When I was 18, I bought a Universal M1 Carbine.

It was a piece of unreliable junk.

I promptly traded it for a Ruger Mini-14.

We took it camping, and got blinded by the muzzle flash at night.

I installed a CHOATE A2 style front sight/flash suppressor, and CHOATE folding stock.

My evil step-mother ran to my Dad in a panic "He's got a machine gun hanging on his wall !!!!!"

My Dad just rolled his eyes

When I joined the Army, I sold it at a pawn shop.

I figured she'd toss it in a dumpster while I was in OSUT and cause me trouble.

I miss that goofy little carbine and have been thinking about getting another.

I have a bunch of AR rifles, retro, SHTF, 6.8SPC, 6.5G, 3-gun, etc.  I know a good AR is superior bla bla bla

Lookin at the 16.1" 5847 or 5889 models.




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Questions.

1. how is the accuracy, honestly, are the thicker barrels better ?
with 52gr HPBT match handloads, what can it do ?

2. magazines.
There used to be one aftermarket company that made reliable 30 round mags, I forget the name
What 20 and 30 round mags are reliable ?

3.  how bad is the new rear sight ?  are TECHSIGHTS a must ?

4. how's the resale value if I get bored after a few months

@raf likes the Mini.

I wouldn’t buy mine again.

Accuracy is meh…

Only buy factory Ruger magazines. ($35)

They’re way over gassed too.

Ruger AC-556 is the answer you seek.

Only if you love it when a plan comes together…

Already covered......

You want one, because 'collection'.

I wouldn't mind one with that stainless steel folding stock with wood that looks so cool. Fun blaster at close ranges. Maybe not the most optic or suppressor friendly. But has that classic cool 80's A-Team thing going for it.

I have a stainless. I also have a new in the box I've never shot. I don't know why other than it was on clearance at Walmart. I like them. They are fun and accurate enough to make a bad day for for something or someone if needed.

If you need a shotgun.. buy it!

OK, I admit it, I have a Mini.

Bought it for pure nostalgic reasons.

The 580 series are reasonably accurate - but nothing special. 2-3 inch groups at 100m. Mine was an LEO turn in, stainless, with a 16 inch barrel and the flash hider. Probably the best configuration. Stole it in retrospect, they are twice the price now.

I only use Ruger factory mags. They sell 20 and 30 steel mags on the Ruger website. Pricey but worth it.

Factory irons are fine but I do have a Redfield scope on Warne QD rings that works pretty well.

Fun to shoot … I love the ka-chunk of the bolt when it cycles. But AR is my go-to.

My stainless was $100. I talked him up from $50 because I felt bad.

The old Tapco plastic mags ran great and were cheap.

I had a 183 series bought brand spanking new.  Years later I sold it to a coworker, a couple weeks later he tells me he couldn't hit shit with it.  We went out to a gravel pit, I hit a Bic lighter at about 60 yards.  
He never said another word about it not being accurate, and I know I couldn't recreate that shoot to save my life.

My uncle gave my dad a Mini-14 stainless to my dad for a HD rifle. I really want to see if he’ll trade me an AR for it.

1) Accuracy on the new Minis is about 2 MOA or so, and a good bit of this is ammo dependent.  Experiment with a wide variety of ammo and take notes.
2) Ruger mags seem to be most reliable, but there may be a few others.  Shop around.
3) Many users install the Tech sight; there are different models, so choose carefully.
4) The Mini will probably hold its value pretty well.  Price on new ones seems to keep rising, like everything else.
5) If the muzzle is threaded, simply install an A2 type flash suppressor + crush washer in lieu of the OEM Ruger flash suppressor.  If the muzzle is not threaded, then the       Short Choate muzzle device pictured is a frequent add-on.

Do you have an M1A yet?   Maybe go there next instead of a Mini?

Once the barrel gets hot your POI goes to TOTAL shit. Pass

That's probably true of the older pencil-barreled Minis, but OP is looking at buying a newer Mini with the heavier barrel.

An add-on Accu Strut for older Mini-14s usually solves or at least greatly reduces this issue.  Mini-30s always had a thicker profile barrel, so an Accu Strut is seldom needed on Mini-30 rifles.

Same criticism could be fairly made about the very early pencil-barreled ARs.

Hmmm......you might be right

I've owned two

sold one to fund my IPSC blaster, sold the 2nd one for an Armalite AR10.

