My dealer ordered me a 18 inch mini 14 tactical from Davidsons. It is a 5811-rug model. It is stainless. Only 9 left in stock.

Nice looking rifle.  Gallery of Guns is showing 13 available now.

Attached File


See here..

Needs a Mousqueton stock.

I wonder if this is a over run or something new ruger is adding.

If that photo is the gun in question, what part of it makes it more "tactical" than most other Mini 14's?

Its just a stainless ranch rifle with a flash hider. It is not marked LE anywhere

I thought it was different. My mini like this has a 16 inch barrel. This is the first time I have seen the 18 inch version.

It is, but only in that it has a 18" barrel with a flash hider. I've got one sitting here

My buddy has one that looks like the one in the pic only with the thin barrel. Is that what you have?

No, it is the thicker barrel. I do have an older thin barrel GB with the same FH

Prison guards approve!

Nice. This is my 4th mini to add to my collection. For some reason I like them better than all my other rifles including my ar 15 rifles.

The barrel length without the hider is it 18" or 18.5" ? (standard mini's are  18.5" ) Could be a design for the Canadian market as semi autos with a barrel length of less than 18.5" are restricted class requiring a special license and have restrictions on transport ,where you can shoot etc. Semi autos with barrels over 18.5" are unrestricted and can be used for hunting or shooting  and can be transported without restrictions . Mini 14's are popular in Canada same for the M14 rifles as they are unrestricted.

Would the pre-ban Ruger stainless folder fit on this rifle?

Yes

Back in 2013 Ruger was calling it the Patrol Rifle and was only available on Ruger’s LEO/Militarily website. I tried buying one back then but no dealer would order.

The one in the pic is just a tapered barrel Ranch with the addition of a flash hider.
Tacticals have, besides a flash hider and 16" length, a .750" diameter barrel. So it would not taper down after the gas block, but be full diameter all the way to the muzzle.

My 16 inch tactical and the 18 inch one posted above both taper down to the flash hider. I have both rifles.

I'm just saying, if the barrel has the noticeable taper just forward of the gas block,  it is more properly called The Government Law Enforcement model, not a Tactical.
It is basically a regular SS Ranch rifle with the addition of a flash hider. The one shown here is an 18.5", perhaps they make them in 16" too.
Like this:
https://www.galleryofguns.com/genie/default.aspx?item=5811-RUG
Tacticals have the heavier barrel. No visible taper as it comes out the gas block.
https://www.ruger.com/products/mini14TacticalRifle/models.html
Both come with that lawyer induced Fugly hand guard that should be replaced with a $14 Choate. Better cooling, lighter and way better looking.
Or better yet, an Ultimak railed hand guard.

Yes, it is just a ranch rifle they stuck a flash hider on and called it tactical. It is stamped ranch rifle, not sure if the new ones are all stamped like this. My other minis are from the 80s&70s

I tend to make "Tacticals" out of my older Mini-30's. Shortening the 18 1/2" barrel even one inch, two is better.
I had all three lengths. The factory, a "tactical" length 16 1/4", and an in between 17" one.
The one I cut to 16 1/4" my daughter now has. I still have the one I cut to 17" and the other is still at the factory length of 18 1/2".
Not much velocity difference. The short 16 1/4" one sometimes has a higher velocity than the longer ones, depending on the brand load fired.

The other things they have all had done are re cutting the crown, and hanging a flash hider on the muzzle.
It's not hard at all to improve on most factory crown's. I have simple hand tools from Brownell's, I think they ran about $55 with handle,  a couple cutter heads and guide.
I can also use that handle and different caliber guides and cutters to bevel cylinders on revolvers, or bevel the end of the cylinder to facilitate reinserting the cylinder pin, for just a few other uses.
I've re-crowned 4 Mini's now, and my Remington 700 heavy barrel .308 also did noticeably better after cutting off a few inches and a re-crown.

1) Shortening the barrel in effect creates a stiffer barrel. Less hanging out there past the gas block to whip around.
2) The re-crown helps make the gases coming out of the muzzle "act the same"and not disturb the bullet in a different way each shot.
3) The flash hider on the end of the barrel is added weight to dampen the harmonics, in essence the "crazy vibrations" the barrel does right as the bullet leaves the muzzle.
Whatever you can do to tame that down will help accuracy.

The other two things that hurt the Mini's accuracy if not addressed are excess gas and the jolting of the op-rod.
Technically the op-rod movement is not an issue as it's still upon the moment of firing, until the bullet is long out of the barrel. But excessive slamming and velocity do not help things, all part of the taming down thing.

The Mini's are way overgassed. it's not uncommon for the Ranch rifles at least the older ones, to eject brass 45 feet away.
This ensures it will fire anything you shoot in it will work, even very low powered stuff. I don't know about you, but pretty much anything you find in 5.56 or 7.62 x 39 is full powered. Some 55 grain plinking ammo might only be 2800 fps. compared to XM193 being 3150, but it's not exactly slow.
The Fiocchi x39 I tested was pretty underpowered. While nice looking, accurate ammo, it only clocked 1950 fps., when everything else I've ever tried is 2350 to 2550. I'll avoid that.

