[Killashrub]

I wanted to get a 5.56 rifle and just couldn't bring myself to get the AR-15 so I decided to get a mini 14. Almost finished with my mini 14 now. All that is left is parkerizing which im doing this Friday. And upgraded adjustable rear sight or M14 style side mounted scope mount with scope plus cheek rest, and a home built M14 style flip up butt-plate. If anyone is interested in the upgrades so far, here they are.

*Accustrut socom mock M14 gas system barrel stabilizer.

*AMK Tactical M14 style flash hider. (they are on Ebay and the only M14 style muzzle device for 580 series mini 14's)

*John Mason 20 round straight magazine.

*GI style 1 inch sling.

*The stock is standard Ruger Ranch Rifle stock, just sanded and stained with a mahogany stain.

Also take it easy on me if this post in in the wrong section this is my first post. But i've been a reader on here for some time now.
I now welcome my mini 14 into the rightful place of "MINI" M14 and this is how Ruger should have this rifle out of the box.

Before Parkerizing

Before Parkerizing

UPDATE New scope added (Nikon P223) And some cheek rest that will somewhat satisfy me before I get the best cheek rest. You all should know which im talking about but I will say it anyway, Bradley Cheek Rest. If you dont have one on your scoped rifle go get one.

After Parkerizing

After Parkerizing

Custom walnut stock from www.grotriangunstocks.com to accept m14 buttplate, m14 handguard, and m14 buttplate are on the way. Will do a final post when the rifle is completely finished.

I would like to give a huge thank you to my cousin and best friend for doing the parkerizing and cerakoteing and I would like to NOT thank ruger for not having this rifle like this out of the box so I wouldnt have to go through all this trouble to get a "MINI 14" aka small m14.

 

[nf1e]

Welcome to the forum sir.
You have made a wise choice with the Mini 14. Extremely reliable and easy to enjoy.
My 181 has been ticking nicely for many years.

Semper Fi
Art

 

[Deacon]

Very cool. I didn't know those accessories were available. I've been thinking about a Mini 14 for a while, but am not knowledgeable of the different models or series. So yours is a 580 series Ranch Rifle?

BTW, welcome to the forum!

 

[BoxMag1]

That's a good looking rifle. As you say, it looks the way a mini should........

 

[rustynuts48]

Welcome from Virginia...I have had both mini-14 and a mini-30.
I liked both. It is unfortunate that Ruger didn't make the mini-14 take AR mags!
Bill

 

[Jgun]

Very nice looking rifle. I've heard many conflicting things about the mini's. I've heard that they are very reliable, but that they are not made to high quality standards, (probably from people that were comparing them unfavorably to the GI parts/M1A/M14 types) I've also heard that the factory mags leave much to be desired, and that, out of the box, they are not very accurate. Can you share your experience with regards to these claims? Have you had your's to the range yet, and if so, what kind of results did you see with the accustrut?

 

[SGT John SWF]

Nice Conversion. If Ruger made them like yours they would sell more of them.

 

[SRA]

Welcome to the forum from Utah and thank you for the information on the Mini 14.

 

[USSF06]

Welcome to the forum!

I really miss my Mini14. I sold it after I bought my M1A to fund an AR.

If you've got the dough, check out the Sage EBR chassis they make for it DI5

 

[Mike7.62]

Very nice looking rifle. I've heard many conflicting things about the mini's. I've heard that they are very reliable, but that they are not made to high quality standards, (probably from people that were comparing them unfavorably to the GI parts/M1A/M14 types) I've also heard that the factory mags leave much to be desired, and that, out of the box, they are not very accurate. Can you share your experience with regards to these claims? Have you had your's to the range yet, and if so, what kind of results did you see with the accustrut?

Quite the contrary, factory mags are one of the ONLY mags that work reliably. Haven't used any of the John Mason mags that the OP is using, but I have used virtually all others, and there is only one brand that compares to Ruger factory amongst the one's that I have used, and that is PMI which, unfortunately, is out of business.

USA, Triple K, Pro-Mag and Tapco are all junk, they do not fit and or feed reliably, especially at full capacity, and are somewhat delicate IRT feed lips.

Stick to Ruger factory mags in the Mini series rifles and you won't go wrong.

