Things That You Need to Know About Mini 14
Since their inception, many people accept compared the Ruger Mini-fourteen vs AR-15 to determine the better gun for their needs. Both of these firearms are based on other larger platforms that originally started in .308 or vii.62 NATO.
The AR-xv is a scaled-down variant of the AR-10 designed by Eugene Stoner and James Sullivan. While the Ruger Mini-fourteen is a scaled-down version of the M-14, which gets its roots from the M1 Garand.
These guns share a mutual lineage in that James Sullivan was also a designer on the Mini-fourteen under Beak Ruger.
While these guns both have like beginnings and they share a designer, they are nearly as different as they tin can go.
The AR-15 has been around since the late '50s and the Mini-14 platform since the early on '70s.
Both the Ruger Mini xiv and the AR-15 have had decades for their designs to be refined.
The Ruger Mini-fourteen found a lot of apply in police service and some express use with foreign militaries.
At the aforementioned time, the AR-15 became one of the most pop military firearms in the entire world, eclipsed only by the AK-47.
Right off the bat, looking at these two firearms, yous're non likely to get them dislocated.
The Mini-fourteen is normally in a wood stock and has that sometime-world await, while the AR-fifteen looks somewhat futuristic.
The guns look drastically unlike, and they operate quite differently with completely different ergonomics.
Roles
Both of these guns are adequately versatile and can adjust various roles, although the AR-15 is much more than versatile due to its modularity and multifariousness of options.
Ruger is the only manufacturer of the Ruger Mini-fourteen, and they have always been the only manufacturer.
AR-15'due south and their components are manufactured by likely over 100 dissimilar companies in the U.S. lonely.
That's only talking most companies that build complete rifles. There are a variety of other companies that brand aftermarket parts.
Y'all can build an AR-15 in almost any format that you lot would like. Near AR-15'south have barrels that range from seven.v to 20 inches, although you can become variants with barrels as short equally five, and I've seen variants with barrels as long equally 24.
The Ruger Mini-xiv's are currently produced with 16″ and eighteen.5″ barrels. Previously in that location were versions of the Mini with a 20″ barrel.
When it comes to pretty much any part on the Ruger Mini-14, you're going to be stuck with Ruger parts, minus magazines and aftermarket stocks.
For the AR-15, y'all tin get barrels, bolts, trigger groups, receivers, article of furniture, and every modest part imaginable on the firearm.
If y'all accept a local gunsmith, it'due south a guarantee they will have all the tools required to disassemble and take downwardly an AR-xv and each component completely.
If something goes wrong with your Ruger Mini-xiv, they may be able to prepare information technology, or you may have to send the gun off to Ruger.
With this vast amount of parts, support, and options for the AR-xv, you take a much wider multifariousness of roles.
Calibers
Not only can y'all become a variety of barrel lengths, only you tin also get a variety of calibers.
The Mini-14 is available in .223/5.56, 300 Blackout, and 7.62×39.
If you're shooting an older Mini-14, be conscientious as a lot of those were chambered for .223 and practise not have 5.56 Ammunition. The AR-fifteen, on the other mitt, has 22-caliber conversion kits.
Nearly of them ship in 5.56, but there is also a broad diverseness of other calibers, such as 300 Blackout, 6.five Grendel, 7.62 NATO, 6mm ARC, 450 Bushmaster, .50 Beowulf, and in that location are a lot more calibers that oasis't reached that level of commercial success.
And so right off the bat, you're going to have to give a win to the AR-15 regarding versatility and just options.
The Ruger Mini-xiv Ranch Rifle, as it's named, was designed as a tractor gun or a gun that a rancher or farmer would keep in their truck, their tractor, their bulldozer, whatever piece of equipment they were driving. They could then grab and shoot a varmint like a coyote to proceed them away from their cattle or livestock. It's a versatile, handy rifle that y'all were meant to have with you at all times.
The AR-15, on the other hand, was as well originally designed for sporting purposes. But it wasn't marketed quite in that mode. The original AR-15 had a twenty-inch barrel. It made it a lilliputian flake long and unwieldy if y'all compare information technology to the xviii.5-inch barrel on the Mini-14.
But today, nosotros no longer have those limitations. You can find AR-15's with 14.5 pin weld barrels, 16-inch barrels, or AR pistols with 12.5, 8-inch barrels, etc.
