Series 180 Mini 14 information
- Thread starter KB8292
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I am a ruger collector and I have a 3 digit serial # 180 series. There is a good article in rifle magazine may-june 1975. Copies are still available. The prices of all min 14's have gone up. It would be worth more to a ruger collector than a gun collector. The early guns were southport models and there were several variations.
chet15
Hawkeye
KB8292":357163a8 said:
There are variations of this model (180- series) and it would depend on the serial number of your gun and what model variation it really is.
The first 1,400 or so guns were produced in Ruger's Southport factory and have a 10/22 style gold bead front sight. After this, production was moved to Newport and the Mini was given a blade front sight. Then of course there is the Liberty marked version of the 180- series Mini-14.
After that, there is the scarce "GB" version that was made with a bayonet lug, flash hider and shipped with a 20-round magazine.
Chet15
chet15":124urfvq said:
Chet, I'm new here, but have been lurking long time as I have a 44 carbine. I now have a gold bead sight mini 14 with number 180-009xx. Can you advise best way to sell in order to get value and get it to a collector that might appreciate it? Thanks for any help you or anyone else can offer.
44rugerr":2uocvcnd said:
With any luck, pictures will follow (never posted pic anywhere before). Got the rifle from wife's aunt and it had sat in a closet in New Orleans for years. There is a little surface rust on barrel and on top of scope mount, which I buffed lightly with 00 wool. I could barely see it, but it pops out in photo. It's nothing as bad as photo looks (or maybe it is?).
chet15
Hawkeye
hjh":356zy1lh said:
I'd go ahead and offer it here in the RF classifieds. There's a lot of folks here who would probably love to have one of the Southport Mini's.
Chet15
wetidlerjr
Single-Sixer
hjh":2ophk0in said:
You should never use anything but 0000 steel wool on a blued finish. :wink:
tango6
Bearcat
is there a site where I can find out when my mini 14 was made?
Try using some oil with that steel wool . . .
Ale-8(1)":3hapxzvu said:Try using some oil with that steel wool . . .
Well, that seems to be a chevy v. ford type thing. I did an internet search months ago. Some said use oil, but many said that the oil would hold the rust particles and that they would scratch finish. My thumb-in-the-air take, made me think that most said don't use oil.
I wonder if I failed to polish enough to remove all the rust because it looked better for a while then seemed to come back.
The oil lubricates, and to some extent "dissolves" the rust. Remember, you're just barely stroking the rusty spot with minimal pressure, not really "scrubbing" on it. That one spot appears to perhaps be completely thru all the bluing, so perhaps there's not much to be done in that case.
JMHO YMMV
JMHO YMMV
