accurate I wonder if I was lucky.
I ended up trading it, for a .41 NMBH, because the Mini was boring.
My neighbor had a Super Blackhawk Stainless with a 10" barrel. He brought along his hated Cobra wireless phone. A .223 doesn't do much to a phone but a .44 mag nearly vaporized it at about 50 yards.:mrgreen:
I now have two Minis, a 180 and a 181 that I inherited from my Dad. I have yet to fire them.
My neighbor and I had it out west of Denver at "that place guys go off in the .... " that every state/town seems to have. We were shooting at soda cans at a paced off about 200 yards.
That's not MOA but if you can hit a soda can every time ..... When I read about Minis being less than accurate I wonder if I was lucky.
I ended up trading it, for a .41 NMBH, because the Mini was boring.
My neighbor had a Super Blackhawk Stainless with a 10" barrel. He brought along his hated Cobra wireless phone. A .223 doesn't do much to a phone but a .44 mag nearly vaporized it at about 50 yards.:mrgreen:
I now have two Minis, a 180 and a 181 that I inherited from my Dad. I have yet to fire them.
DGW1949
Hawkeye
I think that's the nicest stock I've ever seen on a Mini-14.
DGW
DGW
That's good input and I'll have to try that load (thanks very much). I'm going to play with the 4320 load and the 55 gr FMJBT a bit more first. I was using trimmed military brass for my loads, but I don't know how many times I had loaded each case and invariably some would have been fired more than others (another source of variability).
I'm right behind you...I'm just 3 or 4 years younger than you. Old Army geezers with Mini 14s. Love it.
I'm right behind you...I'm just 3 or 4 years younger than you. Old Army geezers with Mini 14s. Love it.
Information about firearms is much like history. Someone gets it wrong and then everyone else quotes them. I have had mini-14's since the 80's and I never had any complaints about accuracy. The newest one I have is supposedly more accurate. I can believe that. Firearms have become better with time ad technology and Ruger has become better too.
In a real crisis virtually no one can out-shoot their rifle. 1/2" at 200 yards has no meaning then. Playing games with guns is fun but never forget their primary purpose or your own limitations.
In a real crisis virtually no one can out-shoot their rifle. 1/2" at 200 yards has no meaning then. Playing games with guns is fun but never forget their primary purpose or your own limitations.
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DGW1949
Hawkeye
teuthis said:
To put that into my own red-neck vernacular...you just said a mouthful there.
Shooting little 3-shot groups for bragging rights is one thing, practical accuracy in terms of what these types of guns are designed/intended for is quite another.
Yeah, I agree that seeing little-bitty groups can be quite gratifying...but I tell ya what...take a run of the mill AR, Mini-14, service grade Garand, M1A, or whatever...fill up it's 20-30 rd mag the appropriate mil-spec ammo , keep adding to your initial 3-shot group with a meaningful rate of fire until the mag is empty, and then you'll know what's really up relative to what these (combat-type) semi-auto rifles can really do (or more appropriately to this conversation, can't do).
Then afterwards, just for grins...get up off of that sand-bagged bench and repeat the process while shooting free-handed, then get back with us on how much more accurate one really is in your hands than the other.
Just speaking for myself, I've about had 'em all, and wouldn't give a ya two dollars for the difference in practical accuracy which I've experienced from any of 'em while being used as intended...key words there being as-intended...
...'Cause like the man said, "1/2" at 200 yards has no meaning then".
DGW
We should be happy with what we want to use as a rifle. I gave up on the mini 14s after having 2 back in about 1980 and 1982? The last, the first year in SS. At the time I was shooting M14s NM, owned a M1 NM and later in life 2003 a AR15 NM. as a Master service rifle shooter. Yes, those are not rack grade guns as my mini 14s were but, I needed better(smaller groups) then I could get with my mini 14s. I now own 2 AR15s either is rack grade. I shot many more on the OSP, even rack grade ARs do well, much better than my results of the early 1980s mini 14s. The AR line of rifles and products from the 1960s to now is like comparing the xxx 1968 car to a 2017 xxx car. They are very different, just the same basic color. Have Ruger mini 14s gotten better also? likley. One thing about the mini 14s I owed and several others I shot since they are vary reliable, in that respect much better than the M16A1s.
A number of years ago I was trying a number of different loads and comparing them between my AR-15 and mini-14.... the AR was shooting a lot better than the mini... I was pretty much done and then realized I had a box of 'cheap' ammo still in my range / ammo bag that I had purchased a while back from the Sportsman's guide... the box did not even have the grain weight of the bullet on it... Just the manufacturer .... so I decided to shoot 5 rounds of it in each of the rifles... at 100 yards the 5 rounds from the mini went in a 2" area... "what the heck?" I had to call the company that makes the ammo to find out the weight... It was Ultra Max 55grain full metal jacket if I remember correctly.
DGW1949
Hawkeye
blume357 said:
Makes sense to me Blume. Five shots into 2" or so is what mine does when being fed it's favorite brand of Green Tip...and getting back to the OP's premise, both guns could probably do even better with their own carefully/specifically crafted hand loads.
DGW
Again way back in the early 80s I longed for getting a better trigger, sights maybe a barrel for the mini and do better with mine. I even tried looking ahead as going in with a guy to built such things. I tried to make my trigger better but, no aftermarket parts. Look at whats available for the 10/22. And yes prices of AR triggers over 200 for real nice ones but, just that improvement can make any rifle shoot better. My ARs have costly triggers. Any thought on having mini 14s with a faster twist barrel say 1/7. That alone might help alot. I see the ruger web site shows 1/9 barrels.
All good inputs and I'm going to try a few of the things suggested above to improve the accuracy of my Mini 14. I'm getting very close to 1 MOA now with no mods to the rifle whatsoever other than straightforward load development. With a better shooter (better than me, that is) the rifle probably is already at 1 MOA with that 4320 load I showed above. My point was not to stir debate on practical accuracy, etc. (points I agree with); I wanted to show that the oft-heard Internet BS that Mini 14s just won't shoot is just that (i.e., BS).
Again I was talking about 1980s as in 1980-1982. Only common thing to help was the file down the way to wide front sight. I am glad to hear you guys are doing better with the newer ones. My comments are not to steer anyone to any thing. I moved on beyond the mini 14s for reasons and time frame I listed. Like I said enjoy want you have. Now thousands of rounds later thru some type of AR rifle. I likely won't get another mini unless I get a really good deal. But, good to know guys are upgrading parts to make them even better. Without checking out data, I believe the 69 grain bullets need a 1/8 to preform. As I recall the 1/9 is great for 55 to 62. The 69 is main stay for 200/300 yards match. the 77 and above for 600 yards and beyond. I sold every match rifle I had (5) in 2011, So I would be wrong.
