New to rifles

[jwkhead]

I'm looking at the Mini-14 Tactical and Mini-30. My main concerns are cost of shooting AND availability of ammo. I love to put holes in paper, but want something with some power. So, .223 or 7.62? (I've decided against AR-types because I like the clean looks of the Mini's.)

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

jwkhead

 

[mattsbox99]

The Mini 14 .223 Rem will be much cheaper to feed, the Mini 30 is much more powerful (the 7.62x39 is roughly equivalent to 30-30). A good compromise is the Mini 14 in 6.8SPC.

I would not shoot steel cased ammo in either, my Mini 30 did not like it at all. If you do shoot steel cased ammo, you'll need a Wolff Extra Power firing pin spring.

 

[four70nitro]

Never owned a Mini 14/30, but have shot plenty of them and I have to echo mattsbox99's comment about steel cased ammo. A friend of mine had a Mini-30 and it did not like the steel cased ammo -- got stuck in the chamber all the time!

 

[jwkhead]

I'm pretty sure I'm going with .223 merely because there just seems to be more makers and availability of the ammo.

I'll keep steel case in mind.

Again, thanks.

jwkhead

 

[blume357]

There was a time when the 7.62x39 ammo was a big advantage... lots of cheap commie stuff out there.... but what most of us have discovered is it is really not that great to shoot and now the price has climbed... only advantaged left with it is it can still be got in bulk kind of cheap and you can store it away for that day when you need a few thousand rounds... but now you can do the same with .223 and for not that much more.... and the best way to go with .223 is bulk brass ammo.. in fact the Nato stuff .... which is not .223 but 5.54 or such (my brain is fried from the heat right now) You can get this stuff in 'battle packs'

the nice thing about .223 is there are just about an infinite number of brands and types to test and try when plinking and such. You will find there are boo koos of folks that absolutely hate the mini-14... for years it was the chevet of rifles... not very accurate and most after market stuff really didn't help that much. The newer models are much improved... the design has it's limitations on super accuracy... but I venture that with the right ammo... it's not the rifle but the rifleman.

I vote for the 14 and as you are leaning... tactical .... I like short barrels and composite stocks myself.