Nearly whatsoever length barrel you can imagine, making the gun even handier and lighter than the Mini-14.
As y'all tin can meet above in the size chart, at that place are diverse weights for the AR-15. At the cease of the twenty-four hours, you could utilise the Mini-fourteen for hunting, home defense force, a truck gun, or well-nigh anything the AR-15 will do. Merely the AR-15 can get a little more specialized than the Mini.
Ergonomics
Ergonomically, these guns are as dissimilar as can exist. One is set more than like a traditional burglarize while the other is lot more than mod.
Stocks
The stocks on these guns take a drastically different arroyo.
AR-fifteen Stocks
With an AR-15, about of your stocks volition be adaptable. This ways you can arrange the length of pull depending on what you're doing.
If you lot want a shorter length of pull for a smaller stature person, or if yous're wearing a plate carrier, the AR-15 stock volition usually allow this to happen.
You can as well become fixed stocks for your AR-15 too. These stock-still stocks are available in various sizes, so yous tin find a length of pull that all-time suits your needs.
Mini-fourteen Stocks
The Mini-14, on the other hand, has a couple of aftermarket tactical options that allow for a folding stock and add Picatinny to the gun. Almost of the manufactory options are going to be a wooden or a laminate stock that is fixed.
These stocks tend to have a very long length of pull, and unfortunately, there aren't many aftermarket options that allow for a shorter length of pull.
Between these 2 guns, the biggest downside of the Mini, in my stance, is the length of pull on the stock.
The mini is designed to shoot in a bladed stance, while the AR-15 y'all tin can shoot with a bladed stance or a more squared-upwardly stance, depending on the stock you use.
Mini 14 vs AR-xv Pistol grip
AR-15 Pistol Grip
The AR-fifteen has a pistol grip that attaches via a screw at the lower function of the receiver.
This pistol grip is interchangeable and can be switched out to a variety of different options. About every company you lot tin can imagine makes a different pistol grip for the AR-15, so y'all can really tailor it to your mitt and what y'all want.
Mini-14 Grip
The grip on the Mini-14 is integrated into the stock itself and it is not a pistol grip.
Some chassis accept a pistol-manner grip, just information technology really just depends on what yous're looking for.
Personally, I like the ergonomics of the grip on the Mini-xiv, and I also similar the ergonomics of the grip on the AR-15.
They're both different, and it but really depends on what yous're looking for. If you want something more than traditional, go with the Mini, whereas if yous desire something more modernistic, go with the AR. Neither is meliorate or worse than the other.
Controls
Here's another area where the pattern of this gun volition be drastically unlike.
Safeties
AR-15 Safety
The rubber on an AR-15 is a small-scale lever on the left-manus side of the firearm that you can sweep off with your firing pollex by rotating it 90 degrees. That is in the standard mil-spec format.
There is a diverseness of aftermarket and ambidextrous options to get shorter levers, longer levers, fatter levers, thinner levers, low-profile levers, etc.
You can get an AR-15 safe setup virtually whatever way y'all want information technology. Information technology'south easy to apply for both right and left hand and shooters, and it'south very intuitive.
The AR-15 safety is the safe by which all other firearm safeties are judged.
It is go the gold standard of safeties on firearms. Nearly all modern rifles take been copying the AR-xv-way safety.
Ruger Mini-14 Safety
The Mini-14 safety is drastically different from the AR-xv.
It'south a slice of canvass metal on the left-hand side of the trigger guard that you must push forrard to undo, and then you wrap your finger around the front of the trigger guard and pull back to place that aforementioned sheet metallic dorsum in the safe position.
Many people are a fiddling bit sketchy near putting their finger within the trigger guard to disengage the safety, and I understand where they're coming from.
One matter I volition say is the safety of the Mini-14 is intuitive, only I don't think everyone can brand an statement that it's better than the AR-xv.
Both of these safeties seem secure and they are not likely to come off inadvertently.
That said, the AR-15 safe is definitely far superior to the Mini-14.
Trigger
The trigger on both these guns is fairly like in their original formats.
The AR-15 has a bunch of aftermarket triggers. These triggers are very well washed and are worlds higher up anything available for the Mini-14.
