Thank god a gun reviewer actually likes the mini 14 in this day and age

I'm old enough to remember when civilian AR's were rare and prohibitively expensive. Mini 14's were THE budget .223. Because of that, I have a soft spot for them. I've owned a few and they've all been fine weapons.

“To our European viewers that’s about 417 bushels” LOL

I will not lose sleep over the difference in accuracy between the mini14 vs AR15

I have a MINI 30, and I love it! I got a MINI because it seems everyone has an AR and I wanted something different. I never really checked the accuracy, but it seems pretty accurate shooting at 70-100 yrds with open sites, no scope. I use 9" pie plates as targets, so being a very simple man, if I can hit a pie plate at 70-100 yrds with open sights, I'm OK for being me.

The mini14 is definitely a great option for us out in California.

All lies everyone who has played PUBG knows the mini 14 is more accurate.

The accuracy problem was resolved years ago by making changes in the barrel thickness which increased rigidity and eliminated barrel whip….

I've had a Mini-14 for probably more years than James has been alive. It's reliable, adequately accurate, overpriced, and pretty chunky ... hmmm, sounds a lot like a Glock.

The action on the Mini-14 is absolutely iconic and enough for me to want one. The price point is why I still haven’t bothered to get one.

I love my mini-14! I've shot thousands of rounds through it and it has never jammed.

I never thought I'd see the day when the AR15 would be a cheaper alternative to the Mini 14, AK, and SKS.

What do you mean its not High Speed, The A-Team used it all the time. 1980's action is what made a lot of us what we are today.

The most useful thing for me was the real-time range conversion of yards to bushels "for our European friends." LOL

My first gen mini 14 could hit a squirrel's nuts at 600 yards Annie Oakley style with a mirror.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that there needs to be a video made concerning the myths of AR accuracy, since apparently that is the accuracy standard that everyone holds any other rifle to even though a lot of their expectations are unrealistic.

Dang that's a lot of bushels.

I love the mini 14. It's one of the best damn rifles ever made with its unique characteristics. I don't know what other people's experiences are, but I could punch out a quarter at 150 yards with no problem. And it can hold respectable groups even further. A great all purpose working gun and home defense rifle. An excellent utility rifle.

Most reliable damn semi automatic I have ever seen. It is a beautiful firearm. I like it more than an AR.

Mini 14 problem with the older rifle was a pencil thin barrel. When the bolt was closed the recoil spring placed pressure on the slide assembly (charging handle) to gas block and this changes the barrel harmonics as the barrel heats up during sustained fire. To remedy this Ruger thicken barrel and then used a hammer forged barrel to further build resistance when sustained fired. The change required Ruger to redesign the gas block, slide assembly , and other smaller parts that makes the parts incompatible with older models.

NINTH! Also, I interchange meters and yards pretty freely in this vid because I am a dumbass. All distances are in *yards* not meters. This is uhmuricuh, dammit (even if the metric system makes 10000x more sense). - James

I personally love mini-14s they're fun to shoot and reliable as hell. Do I also own an AR absolutely.

Accurate enough for me. I like the way minis feel better, not a huge fan of pistol grip on rifles. To each his own

I bought a series 186 Mini-14 two years ago. I put an Accu-Strut and an Amega Scout Rail on it before I ever shot it, so I don't know how accurate it was before I added the improvements, but when I sighted it in at 100 metres I shot a 1.2 inch group. Since 100 metres is equivalent to 110 yards that would give me a little over 1 MOA. I feel pretty good with that.

I came for the short shorts, I stayed for the Mexi-blanket.

I think it comes down to which one you like better. They are both great choices for me l’m a little old school I just love the look of the mini 14 .

I have an old 183 series made in 82. Added a Mo Reaper Break and Mo Rod stabilizer and it's solid for it's intended role. Also looks great on the wall next to my M1A ;)

Great review...that is a lot of work/fun. Being somewhat of a gunsmith, I made a gas port bushing for my mini-14 that won't throw the brass into next week (.060" instead of the factory .090"), made a gas block stabilizer, developed it's favorite handloads, and it shoots sub moa dependably. I even worked with my mini-30 to a 1/2" 3 shot group at 200 yards. And this is with the old 300 series that are decades old, but having said that, my newer AR's will match them right out of the chute...they are very impressive.

James you made the first mini14 video that's actually tolerable to watch! CONGRATULATIONS!

