Subject rifle:
NIB 582 series Mini-14.
Blued with wood stock.
Model number on box; 05801.
It came with one 5rd mag, a "safety" lock, a pair of traditional scope rings, two Allen wrenches, and a chamber flag.
Retail is $900+....actual cost was $699.
Perty-dern expensive if ya ask me. But what aint these days, eh?
Initial observations and/or problems which needed fixed:
Receiver is D&T for the new-fangled "rail" but the rail was not included.
The rubber butt-plate was well fitted and IMO, a big improvement over the old-style curved plate.
Stock-fit was too loose for my liking, particularly fore and aft.....but...thankfully, the trigger group required considerable force to latch into place and the receiver-heel sits tightly against the stock just as it should.
All of the rear sight screws were tight, as were the stock liner screws.
The opposing gaps formed between the two halves of the gas block were not equidistant, nor was either gap parallel. One of the four screws was loose enough to turn by hand. In other words, the gas block had not been installed properly.
Bore was not cleaned after test firing.
The front sight was canted to the right.
Worst trigger I've ever felt on any rifle...bar none.....even the take-up is gritty, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear that the sear-edge and hammer notch were formed with a wood rasp. Other than looking over the trigger group and applying a touch of oil here and there (it was shipped dry), I haven't touched it....so I have no idea (yet) why the take-up (aka free travel) is so gritty. I've never seen nothing like it....horrible.
At the range:
Due to the canted sight, I began testing on a 25yd target by loading only 2 rds at a time into each of my five available mags, just in case my "new but unproven" gun with it's suspect trigger group decided to go full auto.
All five of my (Ruger) mags latched into place right, fed right, and tripped the hold-open latch when empty.
No malfunctions during the first 10 rounds, but I did note that the gun was shooting left of center...so I cleaned the bore (again) and hung a new target on the 50 yd line.
At 50yds, and with the rear sight centered, my canted front sight was causing my shots to hit 3-1/2 inches to the left of my POA. What that means is that "as issued" my front sight is off far enough to cause a 7 MOA difference between the rifle's POA and it's POI, so at 200, it would be 14" off.
Next, I hung a new target at 100yds, cleaned the bore again, and proceeded to fire 2 shots, adjust rear sight, fire 2 more, readjust, rinse 'n repete. That particular process took me a full 10rd mag to complete, and used-up all but a smigit of the rear sight's windage adjustment....but it was finally done, and viola!...I was hitting within the 10-ring.
All of the above firing was done using Federal/Lake City M193 (.556 NATO) ammo.
No malfunctions at all.
Ambient temp ranged from 93-97 degrees. 5 MPH S/E breeze.
The best group of the day was 5-shots in just under 3". The worst was over 4", due to lateral stringing. Yeah it's true, even the "new 'n improved" tapered barrel strings when heated.....Still though, that is the best shooting that I've ever done with an out of the box Mini-14. Sorta impressive actually.
My conclusions:
I have not yet determined whether my barrel is out of plumb to the receiver, or if the front sight was installed out of plumb, but regardless...there aint no excuse for a canted front sight, a misaligned gas block, or for loose screws on a NIB gun. Even though some of those things were easily remedied, what it tells me is that Ruger is in dire need of a QC inspector, meaning that even if they have one, they STILL need one...if ya get my drift.
Although I can reliably hit the 10 ring @ 100yds with this particular rifle, the fact that I've all but used-up it's windage adjustment means that it is not useable to me as-is. Shooting at 200 yds with any sort of a breeze would be out of the question.
Despite all of it's problems, the gun has the makings of a fine service rifle. It is already accurate enough, and plenty reliable. It just needs to be put into spec is all. Well that, and a stronger rear sight with 1 MOA clicks would be welcome.
I reckon that I'll soon see if Ruger's CS Dept is all that it's cracked up to be. If they'll just fix what they screwed up, I'll do something about a rear sight myself.
Suggestions and comments welcome.