You can reduce gas and metal to metal clanging in your Mini without compromising reliability in the least.

New Mini's come with an .080" gas bushing, whether Mini-14 or Mini-30. Ruger did that to simplify parts. It was an improvement for the Mini-30, as it used to have a .100" bushing. The .080" bushing used to come on the Mini-14, so no change there now.
But .080" is too much, most guys seem to like a .045" to .050". This will throw your brass around 10 to 15 feet. This is plenty enough gas to be reliable.

If you over do it and go too small, and your brass is "falling at your feet" that is too extreme.
Some guys brag about that, and to me, they are not far away from having a magazine fed single shot.
Another reason for the factory over gassing is the excess gas could help the Mini keep going even after becoming extremely dirty. I've found Mini's don't get that dirty. You can go for years without cleaning them, and many guys have done so, probably more out of laziness than trying to do "research".

Buffers also help by making the Mini feel smoother shooting, a lot less of the clang, bang, clang.
They also prevent stress of metal to metal slamming by cushioning both ends of the op-rod.
Wilson Combat 1911 "Shock-Buffs", the blue ones fit great on the Mini's. One goes all the way over the gas pipe in front, the rear one goes around the end of the guide rod for the recoil spring.

Some guys run just a rear one, but I feel the front one is the more important one.
When the op-rod comes back it will bottom on the receiver, but the recoil spring has slowed it down considerably.
When the op-rod goes forward there is nothing at all to slow it down, except for some friction of the op-rod inside the forend's heat shield, and the friction of the  round being chambered.

That harsh slam into your gas block doesn't help, and the forward slam, opposite of what most scopes are built to withstand (recoil) are what gives the Mini the reputation of being hard on optics.
The eat up cheap scopes, better brands like Nikon and Leupold don't seem to have a problem. There are exceptions, I use a cheap Simmons 2-7x and a Centerpoint 2-7x for a long time on several Mini's and Marlin levers to  test loads.

Some are concerned about using a buffer at all, that their thickness is going to prevent the bolt from going all the way back to eject a round, and also prevent the bolt from closing fully, and leak some gas from the gas pipe because the op-rod hole isn't all the way down around the gas pipe.

Bolt closing fully is a non issue. Close your bolt slowly, and the when the bolt assumes locked position, the op-rod will go about another 3/8" before stopping.
Preventing the bolt from coming all the way back, is a good thing. it isn't much, and helps dampen harsh ejection, like using a smaller gas bushing but to a lesser extent.
Brass is easier to find and less dinged up if you reload.

The gas pipe is an inch long, 1/16th is not going to let much extra gas by. That's the thickness I use, made by slicing a Wilson buffer in half.
Stock Wilson buffers are more like an 1/8".
I'm hedging for reliability by using a thinner buffer, I still get some cushioning effect, and I have twice as many buffers for the effort.



Tacticals with 16 1/4' barrels, or any other Mini that has had the barrel shortened to that length, will need to run a bigger gas bushing. Like stay with the .080" one in a Mini-14.
The Mini-30 I shortened for my daughter wouldn't even function with the .065" bushing that works just right in the other two Mini's. I had to put the stock .100" one back in.
Some guys with newer Mini's are reporting that their ejection is sane, like in the 15 foot range. If that's the case, I wouldn't need to do anything to the bushing.
It's fine the way it is.
If your Mini is shredding the front buffer, you might need to do smooth any sharp edges on the front of the op-rod with Emery cloth.
Some of the op-rod face lips are almost sharp.

What makes this unique ?

Flash hider on a 18.5" barrel. I've got one sitting here, its marked ranch rifle. I just received the 16" LE non threaded version and it is marked mini 14

Flash hider on a 18" tapered barrel Mini-14?  Nothing new to me.  I set up my 583 Series Ranch Rifle like that . . . . . with a few extras.

@COSteve

Where did you get that handguard and flash hider?
Really interested in all the mods done to it.
Thanks

1st the handguard.  It's a plain Choate $15 HG for the Mini you can buy anywhere but then I painted it brown with Rust-Oleum and it's held up perfectly for 3.5 years.  (Shown with my Ruger birch stock before I got the Walnut one.)



Next the front sight/FH.  It's also a Choate product that you can get at MidwayUSA or directly from Choate Machine and Tool.  You have to specify if you have the older, thin barrel Mini (Pre-580 Series with a .562" dia) or newer, thicker barreled Mini (580 Series and up with a .625" dia).  Choate makes them in blued and stainless.

Not all tacticals are the same. I like the straight Lt bull barrel profile of the 300blk out and the 7.62x39 tacticals. The 5.56 Tactical has a taper not the same bull profile. The 5.56 would be even better with the bull profile.

@COSteve  
Thank you for the info.  That is a fine looking mini.

Magpul needs to make mags