Ruger Forum

Sr40ken · July 27th, 2012, 07:46 AM

My less that a year old Tactical shot 1 moa out of the box @ 100 yds with a 3x9 BDC Nikon. How freakin accurate are they suppose to be? My buddy is a PD armorer and says my Mini is as accurate as any of thier ARs and I'm using thier ammo!

Lee D · July 27th, 2012, 08:15 AM

ive made several fellas eat crow with my minis. i love outshooting a super duper AR with a ranch rifle...makes the bigmouths pack up and go home.

BuckJM53 · July 27th, 2012, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sr40ken

My less that a year old Tactical shot 1 moa out of the box @ 100 yds with a 3x9 BDC Nikon. How freakin accurate are they suppose to be? My buddy is a PD armorer and says my Mini is as accurate as any of thier ARs and I'm using thier ammo!

Ken ... While there is always legit conversation regarding the accuracy of a particular firearm as it relates to design, function, ammo, etc., and while there can certainly be manufacturing & QC variables that will cause two otherwise identical firearms to have varying degrees of accuracy off of a ransom rest, in my experience most accuracy complaints ultimately boil down to poor/improper technique on the part of the shooter (it's always easier to blame an inanimate object) YMMV

gwnorth · July 27th, 2012, 09:07 AM

I agree and have certainly never understood it with the 580 and up series heavier barrels. My ranch and tactical shoot fine by my standards, although admittedly I'm never trying to shoot dime size groups at xxx hundred yards.

But, I also have no great experience with older, "pencil" barrel mini's and one issue I can see being valid is their groups opening up considerable with a really hot barrel. But seems to me that would be a potential issue with any rifle with a similar barrel profile and mounting.

Personally, I'm not prone to long strings of rapid fire anyway, so I don't tend to heat my barrels to extremes during a range session. So if it is an issue I would not see it anyway.

I do have a mo-rod mounted on my all weather ranch because I wanted to see how it did affect cooling. So far, I don't think it has much affect on how hot the barrel gets for any given set of shots, but it does seem to cool down (however hot it gets) much faster with the mo-rod on than it does without it. Not sure if the affect is worth it yet (does shift the balance forward noticeably) with a current barrel-profile mini, but the strut as a heat sink does seem to work well. I do not think it has affected accuracy noticeably though.

Sr40ken · July 27th, 2012, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckJM53

Ken ... While there is always legit conversation regarding the accuracy of a particular firearm as it relates to design, function, ammo, etc., and while there can certainly be manufacturing & QC variables that will cause two otherwise identical firearms to have varying degrees of accuracy off of a ransom rest, in my experience most accuracy complaints ultimately boil down to poor/improper technique on the part of the shooter (it's always easier to blame an inanimate object) YMMV

I don't know why but after I read your post I heard my late Dads old sayin' "a poor craftsman always complains of his tools". Thanks for the posts guys.

BuckJM53 · July 27th, 2012, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sr40ken

I don't know why but after I read your post I heard my late Dads old sayin' "a poor craftsman always complains of his tools". Thanks for the posts guys.

Ken ... I also heard that from my Grandfather (a master carpenter) when I was a young lad back in the late 50's early 60's

. He also drilled into my brain the importance of "measure twice ... cut once"

NY Ruger · July 27th, 2012, 09:26 AM

the old mini's are where that whole "mini's arent accurate" ... comes from.

I have one...

Bill's original thoughts for it was as a basic ranch or battle carbine. A Garand or m14 in 5.56 .
The Garand's level of accuracy, up to 4moa was acceptable as a battle rifle.
Rumor has it, the same was for the old / original mini's ... no greater than 4moa was the spec as a ranch carbine.. 50 yds or so.... that would give you 2" groups max.. nothing wrong with that for dispatching unwanted predators.

Again, don't have specific articles to point to, but just what i've picked up over years of reading different things.

I would say yea, about 2-3moa on mine, and worse when it gets hot..
never a tack driver, but reliable as heck, it's run dry and dirty.
Can't say that about my Colt A2.
Back in the day, when we could locally buy reloaded 5.56/223 nearly as cheap as the top 22lr, we use to go through a lot of 5.56/223. And back than we could setup almost any target down at 100yds , so long as we cleaned up our mess.. we had tons of fun.

I've heard great things about the newest models, I would like to get one to add to my rotating bolt family gathering one of these days.

ExArmy11b · July 27th, 2012, 09:29 AM

The old "wandering zero" and "innacurate Mini 14" comes from the very early models. Probably for the reasons stated above, the barrel heated up and caused groups to open up.

