An interesting rifle just came into our shop recently, and we are thoroughly stumped! It's an 80s vintage Mini-14 in a black plastic stock, featuring an integral barrel shroud and laser assembly on the front of the weapon. It's a Laser Products Corporation (we now know them as Surefire)aiming laser, and is the same type featured on the Terminator's ".45 long slide with laser sighting."

It came in with one of the batteries stuck in the buttstock compartment, and there is ample evidence of corrosion all over the battery compartment, so I'm sure the contacts, plugs and wires are pretty much fried inside, but if we can get the blown battery out, I think we can rebuild the insides with commonly available wiring and connectors and hopefully return it to functioning condition.

I had never heard of these rifles before this one came in, and even the Ruger rep we talked to had no idea what we were talking about. it has several interesting features in addition to the laser assembly: QD sling attachment points built into the stock, plastic stock with black painted finish (it's chipping around the end of the buttstock) and some kind of internal flash hider that is used to keep the barrel shroud in place. It's quite sinister looking for a Ruger!

Does anyone know of a source or website we could go to for more detailed info about this weapon, specifically any schematics, instruction manuals, or other technical data we could use in the course of repairing this thing?

A friend of mine has one of those. If I remember correctly Surefire built these for LEO sales. Remington 870s and one of the big Colt .357s were equipped in the same way. There were a handful of MP5s also. I worked at a police supply store that had a salesman sample case with the Mini and the Colt and Remington in it. Never sold any and the idea never seemed to sell very well from what I understand. Just Google Mini 14 with integral laser. There are a few articles out there. HTH!

Pics?

I'm always interested in 80s era stuff.

Is it one of these?

That it is!

I haven't been able to find any info on these things anywhere. We can't get the corroded battery out of the buttstock, and I don't want to further damage the gun by getting too rough with it.

I'm kinda stumped as to what kind of chemicals I could use to remove the corrosion without damaging the painted finish on the stock.

The owner has indicated some interest in pulling off the laser and associated parts, and returning it to a regular Mini-14 configuration, but he hasn't made up his mind yet.

The sticking point with that is, how do you get the internal flash hider off the end of the barrel to free up the laser assembly? is there a special tool or another type of tool that could be adapted for that purpose, without damaging the splines on the FH?

I've worked on a lot of guns over the years, but this one is turning out to be a doosie!

Coke will dissolve corrosion from alkaline batteries...

I think these batteries are an early form of NiCad. Don't know if the Coke trick will work, but only one way to find out...

Update: Well, I got the battery out, and the good news is that the battery compartment is in great shape. The bad news is that when the battery came out, it pulled the connector plate and wiring with it. Fortunately, the connectors and plate look to be in decent shape, minus the ones still fused to the battery connectors, so now it's a matter of getting the fused male connectors freed from the battery and then seeing about finding similar connectors with which to replace them. From what I can see, the pins seem to be threaded into brass sleeves in the connector plate, so they may be replaceable, at least I hope the hell so!

If I can get this sucker re-wired properly, there's a chance I might be able to get it working again.

I'm kinda excited at the prospect.

Good news.  

I remember those early lasers from the '80s.

If you send the stock and electrical parts to me I can re-build it for you.  I built the electronics for the world's most advanced deep sea sonar, which the dip-shits flying it crashed in the Indian ocean last week looking for MH370.

details? i only read about them dragging a sonar unit into an underwater volcano