I purchased the first one in the early 1990s when I first started becoming interested in shooting. I shutter to think how many thousands of rounds I have put through that thing and it is still going strong. I bought the second one in 2007 because two is one.
I highly recommend them. I love them in fact. The actions are based on it's big brother the M1A. You can do a detailed disassembly and cleaning with no tools including dropping out the entire trigger system.
You can get magazines of various capacities, and a ton of other upgrades. You can see I have upgraded both of mine in several ways. Choate Folding Stock
and Tapco Tactical Stock 
are nice. Very light and adjustable. I am tempted to get another and leave it stock. Probably the stainless like the one on the left.I have read several times on the Intertubes that people say they start to shoot badly once they heat up. I cannot confirm this. Both of mine shoot great on the first shot as the 500th. It's often the AR15 vs Mini-14 kind of Mac vs PC and 1911 vs Glock kind of debate.
Now that I have a tricked out AR15 the one thing I can say is that the AR15 cost as much as both my Mini-14s.
--Every Gunnie should have one or two on hand!
8 comments:
I have considered a Mini-14 for a long time now. I think you just push me over the line.
The tactical options and costs are sweet. I just wish the mags were the same as an AR.
Best rifle that will never be on any ban list.
http://www.cdnninvestments.com/
Has some mini-14 GBs in there catalog.
Saw some at the Gun Show yesterday for $499. Had a closer look. Now I feel like I should go back and get one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOU96EocWOc
I love it!
You will never win any accuracy trophies with a standard-profile Mini-14. The newer ones are a little better in that regard; Ruger re-did the tooling. The new iron sights are better too. Yes, the barrel is kinda thin and you can get vertical stringing when the gun heats up.
But they go bang every time. Easy to take down. Shoot fine when dirty. Tough, break-resistant extractor. And 2"-4" accuracy at 100 yards is good enough for most of the things you would want to do with a rifle that size while shooting offhand. And if you ever really need to use a rifle, that's probably going to be how you are shooting it.
I put a Leupold Prismatic scope on mine and it serves as my go-to house rifle.
I have a stainless 580. Good gun.
But I'd really like the holy grail of Mini-14s, one of the old Ruger factory folders... preferably in stainless. They tend to go for over $1k. The stocks by themselves are $400 on the cheap end.
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