That said, in their standard format, the AR-xv trigger tends to exist slightly lighter than the Mini-14, but their characteristics are about the same.
You lot have a petty bit of have-upward before the trigger breaks, and they tend to have a rolling interruption. The reset is authoritative and easy to use.
That's actually all you can say almost the triggers on both of these guns.
They're evidently mil spec-fashion triggers. If you want a Gucci trigger, you're definitely going to want to go with the AR-15. But if you tin live with a standard, regular trigger, both of these firearms volition adapt you lot in their stock formats.
Bolt Release
AR-15
There's a ping-pong-fashion bolt release on the AR-fifteen situated on the left-hand side of the firearm.
A lot of the new, more modernistic AR-fifteen at present has an ambidextrous commodities release, but your standard mil-spec gun only has information technology on the left-hand side.
You can access that with your thumb when you're going to reload a fresh magazine into the AR-15.
This release can also exist used as a bolt hold open if you need to lock the bolt dorsum to the rear manually.
The magazine follower volition press this upward later y'all've shot your last circular out of the gun, but if you demand to practise information technology manually, you'll just desire to press the bottom portion of the paddle.
Mini-xiv
The Mini-fourteen does not have a bolt release, but it does have a bolt-concur-open feature. As with the AR-xv, when the last circular is fired, the follower volition push button up a device to hold the bolt to the rear.
If y'all want to do this manually, you will demand to press down on a trivial plunger on the left-hand side of the receiver and then pull the bolt dorsum to the rear so it can lock.
It's small, and it seems like an afterthought, only it does work. Information technology's not a feature I run across about people using frequently.
The just existent reason to use it would exist to clear a malfunction. To release the bolt on the Mini-14, you're going to have to utilise the charging handle, which I'll cover next.
Charging Handle
The AR-15 has a T-mode charging handle located at the rear of the receiver.
The upside of this is it stays out of the manner of any accessories you might take mounted on the gun. It'south ambidextrous, from the standpoint that you tin can easily printing information technology dorsum with both hands if you employ both your index finger and middle finger to pull the charging handle back.
The lever to pull information technology back is only located on the left-hand side, though it'southward gear up up primarily for a right-handed shooter.
In that location are tons of aftermarket charging handles out in that location that are truly ambidextrous, equally well every bit ones that are just enhanced.
Y'all can find anything that you lot're looking for when it comes to an AR-15-style charging handle.
Ruger Mini-14 Charging Handle
The Mini has a charging handle like to the M1 Garand and M14 from which information technology takes its design cues.
The charging handle is cast metallic and it'due south located on the right-hand side of the receiver. It is reciprocating and it's fairly ergonomic.
One issue you lot might accept is if y'all take an optic mounted on the gun, the charging handle might crusade you to elevate your finger against the optic when you're charging the weapon.
This is something you want to keep in listen.
This charging handle has a certain amount of amuse about it. At that place's something just cool about the style information technology looks and the mode information technology sounds when you're charging the weapon.
The AR-15 is but a little more irksome in this category. That said, the AR-15 is also probably more than functional.
It's similar to driving a brand new vehicle versus a 1970 pickup.
The 1970s pickup volition have a lot more character, merely the make new pickup will have features like Bluetooth that you can claw your smartphone into.
It's all in what you're looking for.
Magazine Release
The mag release on these two guns is besides very different.
AR-15 Magazine Release
The AR-fifteen uses a button-button-style magazine release located on the right-hand side of the receiver.
Yous can reach this with your trigger finger, and the magazine will normally drop free. Over again, the downside of the AR-15 is in that location are so many manufacturers you can't guarantee that your magazines won't stick.
Only, in full general, magazines tend to drop free from an AR-fifteen lower receiver.
The downsides of this design are, it can exist piece of cake to over insert a magazine into the AR-15, or the magazine might non actually be locked in identify.
Information technology's common practice to pull down on an AR-xv magazine after inserting information technology to ensure that it is fully engaged, so you don't get a false positive when loading the firearm.
Ruger Mini-14 Magazine Release
The Mini-14 has a magazine release more similar to an AK-47.
Information technology's a trivial lever that sits behind the magazine. It's a paddle-way release. This release is completely ambidextrous and easy to use for virtually users.
