yeah....thanks for that, ruger....you fuckers
(I have like 18-ish "old" 30s picked up here/there during the "collectors years")

Don't forget that the Clinton ban years made production of some of this stuff (at least for civilian sales) impossible.  I know I paid more for certain weapons and/or magazines than they're currently worth.  I'll never recoupe that money and that's fine.  I'd much rather lose some money out of my own pocket and have this stuff available again than go back to just a few years ago when the only choice was the collector's market.  

while that may be true, that had nothing to do with how long it took ruger to "re-introduce" factory 30s to the market.

I have 7 of the 30s that I paid 85-125$ for.
85$ was after bargaining.

The genius's behind all the ban stuff were afraid of, bayonets, aesthetics,  and shoulder things, that go up. OMG they go up. What will we do?
I wish it were legal to beat those people with claw hammers.


"
while that may be true, that had nothing to do with how long it took ruger to "re-introduce" factory 30s to the market.
"

I would bet that SRC had alot to do with the ban. "no honest man needs more than 10 rounds"

you know as well as I do that was Bill Ruger himself (specifically. not SRC as a whole necessarily).  and arguably he was "involved" in the ban to a large degree, where shockingly, the mini14 was not included.

Bill Ruger's dead.

Bullshit.

The Mini, just like Garands, etc, never fell under the provisions of the AWB anyway.

No, he was not involved in the ban.

Just keep repeating Neal Knox's crap.

BTW, do you own a Glock or a Smith and Wesson?

I guess someone had to start this shit in this thread.  Someone always does.

let me tell you what else I know about mini14s.

when the rest of the "black rifle world" was busy cranking out high capacity mags for free men and women, ruger sat on their thumbs and intentionally did not produce, or rather 'allow' people to purchase 20s and 30s.  for many years.  arguably hurting their own sales because, as has been highlighted time and again, mini14s are truly only reliable with factory mags.   yes, you can find others that work most of the time (read: precision mags), but most all aftermarket mags are hit/miss at best.  and if you cant feed a rifle, its hard to want to buy it.  then that statement (or myth if you dont believe it) gets perpetuated and repeated time and again so much so it gets engrained into the common thoughts so much so that you ask anyone about a mini you get "they're ok, but good mags are hard to find".  that is NOT a good selling point for a rifle.  so I think a reasonable person would say "ruger was so disinterested in letting the public have high capacity magazines, they let it hurt their own sales".  only recently has ruger jumped on board and allowed hi caps as well as offered "tactical" models, folding stocks, etc.  then they make it so that if you have a problem with the rifle, it has to go back to them.  and if you made any changes to said rifle, maybe they will work on it, maybe they wont.  and if they do work on it, maybe they put it back in the same "altered" condition they received it, maybe they wont.  simple parts have to be "custom fitted" by them and etc.  so I think its at least somewhat accurate to say that its difficult to want to own a mini14 (particularly in the years from the AWB sunset to 2008ish) and the burden of that difficulty lies almost soley in the lap of ruger itself, like it or not.

as always, IMHO and YMMV

ETA: like to add and stress that I am a happy mini14 owner.  I like the ones I have and would be very hard pressed to part with a couple of them.  particularly my sidefolder.
but being a mini owner does include some weird "quirks".  those quirks really lie with the factory.  now that ruger has addressed their pencil barrel and is putting out high capacity mags, a lot of those quirks have been resolved.  doesnt mean I'm not a little bitter about having been "affected" by those quirks though.
at the end of the day, yes, Bill Ruger is dead and gone and SRC has made some dramatic changes for the "better" of the black rifle public, but that doesnt mean there werent some "mistakes" made some years ago....

That is why I did not mention his name. That quote makes me angry as heck though.
I wasnt trying to start anything. The whole magazine issue proves the SRC can cheaply produce the folder stock again.
That is what i want to press.

no glocks.... The only S&W i have is a machinegun.

I think they should invest the time in a newer better design.

Mini, with that stock and in 6.8spc would seriously make me consider buying one.

that is definetely true!  (though I'm still a little bitter about having a large stack of $100 mags.... )



they do make a 6.8 mini.  they're kinda "rare" though, in that you just dont see them very often.  whether or not they'll fit a factory wood folding stock is unknown.
just no high capacity factory mags (which I dont get....maybe they're still working on it)

Okay, fine but why don't you bash Glock and Smith and Wesson in the same manner?

For that matter, why not Colt.  They have models that they only want LE to have.  Granted, folks get their hands on them, but it is against Colt's wishes.

They have.  Have you not seen the AR style piston rifle?

I am not a fan of piston ARs, but that is a nice rifle.

The Mini has it's place.

You are so much more eloquent and patient than I am on this matter.

1,500 views and only 200 votes?  If we're going to make our case to Ruger that they need to get this stock back in production, it'll need more attention!

THat... How can you say that needs to be improved. Its perfect.

Honestly, give me a way to put a optic, and a flashlight on there and that would be one hell of a handy little rifle.