You really don’t compared to an AR.  I bought a mini 14 brand new $700.00 when AR’s were 5-600 for a cheap one. Anyway the AR is just better all the way around as most people know.  I liked it sold it off later.  Don’t regret it at all.  The AR is a more flexible option with all the components.  But if you want want one by all means buy it.  It was made for a few quick shots. I just bought. Remington 1875 in 45 long colt / 45 ACP.  Did I need it not really but I wanted it for a long while.  I envision walking in the woods loaded with heavy 45 long colt ammo.  Ready to take on most beasts that would come my way.  Also it’s fun to shoot with a 7.5” barrel plus I just might get into reloading finally after years of thinking about it.

If you're shooting 45LC, you really need to get into reloading.

[ 1950’s flying saucer movie announcer voice]

something’s happening !

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Lmao, that made me smile!!

I had one for a month OP, shot it twice and the mag fell out after the first shot.

I traded it the next day

.  New ones at the local shop are $1120.  I just cannot see paying that for a Mini. But if you want a toy, that's fine.

The 300 AAC one is actually a hundred bucks cheaper.

I'd have a hard time paying for a new one.  There just isn't any benefit to the Mini over an AR.

But, I traded into a used Mini-14 (with the new heavier barrel and flash hider) a couple years ago.  It's my second Mini-14.  First was bought new around '98 for $440.  It was the typical 4moa Mini, and I sold it a few years later.  

The new one is like RAF said, about 2 MOA.  Easy to shoot, and fun!  I shoot  A LOT of 3 gun, with a DoubleStar AR15.  The mini is a nice change of pace.  I put a Samson A-TM stock on it, and just recently a Samson Hannibal rail.  What does it do that an AR won't?  Nothing.  It is a little shorter with the stock folded, and of course will function with the stock folded too.  But, it's just something different.  I bought a FN SCAR-L for the same reason.  The mini actually gets shot more.  

Ruger are the only magazines I buy.  Yeah, some others work, but it's not worth the gamble.  Ruger mags aren't that expensive unless you're one of those guys that think you need 50 mags for every gun you own.
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Buy one, you will be different than 98% of the other guys shooting 5.56.    Install an accu-strut or similar.    Mine looks good in Butler Creek folding stock and fits behind the truck seat better than an AR.  Looks good next to my 1943 Inland M1 .30 Carbine also.

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Stopped by an old friends house.

checked out his Mini-14

He's letting me borrow it for a week or two.

this may be all I need to get my mini-14 interest.....well....restarted,..... or closed out. LOL

I remembered how to field strip it, I do like the similarity to the Garand and M14 rifles.

I had one.  Massive disappointment but explained why no one on the A-Team ever got shot.

I mean, I like my SS 16" folder:



It makes me smile, and is fun.  That's the only justification I needed for it.  I've already got the AR stuff covered, and this is a setup I've always wanted.  I specifically chose the 16" SS non-threaded for the shorter OAL.  

I don't shoot from a benched position once a rifle is zeroed, so it's as accurate as I can be with it, which is about 2MOA for a few shots if I'm on the ball.

I did have the one below for a hot minute:


But it fell into a weird void of rifles where it didn't do anything that something else I owned didn't do better, so I never shot it.  Selling it helped me afford the stainless one.

They're real long with that 18" barrel.

I had one briefly, it was ok. The Thermold mags I had worked fine but I’d probably stick with factory. I had a Choate folder on it, worked fine but was a touch long LOP for me. I hear the newer ones shoot better, mine did around 3” at 50 with iron sights, which seemed pretty good.

You can easily look up the resale value on GB for right now.  I assume it’ll be stable for the next few months.

I have one.  I consider it a fun 100 yard plinker.  Something about Minis just appeals to me.

Thermold Mini-14 mags almost always work fine, unless worn out; both the mag spring and the plastic feed lips are possible areas of wear and thus concern.  Typical AR springs will fix spring issues, and a good internal cleaning of mag body will be useful.

Depending on the exact configuration of the mag body, some modern Ruger followers might help.  Available from Brownells.  

I use my Thermold Mini-14 mags as "range" mags.  Getting increasingly hard to find new examples at "reasonable" prices.

