[scottybaccus]

I finally finished my Mini-14 this week, and found a little gratification at the range.

My gunsmith threaded the barrel after I recrowned it, and installed my Troy flash hider. He did an excellent job, indexing it without the need for shims or a crush washer. At the range, I didn't have any tools to re-zero my sights after putting it back together, so I just shot a couple of boxes through it at 25 yards to get an idea of how it would behave. First impressions are excellent. The hybrid porting on the flash hider did tame muzzle rise somewhat, and the short barrel, crown and flash hider have resulted in a consistent pattern with no signs of stringing shots as the barrel heats, or of flyers in the first round out of the magazine. Both were issues before. Group size is hard to assess with a red dot, so I'll revisit that at 100 yards with a scope later, but this target is very encouraging.





Four shots at 25y, slow fire, with a relatively cool barrel. This was after 6 shots that settled the action into the stock. I discounted those after a rim failure on one case interupted my first group.


This is the last ten rounds of 40, rapid fire (under 5 seconds) from a rest with the 2 moa red dot. The berrel was smoking after this group.

[sciacca06]

The stock is "ARish". Alot of people wonder why not just get an ar-15. Heres what I say. Why is the ak-47 such a reliable weapon? Answer piston driven. Most ar-15 out on the market are gas blow back systems, they clog with carbon, and reliability is shot after a few hundred rounds. You can buy a piston driven ar-15 but cost can easily exceed $1500. OUCH!!! The mini 14 is a piston driven carbine. It's also cost a third of a piston ar-15. I paid $600 for mine. Now everyone loves to personalize their weapons. Some for practicality others because the creaters of COD thought it would be cool. Reguardless mounting accessories is alot more difficult without a rail system. This stock gives you the ability to turn a great rifle into an outstanding rifle. And to those who say go buy an ar-15 I challenge you here and now to a reliablity test and well see just how great ar-15's really are.....