Mini 14 Ring Height

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Rdtay10

Bearcat
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Sep 13, 2016
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Virginia
Just purchased a 582 series Mini 14 used that has the picatinny rail attached. I would like to mount a 3-9x40 Leupold 1" tube scope and keep it as low as possible. Could anyone help me out with ring height or should I get the standard AR height one piece cantilever mount? Thank you
 

DGW1949

Hunter
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Apr 10, 2005
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If you're talking about the "Ruger rail" which came with the gun, it takes Weaver style rings. If that's the case, you might get by with the "Medium height", but even so, you'll likely have to remove the rear sight Ass'y so the scope will sit down. Then of course, due to the drop of the factory stock, you'll find that it's impossible to achieve a proper cheek weld unless you buy (or devise) some sort of riser pad.

What I'm getting at here is that IMNSHO, that 3X9-40 is simply too big/bulky for the Mini platform. Yeah I know, people do it all the time...but just speaking for myself, the few times that I've used a scoped Mini, I much prefered the much more compact SG scopes. Or you could buy an Omega Rail and use a scout scope. Or learn to use the iron sights...It is after all, a knock-around carbine, not a bench rest gun.

Hope this helped, and good luck in your endeavors.

DGW
 
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I agree about that scope/rifle combo. I once ended up putting on a 2 2/3 power low profile redfield on a mini 14 back in the 80s. It still shot the same big groups at 100 yds scope or iron sights.
 

DGW1949

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kmoore said:
I agree about that scope/rifle combo. I once ended up putting on a 2 2/3 power low profile redfield on a mini 14 back in the 80s. It still shot the same big groups at 100 yds scope or iron sights.

The 582-series Mini-14 which the OP is talking about is much-improved in terms of accuracy when compared to those from the 80's. Just as a point of reference, my own blued n' wood version will put 5 shots of it's favorite green-tip 5.56 into a 2" circle @ 100Yds...just using it's iron sights and a sling...no scope, acra strut, or bench involved.

DGW
 
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Although the 2 mini 14s I had were the 1st gen rifles and either shot a group that could ever be bragged about.
What I was getting at is because of many talks over 8 years of selling guns etc daily and answering questions all day long. Many that have a carbine type rifle ask about putting a scope on it so they can shoot better. In my experience many times the gun will not shoot better. But, the poster did not say why he wanted to put on a 3x9, I just used my experience that it would not shoot better by just adding a scope or a big one at that for a carbine. I mounted many a 3x9 scopes and larger on the older 94s and 336 marlins, some mini 14s and explained things like cheek weld, lower stocks on carbines, scopes on rifles make poor spotting scopes or binoculars. I just had a guy at the range last Sunday with a win 88 308. That is a lever rifle, a great brush rifle at that. This guy had a leupold on it with a 50mm front lens, I think it was the newer 2x10s. About as heavy as the rifle and half as long (Yeah I exaggerated the last sentence). Nice guy but he shot 8 inch groups at 100 yds.
 

DGW1949

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I'm hearing ya kmoore.
Just speaking for myself...I'm an old NRA Service Rifle shooter and I know for certain what kind of work can be done with nothing but iron sights and a proper sling. Thing is though, I've found that trying to explain it to folks who don't know is like speaking a foreign language, so I seldom try these days.

Not a fan of the 88. I much prefer the '94.
Yeah I know...the 88 lends itself much better to being scoped, and the .308 is supposed to be a much better "medium game" cartridge...still though, I guess there's good reasons why one is still around after 100+ years and the other one was rather short lived eh?

Please excuse the thread drift.

DGW
 
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Agree, I held a expert rating service rifle for many years. Used m-14s, a M1 and lastly a AR15. I held a master rating in smallbore most of my adult life. I quit competing about 10 years ago. With smallbore I shot in scope and iron sights matches. The only thing the scope did over the irons was I did not need a spotting scope on the line. All HP matches were iron sights.
True story; 1996 Wa state police/firefighters games shot at the Hanford atomic faulity in Eastern Wa. I won the 50 meter smallbore matches again. They also had a 2 man team event with sniper rifles. A co worker wanted to shoot it and asked me to be a teammate. I used my M1 Grand. 100, 200 300 yards. Shooting from different positions. I was the only guy with iron sights and a gas gun. About 80 shooters total, I shot from a sing only while they had scoped bolt guns, bipods and sand bag rests. (Real sniper rifles). No way could I ever win or even place high in that match. At the finish the scoring guys were hanging out at my target and a crowd of shooters also. One said I scored high enough to qualify as a Wa police sniper. We shot the Q course. It was won by a WSP trooper with 100%. I shot 72% or close. Nothing to bragg about. Most of the guys were SWAT team guys. A shooter checked my target and said he never thought a M1 could shoot that good. My comment was you should attend a HP service rifle match and shoot them at 600 yds.
 

G2

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182 Series we did it the old school way, sorry I couldn't resist :shock:
414002425.jpg
 

tacotime

Single-Sixer
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
367
Wow is all I can say to that.

Used short Leupold rings for Ruger mounts to mount a 4X28 compact scope, and it worked, rear sight removed, but you could not remove the hand guard if needed. It still looked funny, and made the rifle form so much larger, so it was removed in favor of iron sights.

The Ruger rings that come with the rifle raised the scope up much further, and a 3-9x40 even more, and so that loses the compact form of the mini, which is why I adopted the mini over the contraption that is an AR-15 in the first place. Even with older eyes, no scope for my mini.
 
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