Early M16's and M16A1's and the civilian Colt "slick side" AR15's also had light profile barrels, I have two M16 "clones" built on surplus uppers with the thin barrels and they shoot well enough. It wasn't until the M16A2 came out in the 80's that the "govt. profile" heavy barrel came out.

I have an earlier Mini 14, made in the late 70's but I'm not sure if it's a pencil barrel or not. It shoots like a laser and is more reliable than any AR15.

Most people who gripe about Mini 14's being "inaccurate" can't shoot well enough to see a difference anyway..........just like the wierdo at the range who told me that, when he saw my .357 Blackhawk, that "I heard a lot of those things have tight throats and can't shoot straight" well, maybe he's kind of based in fact, as some of the early .44 and .45 Super Blackhawks had tight throats, but still, it's rude to make those "I heard those are ________" about someone's guns. Either way, he was spraying down his 25 yard target with some poly popper like an Xd, leaving shotgun spread groups........ and I was doing well with my Blackhawk, I was like "this one looks good to me"

bwinters · July 27th, 2012, 09:45 AM

I just like that the mini14 looks more like a rifle to old guys wood stock etc. Plus if things do get bad ban wise minis will probably be around like marlin camp 9s etc were not on ban lists

BarNone · July 27th, 2012, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckJM53

Ken ... While there is always legit conversation regarding the accuracy of a particular firearm as it relates to design, function, ammo, etc., and while there can certainly be manufacturing & QC variables that will cause two otherwise identical firearms to have varying degrees of accuracy off of a ransom rest, in my experience most accuracy complaints ultimately boil down to poor/improper technique on the part of the shooter (it's always easier to blame an inanimate object) YMMV

+1

Sr40ken · July 27th, 2012, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwinters

I just like that the mini14 looks more like a rifle to old guys wood stock etc. Plus if things do get bad ban wise minis will probably be around like marlin camp 9s etc were not on ban lists

You got that right!......LOL It ain't an assault rifle it a "Ranch rifle" LMAO!

Sr40ken · July 27th, 2012, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExArmy11b

The old "wandering zero" and "innacurate Mini 14" comes from the very early models. Probably for the reasons stated above, the barrel heated up and caused groups to open up.

Early M16's and M16A1's and the civilian Colt "slick side" AR15's also had light profile barrels, I have two M16 "clones" built on surplus uppers with the thin barrels and they shoot well enough. It wasn't until the M16A2 came out in the 80's that the "govt. profile" heavy barrel came out.

I have an earlier Mini 14, made in the late 70's but I'm not sure if it's a pencil barrel or not. It shoots like a laser and is more reliable than any AR15.

Most people who gripe about Mini 14's being "inaccurate" can't shoot well enough to see a difference anyway..........just like the wierdo at the range who told me that, when he saw my .357 Blackhawk, that "I heard a lot of those things have tight throats and can't shoot straight" well, maybe he's kind of based in fact, as some of the early .44 and .45 Super Blackhawks had tight throats, but still, it's rude to make those "I heard those are ________" about someone's guns. Either way, he was spraying down his 25 yard target with some poly popper like an Xd, leaving shotgun spread groups........ and I was doing well with my Blackhawk, I was like "this one looks good to me"

I've never fired a pistol more accurate than my Blackhawk .45LC(7.5") I had back in the early 80s. I need to get another one!

sirgilligan · July 27th, 2012, 02:24 PM

Something is wrong with all of my weapons. They are all very inaccurate. Every one of them. My friends shoot them just fine. I don't get it. I send them back and forth to the factory and they say they are fine but I can't hit a thing. Could it be me? No. I don't think so. ;-)

Lead Slanger · July 27th, 2012, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckJM53

Ken ... While there is always legit conversation regarding the accuracy of a particular firearm as it relates to design, function, ammo, etc., and while there can certainly be manufacturing & QC variables that will cause two otherwise identical firearms to have varying degrees of accuracy off of a ransom rest, in my experience most accuracy complaints ultimately boil down to poor/improper technique on the part of the shooter (it's always easier to blame an inanimate object) YMMV

As always, well said Buck.

Redleg · July 27th, 2012, 06:19 PM

I am no great shot, but my Mini 14s all shoot better than my ability by which I mean that the accuracy is limited by my skill, not the rifles' specifications. Shooting from a sandbag, my Mini does as well as my SR556E, which is an acknowledged tack driver:

Here are some groups at 25 meters when I was horsing around at the range. Nothing great, but that evening none of the guys with ARs did any better, and most not as well:

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