Coming back after a month, I see the debate is still going on. What the video shows is this: With good ammo, a 580 series 16" barrel Mini-14 is capable of 1 MOA. The standard 580 series Mini-14 with an 18.5" barrel should shoot a bit tighter on average. With IMI 55 grain BT FMJ ammo, my 18.5" 5805 hovers right around 1 MOA, with some groups smaller and some larger. When hot, it no longer strings rounds like the older pencil barrel model would do. There's now a great deal of evidence that the 580 series Mini-14s are much more accurate than the older rifles. Excellent when one considers that it is a carbine... Keep in mind that AR-15s are banned in several states, where the Mini-14 is the only reasonable alternative. Opinions... Opinions are conclusions drawn in the absence of complete knowledge. I'd wager that that the majority of Mini-14 haters don't own or have not even fired a later model 580 series version. They do have an opinion, based upon someone else's opinion, based upon what someone said having heard something 3rd hand. The truth is, if you haven't spent a few hours shooting a 580 series Mini-14, you don't know shit about it. You're just a parrot, repeating what someone else said. When at the range, I often let other shooters try my Mini-14s or my AR or AK if they wish. Never has one been disappointed with the Mini-14's accuracy. The only complaint I've ever had was from guys getting beaned in the head by my brass, six tables over... Yeah, it kicks brass a long way. If you prefer an AR, great, I get it. I like mine a lot too. I don't disagree that the Mini-14 is very expensive for what it brings to the table. There's lots of things that Ruger should be doing better to even hope to justify the cost. I completely dislike Ruger's obsession with proprietary magazines. I dislike that Ruger has not made any effort to deal with the rifle's tendency for light primer strikes on military grade, Berdan primers. Hell, there's plenty of niggling things that a more responsive company would have addressed a long time ago. Annoying things like the mag release being too short and too narrow. The safety is too stiff and narrow for comfortable use. These two things are addressed in the aftermarket, but owners shouldn't have to correct these simple design errors. It took Ruger 30 years to address the accuracy issue. So today, accuracy is excellent. Problem solved, for 55 grain ammo, that is. What about the other annoying issues that still plague this carbine? Things like the poor fit of the action to the polymer stock? Overweight proprietary scope rings? You should be able to adjust windage and elevation of the rear iron aperture sight without needing a tool, right? Not deal breakers, but they are flaws that should have been fixed. It's this type of stuff that steers me away from my Mini-14s as my first choice for home defense or SHTF service. I can deal with the old school configuration and the lack of modularity. I can't deal with known flaws being ignored by the manufacturer for decades. Fix the flaws and introduce an adjustable gas regulator, and this rifle might justify its price tag. So, I have no issue when folks bitch and moan about the Mini-14's deficiencies. However, with the 580 series, a lack of accuracy is no longer one of them.

The Mini 14 is an awesome rifle. Mine shoots m855 green tip at 1 Moa with a Leupold VX-2 2-7X.

Here in Canada the Mini-14 is considered “Non-Restricted” and can be purchased with a standard PAL (Possession and Acquisition Licence) and can be shot almost anywhere. The AR-15 on the other hand looks scary so it is considered “Restricted” requires a Restricted-PAL and can only be fired at a range. Both guns are normally limited to 5 round mags with the exception of a 10 round “AR-Pistol Magazine” which can be legally loaded into a rifle.

When I entered law enforcement in the mid 1990s, the department I was with at the time issued the Mini 14 as their carbine. They were a woefully inaccurate rifle back then. Looks like the Mini 14 accuracy has improved a lot. Good shooting James!

Sorry, fellow! I have had a Mini 14 since the late 70s! It has always been accurate!. With the iron sights it would nail a prairie dog at 100 yards consistently! Now, I don't know how it would have done in a rapid fire mode, never used it that way. But single, well aimed shots it is a very accurate weapon!

I lost it when James converted yards to bushels. 😂

Learned to take an M14 down and clean for parade inspection in ROTC in 1970. Could barely perform "inspection arms" without lifting a leg. Do it twice for practice and my hand was bruised. But, I just learned to love the mechanism. Once got an award for timed takedown and re-assembly while blindfolded. 15 years later bought a mini, but sold it 5 years later due to a location move I needed to make. I have regretted that sale for 30 years.

LOL. Bushel. I'm gonna use that the next time my European wife asks me how much the temperature is in Celcius.

Checking in from Albuquerque. Balloons go up in a few weeks, just about 2 miles from my house. It is one of those things that is rough to deal with if you live here, but it is a cool thing.

The best part about finding this channel year later is all the questions are already answered

Thanks for showing how accurate the mini 14 really is. All 223 rifles seem to be ammo sensitive.

How many bushels are those nuthugging shorts?

Are you guys ever going to do another Hatemail/Hate comment special?

Big thumbs up to your choice of music for the closing credits. Nice vid overall

Thanks for finally posting this.