BTW, to the OP, nice looking rifle. How is the Accu-Strut working? I have an older Mini that has a different type (flat) gas cylinder housing, so the strut would have to be epoxied or LocTite'd on the barrel alone, with no anchor on the housing. I've been debating on whether it's worth the trouble.

 

[USSF06]

Hold on.... why haven't CDNN mags been mentioned? In my opinion they are the BEST priced, best functioning, and best looking magazines for the Mini14. They are straight like M1A mags.

 

[Mike7.62]

I was commenting on mags with which I have personal experience. I have none with Masen or CDNN. They may well be the cat's meow, but I haven't run them. I have run the one's that I've mentioned, and they fail when compared to Ruger factory or PMI.

 

[Killashrub]

Thanks guys for the warm welcomes. To answer the magazine questions, the ruger brand magazines are very fine quality. I havnt had any experience with cddn or whatever its called magazines. However with the John Masen magazines I have 2 the first one fed fine but required a bit more pressure to lock into the mag well. A little bit of sanding on the magazine where the magazine release holds the magazine in fixed that issue. The second one had some slight feeding problems on the last round in the magazine. Was fixed by slightly bending the magazine lips down ever so slightly. For being half the cost of Ruger magazines and look better in my opinion I say the 5 minutes total work for both magazines was well worth it. As for accuracy I havnt shot it like this but out of the box it was about 2-2.5 MOA.

 

[m14brian]

Nice rifle! I liked my Mini-14, but the only reason I sold it was a close friend wanted it and didn't have a good rifle, and I put it towards another M1A.
My experience is that of Mike7.62, only factory Ruger mags were completely reliable, I tried many brands, and no I didn't know about the CDNN mags at the time either.
m14brian

 

[m14brian]

I also wanted to consolidate down to one caliber, .308 Win for me.
m14brian

 

[USSF06]

Y'all are making me consider hunting down my old Mini14 and trading the AR15 I built for it GI1

Here was my baby as it looked the day I gave it away USN4

The Mini14 was my go to rifle before I bought the SOCOM 16. CDNN mags are great, and you can also get good stuff from GreatWestGunsmithing (trigger jobs, barrel cuts).

Now off to Facebook to find the guy I sold my Mini to... RNGR2

 

[Killashrub]

I expect about a 1.5 moa with decent 62g ammo from the mini 14 with the upgrades. I also did a little work on the gas block and made it even on both sides. I noticed the rifle shot 62g a bit better than 55g. I may get some quality 62g match ammo just to see what happends. I am looking for a walnut stock for this thing but only find ones that are "shiny" I want one that is bland like the standard walnut on my m1a match. Maybe I could get one of the shiny ones and sand it down and apply lendseed oil like springfield does. Then I want to get an m1a handguard and cut it down to fit the mini like a few others have done. After that I will mill out a butt plate that works like the M1A buttplate. Then finally I will parkerize the rifle and magazines. And at that point I will be a happy camper. Im also currently looking for a good priced M1A Standard or M1A scout for a non DMR setup. Just plain iron sights.

 

[USSF06]

I expect about a 1.5 moa with decent 62g ammo from the mini 14 with the upgrades. I also did a little work on the gas block and made it even on both sides. I noticed the rifle shot 62g a bit better than 55g. I may get some quality 62g match ammo just to see what happends. I am looking for a walnut stock for this thing but only find ones that are "shiny" I want one that is bland like the standard walnut on my m1a match. Maybe I could get one of the shiny ones and sand it down and apply lendseed oil like springfield does. Then I want to get an m1a handguard and cut it down to fit the mini like a few others have done. After that I will mill out a butt plate that works like the M1A buttplate. Then finally I will parkerize the rifle and magazines. And at that point I will be a happy camper. Im also currently looking for a good priced M1A Standard or M1A scout for a non DMR setup. Just plain iron sights.

I didn't experiment enough with different ammo while I had mine. It was an odd rifle that fired steel case rounds without fail, but brass rounds always caused issues.

Keep us posted on how it shoots. Mine was also a 580 series Ranch rifle. If you're going for M1A looks, you may also want to look into an Accu-Strut... supposedly helps the accuracy but definitely gives it more of an M14 look. http://www.accu-strut.com

 

[Noface]

Y'all quit with the Mini stuff... You're making me want one!

 

[Frankiestoys]

Awesome big Mini fan myself nice job on that one!