Saw it at a local gun show today, 182 series with wood handguard, blued.  He was asking $450 for it, so I gave him the asking price, and he handed me a $20 back and said, buy a box of shells.  It's a very nice rifle, maybe 90%, however it has a stainless hammer in it, and I don't know if the wood handguard is correct or not.  He included 2 5 round mags.  It did come with a Ruger box, but there is a 12/01/15 date on the box, so I am kind of thinking it went back to Ruger for some work.

Regardless, I am happy with it, and I'll see what it can do tomorrow.

Jason

Do post up range results. They can be pretty ammo picky so don't write it off without trying a variety of different ammo. They can also be decently accurate as well. Accu-struts can help. The two first year Mini 14s I had were 2 moa guns with an optic mounted. I used the Ultimak rail and an extended eye relief scope. Worked like a champ and was a blast to shoot. I never expected match grade accuracy but for a blaster and truck gun it worked great. Dead nuts reliable function wise and wouldn't hesitate to use one for SD/HD.

Ruger switched from wood handguards fairly early in the 181 series, so the wood handguard probably isn't the original.

I like the wood handguards ( so let me know if you want to sell or trade it) but they do inhibit barrel cooling, which compromises accuracy with the pencil barrel.

My 184 series Mini 14 with an Accu Strut and a Choate Browning/M14 style flash hider is a solid 1.5 MOA rifle (5 round groups at 100 yards).  Even in rapid fire, longer strings it holds a very usable 1.75-2.0 MOA.  That's with the improved Tech Sights RR200 rear sight.

I have a 187 series ranch rifle with the same strut and flash hider that shoots 1.1 MOA with a Leupold 2-7x33  on board.

The ammo used above is a Hornady 55 gr FMJBT on top of 27.0 gr of BLC-2. It's a step below maximum per Hornady's 9th edition and it produces right around 2800 fps in an 18.5" barrel.

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Ruger changed barrel twists a few times.

Mini-14

The 180 series (introduced in 1974) through most of the 184 series used 1-10 twist.

Beginning in late 1986 at around 184-96000 Ruger switched to 1-7 twist.

Ruger switched to 1-9 twist in mid 1997 fairly late in the 186 series around 186-70000.

Ranch Rifle

187 series (introduced in 1982) used 1-10 twist.

In 1986, about mid way through the 187 series at around 187-55000, Ruger switched to 1-7 twist.

In 1997, mid way through the 195 series at around 195-30000 Ruger switched to 1-9 twist.

All of the above serial numbers are very rough and very approximate as during the transition periods Ruger sent out rifles with both twists, so if you've got a serial that falls during 1986 or 1997 production you could have either the new twist being introduced or the old twist being phased out.

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Twist rate is important in terms of accuracy as if you've got the earlier 1-10 twist (which would be correct for a 182 series rifle) it should perform very well with 50-55 grain bullets.  If you've got the mid production 1-7 twist then you'll want to stay with the longer 62-77 grain bullets. If you have the final 1-9 twist then 60-69 grains is the sweet spot, but a well made 55 grain bullet should also work well.

Work has prevented me from test firing it.  I did find a guy that has a 182 series as well.  He states that it came NIB  with the wooden handguard.  I have no reason to doubt him.

Jason

I suspect Ruger used what they had on hand during the transition.