That said, it's going to be a lot slower. You have to take your back up manus and apply your thumb to pull the magazine out of the weapon. Only pressing the paddle release will drop the magazine free in most cases.
That said, ergonomically it just makes sense to grab the mag and rip it out of the gun.
Quality
Quality is a hard subject to talk over.
The master reason is Ruger is the only manufacturer of the Mini-14, while the AR-xv is manufactured past many.
Ruger'southward quality of the Mini-fourteen is good, but it's non great. Information technology lacks the fit and cease that many AR-xv's have, but it seems durable and reliable.
The parts seem well-made, with a few chintzy things like the sheet metal magazine release or the bolt hold open plunger.
Some of the things on the gun only seemed cheap. There's no getting around information technology.
The AR-15, on the other hand, will vary greatly depending on the AR-xv you lot buy.
Some of the guns seem like they are consummate garbage, while other guns are works of art.
The AR-fifteen has a vast price range and a big multifariousness of manufacturers who employ different techniques.
Some are built to be the everyman price possible, while others focus on existence the most cute rifle made.
Other rifles are fabricated specifically to be the lightest gun the manufacturer can produce, and some are built to be the most accurate.
Depending on the AR-15 you buy will depend on the quality you lot get, whereas the Ruger Mini-fourteen, on average, will exist about on par with most AR-15s.
If you're looking at a Mini-14 and comparison information technology to an AR-fifteen in a like cost point, generally, the AR-fifteen is going to seem a little higher quality.
The stock on the Mini-14 doesn't seem swell. Information technology definitely seems mass manufactured. And every bit I stated earlier, the fit and finish aren't great either.
Reliability
An historic period-old argument was the AR-xv is non a very reliable weapon, and in some cases that holds true.
The AR-fifteen definitely had teething issues but, the aforementioned tin can be said for the Ruger Mini-14.
However, f you look at most current production guns fabricated today, they are both very reliable.
If you pick a Mini-14 that is newly manufactured, it'southward probable to be very reliable, whereas, with an AR-15, it's going to exist a crapshoot.
Again, having a ton of companies manufacturing the AR-xv opens y'all upward to potential quality-control issues, only if you have a rifle that is equal in quality to the Mini-14, then you lot're likely going to have a more reliable firearm with the AR-15.
The reason for this is the organization.
The Mini-xiv has an open up action. That open activity could permit a lot of dirt and debris to get into the firearm, whereas the AR-15 is essentially a sealed action.
With the AR-fifteen the grit encompass keeps a lot of stuff out, and even though some modern AR-15s practise non have dust covers the system however remains relatively sealed.
Await at the charging handle blueprint and everything about it. The simply identify for dust and droppings to breathe to get into the AR-15 is either really small holes around the charging handle, the trigger opening, or the muzzle itself.
The one big hole that things tin make it is the ejection port. The AR-15 bolt sits up really tight against that ejection port and runs straight dorsum, so at that place isn't much room for dust and debris to go into the gun.
The Mini-fourteen, on the other hand, has a completely open up activeness and in that location's a pigsty in the rear of the receiver where you can see the hammer.
If dust and debris get into that hole information technology could cause issues with the trigger mechanism, causing the gun to fail.
For this reason, I would trust the AR-15 more than in harsh environments than the Ruger Mini-14.
When it comes to just full general use and shooting, both of these guns will likely serve you lot well and be plenty reliable, just in extreme circumstances, the sealed blueprint of the AR-15 is a large advantage.
Aftermarket
There's no question the AR-15 beats the Mini-14 in aftermarket parts and accessories.
Every function on the AR-15 has an aftermarket function pick. Information technology is the nigh popular gun in mod history, after all
Meanwhile, the Mini-14 has some aftermarket stocks and that's actually near it. With only a few aftermarket magazines and some optics-mounting options, you will non notice much else for Mini14.
Accessories Mounting
Mounting accessories on an AR-xv is going to depend on which variant y'all buy.
There are all different types of handguards and overall setups for the AR-15, some of which lend themselves to being more accessorized than others.
Near baseline AR-xv are going to exist easier to mount accessories to than most any Mini-14.
The Mini-xiv is non the gun you want to add together lights, lasers, and all kinds of tactical stuff to.
It'southward a blank-bones gun. It does have skillful provisions for mounting an optic, but when y'all want to mount lights and lasers it's simply not that slap-up.
