The story begins when earlier this week I noticed the handguard on my 185 series Mini14 didn't have a heat shield in it, and that it was made of flimsy feeling plastic.  I guess at some point the original was replaced with aftermarket. I began shopping for a factory replacement to return the rifle to original condition.

I know the very early originals came with a wooden handguard, but the design later changed to the black synthetic type which I have heard called fiberglass.  I remember decades ago, my uncle had a Mini and I seem to recall the handguard being hard and very shiny, so I assume it must have been actual fiberglass.  Since I have been shopping, all "factory" handguards I find look to be a rough finish like you would find on plastic, the same as the finish on the aftermarket one I have.  

I did contact Ruger to ask if the handguard material specs have changed over the years, (specifically fiberglass vs plastic) and they said that yes, in early 2017 the heat shield was no longer required.  No answer was given to my question about fiberglass vs plastic.

Can anyone confirm that the early Mini-14s had a hard fiberglass handguard?
Did they change over to plastic at some point?

Also, I am aware of the very popular Choate handguard, and though they look fine, I want to keep the old rifle as original as possible.

Not that I am aware of other than the clamp that goes around the barrel.  I don't know if the clamp fits both the skinny barrel and the larger barrel equally.  To the best of my knowledge the same clamp works for both barrels.  If anyone knows differently please let us know.  

kwg

I think mine is Bakelite

eta-no it's more flexible but it's not flimsy and can see the heat shield in the perforations near the barrel.

The material I remember from the past was glossy like Bakelite.  Hopefully more info will be forthcoming.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so maybe this will help illustrate what I am talking about.  Here are two photos I found online.  Both have heat shields.  Do they look like they are made from the same stuff to you? I'm not saying they aren't, but that's my impression.

I have a couple of different factory ones, but I think they are all made from the same Bakelite type material. I have a couple with stainless liners and one with blued steel. The older ones look to have a smoother/glossier finish and the newer ones that I have look more matt/textured. My newest one is a new replacement but is still probably 15 years old. If you need one; let me know. I have the new replacement that I bought and never used. It was going to go on a gun that I took on trade but sold it as it was.

The newer one are plastic. My 2012 is plastic with a shield and my couple year old one has no shield. You can see the mounting place are still there. On another note, the raised are on top by the rivet hole that mounts the clamp can be filed down. This will allow more room for optics covers.

Yes absolutely.
I have a 2020 production mini and it has a flimsy plastic HG.  I bought a older series parts kit to have spares and noticed that the older handguard is 4x thicker, made of bakelite and does not flex at all.

Thank you! Very interesting.  I'm curious now when the switch from Bakelite to plastic happened.  As I mentioned, Ruger told me the heat shields disappeared in 2007.

I bought the spare that pachangalpina offered above.  It may be plastic with heatshield, but at least it's a factory part, and will work until I can locate one of the Bakelite type handguards.

https://imgur.com/a/iqnoCrF

https://imgur.com/WVavIFk

Here's pictures for comparison, the left side handguard is the flimsy plastic one.  It flexes very easily in your hand when you bend it.  The one on the right is stiff fiberglass and will not flex at all.

All the ones that I have/had are the Bakelite material. They all looked the same from the backside. Only difference in the ones that I had were the top surface. The oldest ones were smoother than the newer one that has a very slight but uniform texture. All of the ones that I had utilized a heat shield but some were blues steel and the others were stainless.

The black handguard with the op-rod cover is made of a fiberglass reinforced resin, not bakealite.  Probably a similar material to the M14 handguard.  There was a copy that was made of a softer plastic material that did not have the aluminum heat shield, it may have been from Ram-Lline.

The recent production (2019) model that I got new from the factory has the flimsy soft plastic handguard.

I received the handguard from pachangalpina today. It is the hard,  very stiff type with heat shield.  

It looks to me as if there are 3 different types of synthetic handguard.

1. The newest version, made from thinner plastic with no heat shield.

2. The older version made from stiff matte finish material, with liner installed.  

3. The older version with glossy finish, otherwise same as 2.

The material 2 and 3 are made from is what we have been calling Bakelite in this thread, but is probably just fiberglass.  Initially, I thought maybe the difference in shine between older and newer handguards might be due to just wear and polish from use, but I think more likely it's changes in equipment and/or manufacturing over the years.  Furthermore, I guess the smooth and matte types could have been made during the same time, who knows?

Below is a photo of my rifle with the new to me handguard installed, and the aftermarket one that came on the rifle when I bought it used.  The cheap one has 3 pairs of slots like a Ram-Line, but there are no markings on it at all.  I'm glad to have it back like it should be.

Glad you got and are using it.

I have an actual Ram Line one as well and it is very much like the one you removed. Only difference is that it has 2 more slots in line with the barrel. One fore and aft of the barrel clamp. And has logo and Ram Line raised on the cover above the oprod.

I also saw mention of the Ruger pieces being made from the same material as the m14 covers but I am not sure that is correct. All of the m14 covers that I have show signs of fiberglass strands on the underside and are more flexible than the Ruger parts. The Ruger parts may not be Bakelite but are definitely different construction than the USGI M14 parts.

Mini-14/Mini-30 Handguards

Although I have not used them, I admit to reservations about the all-aluminum handguards possibly heating-up during extended rapid fire.

Possibly not an issue.

I understand OP's desire to "restore" his Mini to original condition.  However, since the OEM plastic handguard is easily scratched, and relatively hard to repair, I suggest either using existing aftermarket HG or buy a Choate HG for range use and store the plastic OEM HG while it's in pristine condition.

This has me interested.  ASI keeps on innovating for the Mini's.

kwg