I mean my Mini 14 is like 25 years old and still is better than my M&P 15.

James, you turn my mini into a 14 incher

Never had any accuracy issues out of the mini 14. That being said, I use different guns for 250 yards lol.

“I don’t need no teenage queen, I just want my mini-14!” 😂

People always bash the Mini 14 for accuracy, but honestly the gun has enough practical accuracy to be a good combat rifle. When running around, full of adrenaline, you will probably shoot it just the same as an AR or AK.

I have both. I prefer the 15, but at the end of the day. When you need to put rounds down range. A mini 14 is better than no mini 14.

The .223/ 5.56 is very touchy in respect to the barrel twist vs. bullet weight.Correct twist for the weight makes ALL the difference in the world.

If that Mini in the video can do a 1MOA group with federal ammo I wanna buy THAT one

That tactical AF Toyota. Brazilian ammo, Japanese cars. This isnt murica at all

The mini-14 actually beat the AR-15 in this accuracy test. Plus, you'll get the AK-like reliability and ruggedness, ease of maintenance and simpler parts. I think I'll go for the Mini-14 as an overall winner firearm for home defense/hunting/survival application.

Love the 80’s Valley Dude look! Works perfectly with a mini 14.

It was actually the later 580's that started the improved barrel, early 580's still have the older pencil barrel. Also the Freedom line is meant to meat mil-spec which is ~2 MOA, an AR priced similarly to the Mini-14 would likely do better. Another consideration is that an AR with the regular handguard has problems when put in a rest like that since any side pressure on the front end will affect the barrel alignment, especially with those PSA Dissipator builds which are not known for being well done if you take it about and look at the gap around the FSB since they are build with a regular .750 FSB pinned to the part of the barrel that is .730.

I think Paul Harrell mentioned why the Mini 14 has a rep for being inaccurate. At some point the late 70s and 80s or something the quality was inconsistent and some Mini 14s were fine and others were inaccurate.

really would of liked to have seen some 62 grain and 70+ grain ammo in the AR .. 55 grain did that 1:7 twist SS barrel no justice

The mini 14 was the first Rumford semi auto rifle I've ever shot,and remained that way for years,everything else was bolt guns shotguns and a few revolvers

I had a Ranch Rifle in 5.56mm. After a few rounds the groups would drift all over the place. I hope they have improved them.

I'm always surprised how many people can't convert yards to bushels without a calculator.

HEYYYYYY there's them shorts again, james you rock!!!

I bought a new Ruger mini 14 ranch rifle around 2004. Put a new Bushnell 1 / 4 scope on it. Used different factory ammo, same weight bullets. Had it scoped in so I thought, it shot about a 2 foot group at 50 yards. It went down the road. I still love my Ruger M 77 bolt. In a 30:06. It stays in a 2 inch, 100 yard group, consistantly.

For all of you complaining about the grain weight of the bullets...my FN 1:7 barrel shoots hornady 55 grain soft points into an inch or less.

Love the Mini-14 in synthetic with synthetic stock it looks much classier than an AR. Definitely going to be my next purchase.

I'd personally buy the Mini 14 just because it has so much history. Being developed from the M1 that is now over 75 years old

I bought the least expensive Mini-14 I could find for my wife. I found one new blued with a wood stock for $750. We took it out and sighted it in and I was quite disappointed in the results. Using 55 gr. Hornady spire point, the best we could do was a 3 shot group which was about 3 in. @ 100 yds. Last week i tried Hornady V-MAX 53 gr. (SUPERFORMANCE VARMINT). I shot 3 rounds, made one adjustment to the scope, then shot 5 more rounds. The end result was a tad less than 1.5 inches, 2 inches over dead center (which was what I was attempting to get) The Mini-14 is capable of accuracy, but you have to find the right ammo to achieve it.

Awesome video as always! I thought the PTAC line was PSA's bottom basement, bargain series of uppers?

Would love to see a reliability testing video, I mean after all that's the main thing people wanna know about the cheaper options, sure it's nice to have a tight group but if you can't do a follow-up shot in a boog firefight because of a jam what good is it?

I was really thinking you were gonna say “damn it feels good to be a gangster” at the beginning

Enjoyable watch, thanks!

