There's a New Mini-14 Accurizing Guide Coming Soon
 

I wanted to let everyone know, I'm fine and enjoying this new thing called retirement.

After 26 years of getting up early, putting on a uniform, or rolling out of a rack in a foreign country...sleeping in till 6am, putting on jeans and a tshirt, and rolling out of my own bed is a wonderful thing.

That being said, I purchased a new Mini in Novemebr, and I've been putting it through it's paces in order to set a baseline for a new "Accurizing a Mini" article that I promise will rival the benchmark accurizing thread I wrote about the Mini14 nearly a decade ago.

For those of you that aren't familiar with that article, it was the first comprehensive testing/trial/modification/proof of concept article ever written on the Mini-14, and it set the stage for an entire range of accurizing modifications such as barrel shortening, harmonic balancers, gas block tweaks, and even muzzle brake installations, that followed for the next decade.

The new generations of Mini's are definitely more accurate than those of 10 years ago, but, there are improvements that can be made. And I promise, what I am doing to make the newest Mini the most accurate and reliable rifle will put a smile on your face.

Just like ten years ago...everything will be be cheap, easy, 100% DIY...and will not affect reliability or performance in any way...except for the better.

So, I hope all of you will bear with me until all of the final testing and documentation is completed...because I need to work it in between my sleeping in, servicing the wife, and sorting the empty beer cans.

I'm not far from you in the Sanford area but am in the process of moving out to the Hickory area to start a new job. Anyway looking forward to checking out your write up.

I look forward to your next article Z-Man. For those of you who don't know Z-Man, his insights on another board are still talked about.

Let me know if you need any help Z!

John

Thanks.

I've been in this area for a long time now and I love it here. I originally got stationed here in 1985 at Camp McCall when our Special Forces group was tasked to provide training within the John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center. It's been amazing to see how the Sandhills, Fayetteville, Raliegh, and even Sanford have grown in that time.

Now that I've retired, I'm hoping to actually play some golf...and tinker with the Mini!

I am looking forward to reading about your findings as well. I own one of the original Mini-14's, and I have been thinking about selling it to buy a new heavy barrel model. If there is an alternative to gain some accuracy, then I would enjoy learning about it. I own semi auto rifles built on every platform, but the mini's action is the only one I would stake my life on. No matter what the conditions are, I know that the mini is going to go "bang", cycle, and load a fresh round without error every time. I don't have that kind of confidence in my "AR" actions. I just wish the mini didn't have to go "bang", "bang", "bang", "bang", "bang" before one of the bullets finally hits the bulls eye.

Thanks John!

Hope all is well for you and your family.

I'm actually in the middle of doing some side-by-side testing on a couple of different struts to see what I can learn. Those things are proving to be super-finicky for testing.

One thing that still remains the same after 10 years, as you already know, is that a proper bedding job is still a cheap, easy, and foolproof way to shrink a group size.

Best regards, and I'll keep you in the loop.

I don't know what production model Mini you have, but, if you do a Google search on my user name + mini-14 accurizing, you'll find my original report and testing results at another shooting forum. That original article covers most early versions - 180's thru 196's - standard and ranch.

If you need any other help or insight, let me know. I started working on accurizing Mini's back in the late 70s and still do so to this day. I would be more than glad to contribute if requested. Looking forward to your right-up.

Jim...................

Thanks for the offer, Jim. I'll be sure to keep you in mind.

(I see you're from the lush, temperate, rain soaked town of Barstow. LOL. I spent almost a year there at Ft Irwin doing joint operations training.)

Will your new book apply to the older Mini's also?