 

you'd have to do it scout style, also losing your front sight in the process.
unless....
you made a front sight into the scout rail.  I had an amega rail for a little while that had an AR style front sight pin in the front part of the rail (over the gasblock).  it also had provision for adding a side mounted picatinny rail for a light.  that "custom" amega rail was only 1 of a couple made.  could be duplicated if you so desired.

I would love to see them reintrduce it in wood. I would also like to see it reintroduced with a wood handguard, like the early carbines had. Of course, I live in a state that won't allow me to buy one- old or new.

They do, it's called an SR-556. Probably a wee bit out of your price range ($400?), even if they can be had at retail substantially below their MSRP.

wood handguards can be easily found on the net.  cant remember who sells them, but a major internet shop has them on their site for not much cash.

Seriously clark????????


So you want them to redesign the rifle, and sell you one for 150$.
that is a rather impossible demand. Dont you think?




After reading this thread I am trying to sell off parts to buy another blued factory folding stock.. and make my mini14 GB 16" oal w/ a pinned flash hider..
I dont care how much you hate my gun.. I like it and will never get rid of that.

Post some pics when you're done!

If Ruger won't do it, then why doesn't someone else do it??  There are plenty of companys making mini stocks now.

cuz then someone else has to tool up to do it.

Choate Butler Creek Tapco, and ATI have already made different aftermarket stocks for the Mini.  I believe Ram-Line had a clone of the original stock too.   Companys have strayed away from the original rifle stock, its jsut a matter of them building a new version.  If they did, and it was quality, they would make alot of money

An outfit called Falcon use to build almost an identical Ruger type stock, but from what I understand they went out of business when the Slickster got his 93 AWB enacted. I wonder where all the tooling went from that company? That would be an interesting find/buy:)


Here's a picture I borrowed with one installed on a Mini. Biggest difference is the pistol grip. Looks like they may have used an AR grip.

I certianly agree.  While the Tapco stock (and a few others) might offer some utility, they look terrible and are made from the cheapest materials available.  The M-4 stock might offer some value in adjusting length of pull but I've yet to see any firearm that looks good with an M-4 stock installed that ISN'T an M-4.

1: to make specific parts (ie mimic the factory folder) you'd have to specifically tool for it.  maybe it'd be worth it to someone, maybe not.

2: agreed to a point.  the SCAR stock looks good with an m4 style stock on it.  particularly if you change the stock itself to a magpul unit (like I did )

I was going to post this, sans picture. Back in the early 90s when I had an FFL, I ordered one of these for a customer. It was as close as you could get to a factory folder for a reasonable price.  Now I wish that I bought a few Falcon Folders for myself.

Somebody has to have the tooling. Maybe a bunch of parts, too. They could probably sell them by the truckload if they started production again.

At the moment I don't own a Mini-14. But if someone reintroduced the old school folder, that would change.

Not going to happen.

If they were interested in it for the money, they would already be doing it. Plenty of NFA types that would pay top dollar for the stock and replacement AC556 parts. But Ruger is not interested in doing so.



I understand both sides. But when you've got a $7k firearm, you're typically willing to pay a little more if necessary to keep it running.

I picked up this stock at a local gun shop a couple years ago for $100.  It has been refinished, but the lockup on everything is nice and tight.

You can send an AC556 to Ruger for repair.

You can send it, but it may come back unrepaired. They have stopped making parts, and many of their replacement parts ran out years ago.

I have an original Blued, folding stocked civillian model Mini 14( This model had a folding stock, but used the regular Mini 14 barrel, instead of the GB barrel). I was standing beside my father when he purchased it in 1984, brand new, so I know its all factory. However, after 20 years of case after case of Chinese, Russian, etc ammo, the bore is ROUGH. Ruger just quoted me a price of $300 to install a new, current barrel, refinish/repair my folding stock componets, install a new bolt and fixed ejector system, and make sure the gun fires and is not gonna blow up. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Ramline made a nice clone of the factory ruger wooden folder for the 10/22.. its rare and demands a high price, I too would love to see ruger start producing these again.  retro

It was federal ordnance

Ruger or not, if somebody could make a "exact" copy... Not a close copy, but a carbon copy of the original Ruger factory folder, I would buy 2 at $300.00 a pop without question.

In my gut, I know that this will never happen, "BUT" it would be a nice surprise if I'm wrong!!  

I don't own a Mini and have no plans to either. But if they reintroduced that stock, either in wood or synthetic, I would buy one.

I had a Ruger 10/22 w/ this same setup- wooden/metal folding stock just like Mini-14.  It was OK, nothing to write home about.  I prefer Butler Creek folder, however.

Great looking rifle. Wish I had that model.

I think Rugers excuse that it is too expensive to produce isn't valid. It doesn, take a rocket scientist to figure out it couldn't be that much more expensive to throw a metal folder on. They didn't have a problem putting a nice set of Troy sights on their SR556. Can't be much more than that for the simple design of that stock.

Now it would be something if Ruger put this rifle:



In this stock:



Or a variation thereof...

Would be sweet if they offered a polymer stock and the Tactical Mini's with 16 inch barrels.