I have a 16 inch 1/8 stainless freedom upper I bought in 2016 and used at thunderranch. In the 100 yard sighting at the beginning, I managed a 1.5 to 2 inch. I was able to tag the 600 yard in the feet with a red dot, on the brown range, 2 shots in a row, then couldn't hit it again, but any plate or silhouette within 400 yards, I could smack no problem even with an rds. John was my spotter and Heidi was watching my hits as well. For my first class, I was very grateful and satisfied with my performance, my rifles performance, and most of all, the performance of the staff at the ranch. Moral is, I have a cheap psa from 5 years ago that preformed really well. The only issues I had was from shooting really poor quality ammo. I had to slap oil into the bolt 3 times over the course of 500 rounds due to fouling which I assume had to do with the rifle being overgassed with shit ammo.

Mini14 16" barrel and iron sights. Best truck gun hands down

I've owned three mini 14s and all were very accurate. My first was especially so with hand loaded 52 grain Sierra hollow points. A friend ask me to set a scope on his a few years ago and it was so inaccurate that I could not set the scope. Ruger had a spell when they farmed out their barrel making to another company and they got some really bad barrels. At this point in time ruger barrels are about as good as any bodies that are mass produced.

Excellent vid!! Thank you!!

I love the mini! Great Job on the videos you’ve made on them

I like James's videos and I can't wait for James to start solving mysteries in his short shorts

Why didn't you shoot any match ammo?

I have an old 1980-vintage stainless Mini-14 with a factory folding stock and a Weaver K4 scope I bought new in '81 or '82 and never had any complaints with its accuracy, but it's always preferred Federal or PMC 55-gr. bullets. I always loved the pistol grip, but any complaints about this gun at all is it isn't comfortable to shoot with the metal folding stock. Same gripe I've got with my UZIs, so they have QD wood stocks.

Thank you for this video.

Seems like the accuracy is very much dependent on the type of ammo it's spitting out.

That was one awesome mexi blanket! Best damn reviewer, personality on youtube.

The transitions in this video are so smooth, my ice cream is jealous

Great video! As always from you guys. ;^) What scope do you have on the Mini-14?

I love everything about this video... EXCEPT James's shorts um no JK keep up the good work brother!

I like the mini-14. it has this classic rifle feel

Never could understand how someone (Anyone) could use Wolf and accuracy in the same sentence and keep a straight face.

Nice. I'd suggest that as important as any other factor in accuracy comparison tests is the optics. What optics are on each rifle? To those complaining the comparison is not valid because he didn't use match grade ammo, how many of you use match grade ammo when you're shooting just out for fun? That'd get expensive real fast for the avg AR owner. Most owners of inexpensive ARs use the cheapest ammo they can get their hands on. For that reason, testing with cheap $.30/rd ammo would seem to produce better real world results than using $1+/rd match ammo.

James, No need to travel to a balloon fest to expand your Mexi Blanket collection.You can get them at a bargain price from any NICE truck stop . Look for them next to the chrome mud flap girls and the "as seen on TV " product section.

I heard that Ruger genuinely believed that if the mini-14 was released 5 years earlier it would have been adopted by the US military over the M16.

I had a pencil barreled mini 14, and it is every bit as accurate as an AR 15, if not more, my target was a teddy bear, and I swore I was missing every shot, but, upon closer inspection of my target, I found a crapload of stuffing poking out the back of the teddy bear, it was full proof positive of its accuracy! And I was using 55 grain milspec rounds at least 30 years old,I got from my uncle, who was an armorer, for California national guard!

Glad you picked a nice calm day for an accuracy test.

The Balloon Festival is most legit, and so is the UFO Festival in Roswell.

Should have compared the Mini to a Ruger AR-556. Would have been more of an Apples to Apples comparison

Love my mini. Had it over 20 years now. Accurate enough and has performed flawlessly.

0:40 I think you are right about the bolt and bolt carrier moving before the bullet has left the muzzle may have affected the accuracy. The M1 Garand's gas port is about one inch from the muzzle, so the bullet is long gone before anything inside the rifle starts moving, that is why the M1 can be accurized into a tac driver.

liking your vids. I have a "583" Mini that I am liking more and more. It survives in the ban states, which is why I initially bought it, but I am also a fan of the action, which does throw brass like Roger Clemens. Also dings the brass like my AKM clone. I also have an M&P 15 Sport that has a trigger with a lighter break. I consider the M&P a bit better shooter. Both are very reliable, but I believe the Ruger is more durable with a simpler action. I have had the M&P longer, but have only had one hangup with the M&P-15 due to an overfilled mag not seating right. No failures of any kind with the Ruger yet. Both are superb. Thanks for doing justice to the Mini. I don't think it gets credit it deserves. The action does make the recoil impulse more pronounced than an AR.

Those shorts are not leaving anything to the imagination in the crouched position lol.

Thanks for the vid. Subscribed and liked.

i have a 195 mini from the late 90s. ive never noticed any inaccuracy problems. I like the pencil barrel