DGW
NIB 582 series Mini-14.
Blued with wood stock.
Model number on box; 05801.
It came with one 5rd mag, a "safety" lock, a pair of traditional scope rings, two Allen wrenches, and a chamber flag.
Retail is $900+....actual cost was $699.
Perty-dern expensive if ya ask me. But what aint these days, eh?
Initial observations and/or problems which needed fixed:
Receiver is D&T for the new-fangled "rail" but the rail was not included.
The rubber butt-plate was well fitted and IMO, a big improvement over the old-style curved plate.
Stock-fit was too loose for my liking, particularly fore and aft.....but...thankfully, the trigger group required considerable force to latch into place and the receiver-heel sits tightly against the stock just as it should.
All of the rear sight screws were tight, as were the stock liner screws.
The opposing gaps formed between the two halves of the gas block were not equidistant, nor was either gap parallel. One of the four screws was loose enough to turn by hand. In other words, the gas block had not been installed properly.
Bore was not cleaned after test firing.
The front sight was canted to the right.
Worst trigger I've ever felt on any rifle...bar none.....even the take-up is gritty, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear that the sear-edge and hammer notch were formed with a wood rasp. Other than looking over the trigger group and applying a touch of oil here and there (it was shipped dry), I haven't touched it....so I have no idea (yet) why the take-up (aka free travel) is so gritty. I've never seen nothing like it....horrible.
At the range:
Due to the canted sight, I began testing on a 25yd target by loading only 2 rds at a time into each of my five available mags, just in case my "new but unproven" gun with it's suspect trigger group decided to go full auto.
All five of my (Ruger) mags latched into place right, fed right, and tripped the hold-open latch when empty.
No malfunctions during the first 10 rounds, but I did note that the gun was shooting left of center...so I cleaned the bore (again) and hung a new target on the 50 yd line.
At 50yds, and with the rear sight centered, my canted front sight was causing my shots to hit 3-1/2 inches to the left of my POA. What that means is that "as issued" my front sight is off far enough to cause a 7 MOA difference between the rifle's POA and it's POI, so at 200, it would be 14" off.
Next, I hung a new target at 100yds, cleaned the bore again, and proceeded to fire 2 shots, adjust rear sight, fire 2 more, readjust, rinse 'n repete. That particular process took me a full 10rd mag to complete, and used-up all but a smigit of the rear sight's windage adjustment....but it was finally done, and viola!...I was hitting within the 10-ring.
All of the above firing was done using Federal/Lake City M193 (.556 NATO) ammo.
No malfunctions at all.
Ambient temp ranged from 93-97 degrees. 5 MPH S/E breeze.
The best group of the day was 5-shots in just under 3". The worst was over 4", due to lateral stringing. Yeah it's true, even the "new 'n improved" tapered barrel strings when heated.....Still though, that is the best shooting that I've ever done with an out of the box Mini-14. Sorta impressive actually.
My conclusions:
I have not yet determined whether my barrel is out of plumb to the receiver, or if the front sight was installed out of plumb, but regardless...there aint no excuse for a canted front sight, a misaligned gas block, or for loose screws on a NIB gun. Even though some of those things were easily remedied, what it tells me is that Ruger is in dire need of a QC inspector, meaning that even if they have one, they STILL need one...if ya get my drift.
Although I can reliably hit the 10 ring @ 100yds with this particular rifle, the fact that I've all but used-up it's windage adjustment means that it is not useable to me as-is. Shooting at 200 yds with any sort of a breeze would be out of the question.
Despite all of it's problems, the gun has the makings of a fine service rifle. It is already accurate enough, and plenty reliable. It just needs to be put into spec is all. Well that, and a stronger rear sight with 1 MOA clicks would be welcome.
I reckon that I'll soon see if Ruger's CS Dept is all that it's cracked up to be. If they'll just fix what they screwed up, I'll do something about a rear sight myself.
Suggestions and comments welcome.
DGW