Tapco Gen 2 Mini-14 mags are, IMHO, superior to Thermolds, but pretty scarce nowadays.  I plundered the last vendor I found that Gen 2 Tapco mags  not long ago--now "Out Of Stock".  The Gen 2 Tapco mags had a nice metal reinforcing band around the top of the Mini-14 magazine, which metal band solved the wear problem of the Mini-14's front "post" securing front of magazine, and also reinforced the top of the magazine.  Best of the plastic Mini-14 mags, if you can find a decent example.  Nowadays, a NIB example is "Unobtanium".

Why Magpul refuses to buy the tooling and rights to make modern-day Gen 2 Tapco mags is beyond me.  It's been suggested to them many times, to no avail.  Perhaps if some additional folks pester them, they might make decent plastic Mini-14 and Mini-30 mags in the future.

Some mags with plastic bodies and most importantly plastic feed lips suffer from the problem that the plastic feed lips are subject to wear and cannot be adjusted to compensate for wear--unlike metal mag feed lips.  Granted, such wear might take many rds shot to become a problem, but the problem exists, and it is very hard to gauge the wear on plastic magazine lips.  Also understood that plastic mags have certain advantages compared with steel and/or aluminum mags.  OTOH, Canadian Army persons came to hate Thermold mags, calling them "Thermelts" on account of problems encountered during full-auto and very high rate of sustained semi-auto fire.  Granted, the AR platform will likely heat up magazines more than the Mini platform, but there it is.

FWIW, I have a considerable number of plastic and metal mags for my Mini-14, of varying capacities.  Some (mostly metal) mags made very long ago, some Factory Ruger, and some (usually plastic) others.

All mags internally cleaned, their springs lightly lubed, and fully tested.

I like my Mini.  I just don't know why.  

Top unit is/was an "M-14-style" flash suppressor which would also allow attachment of M-7 GI bayonet.  Good unit, and good winged front sight.  Sold by various vendors.  I prefer the shorter Choate unit since it works as an effective A2 type flash suppressor and also has a much-improved winged front sight.  Choate unit will also accept an M-7 bayonet, but lug for rear of bayonet must be installed on the barrel.

Since I wanted accuracy over a bayonet, I installed a dual clamp Accu Strut, which prohibits installation of a bayonet lug on the barrel.  Never regretted doing so on my Pencil-barreled Mini-14.

I'm not planning on mounting a bayonet onto my Pencil-barreled Mini.  Even the M-1 Carbine required a very stout bayonet lug "collar" to make installing a bayonet possible.

Bottom pictured unit is a worthless "muzzle brake/compensator" that was offered during the 1994-2004 National "Assault Weapons Ban".  Likely still approved by some restrictive States, so that should say something about how effective a flash suppressor the (bottom) unit is.

Adding some mass to the front of the (older) Pencil-barreled Mini-14 in order to reduce barrel whip has long been understood to be useful in in reducing group sizes.

Not normally needed with newer, thicker-barreled Minis.

With a little effort, likely shimming the innards of the action with some thin plastic in order to prevent the receiver from flopping around inside the too-wide early Ruger wooden stocks, maybe OK to 200 yds.

No offense, but the last time your car failed to start did you get rid of it?

I have a mini-14 which came from Ruger with a bayonet lug.
Mid 70s GB model.

Many different Minis out there with differing OEM features.  Suggest not irreversibly modifying any scarce or potentially collectible Mini.

Ruger offers a service on their ruger.com site for "'serial number" look-up in order to see how any Mini came from the factory.  https://ruger.com/dataProcess/serialHistory/

Fakes abound.  I reckon there are some folks out there trying to sell "modified" Minis as something that will bring more bucks than the original item.  Beware.

Why? It's a fun ranch style rifle. No need to be a precision rifle. Life is too short to only have AR for .223. Wood and steel (or S.S.) are just classifc!

Thanks for the info

the SN search is for 2000 and newer.

Best I got was appox date of manufacture Mini-14 between 1978 & 1979.

I had a Mini way back in my youth then sold it as soon as I could afford an AR. Then I briefly had a Mini-Thirty but it just wasn’t the same and I sold it too. Several years back a family friend practically gave me a beat up 180 series Mini for helping him out with a project I’d have happily done for him simply for being dad’s friend. Despite being a 180 series gun it scratches my Mini itch and is sorta nostalgic to boot. Every time I think I’m going to cut the barrel down and pin a long flash suppressor to it I take it out and blast a couple magazines though it and decide that it serves its purpose as is.

Perhaps  This Chart   will be helpful.  @Willz

Mini 14 = M1A = classic retro sexy look. Go for it.