The gun uses Ruger's optics mounting system on both the front and rear of the receiver, then you lot could easily mount a scarlet dot or a variable power optic.
You can also get a spotter mountain to mountain optics on the Mini-14. That same lookout mount could exist used to mountain low-cal at the 12 o'clock rail with an offset mount.
Merely to recap, the AR-xv will mount pretty much any accessory you want.
Aesthetics
I don't think there is a clear winner when information technology comes to aesthetics.
Since aesthetics is by and large personal preference, other than humans naturally liking symmetry, Information technology all depends on the look you're going for.
If you lot want a modern tactical look then the AR-15 is definitely the manner to go.
But if you like the classic lines of a traditional rifle, then the Mini-fourteen is a no-brainer.
If you were to enquire me which one I prefer the most, I'm not certain I could choose.
Both of these guns are completely different categories and have their own fix of charms.
I really call back the best respond on this one is to go both.
Maintenance
Maintaining the AR-xv is going to be easier than maintaining the Mini-14.
Everybody and their blood brother knows how to maintain an AR-15. Taking one autonomously is like putting a four-piece puzzle together.
Meanwhile, the Mini-14 is a little flake more than complicated and, and the parts aren't too known.
Somebody volition disagree with me on this because, for years, the AR-15 was called a "complicated platform," but the reality is that'south not true.
When you await at these guns side by side mechanically, they're both fairly simple, but I'd have to say the AR-15 is more than simple to maintain than the Mini-fourteen.
Shooting
Shooting these guns is going to be very hard to quantify considering the AR-xv has so many variants.
If you're shooting something like the Q Beloved Badger, you lot're going to take a unlike experience than shooting an xviii-inch AR-15 in 6mm ARC set up for long-range work.
On the other hand, the Mini-14 will have a 16.five″ – 18.five″ barrel, and they all take a stock with a like length of pull.
I prefer to shoot the Mini-xiv when shooting fe sights.
The gun has a fantastic residuum, and it simply points naturally. You tin see why this gun is awesome for doing work within 100 yards.
The AR-15, on the other hand, is superior when yous're using optics. If you're mounting a ruddy dot or a variable power-optic to the gun, and so I would definitely probably go with the AR-15.
Complexity
Although I'd take to give a slight edge to the AR-fifteen in this category.
You tin tune an AR-15 to run exactly how you desire it, whereas a Mini-fourteen would require an excellent gunsmith to complete that same job.
The AR-15 has so many options, and you tin definitely build a meliorate shooting AR-15 than you lot can a Mini-14.
But with an off-the-shelf firearm, they frankly shoot very similarly in terms of recoil impulse.
The Mini-fourteen tends to take slightly more muzzle rise, while the AR-15 seems to have a little more than concussion and recoil.
Final thoughts
At the finish of the twenty-four hour period, y'all have to make up one's mind which type of rifle yous're looking for. There isn't a clear yes or no answer on this in general.
If you're in a free land and y'all're trying to be as applied every bit possible, then the AR-15 is going to be your obvious go-to. Only if you desire a retro-style burglarize, then I'm going to have to give some points to the Mini-fourteen.
If y'all're looking for a rifle that you tin travel within the bulk of the U.S. without having legal issues, then the Mini-14 is going to be hard to shell.
Make sure you lot've just got 10 round magazines in your vehicle and you lot're good in most states.
Whereas, the AR-15 has a bunch of complicated, unconstitutional laws about its format in many states.
If you're staying in a hotel and ended up having to apply your gun in self-defense, the final matter you desire to do is terminate up in prison house because you don't have the right bullet button on your AR-xv.
The Mini-14 is priced at right effectually a thou dollars, depending on the variant.
At that price, it seems a picayune high to me personally.
I'd like to see the gun offered effectually the $750 mark. At $750, it would provide a petty more value, and it would be more in line with the cost of a similar AR-15.
For $i,000, yous can get a much more than capable AR-15 than you can become a Mini-xiv. You're going to pay a premium for the old-globe charm and legal versatility of the Mini-14.
If you lot accept a bunch of AR-15s, I won't discourage you from adding a Mini-xiv to the collection, only if this is your first gun and you live in a complimentary state, the AR-xv will probably be a more versatile choice.
Source: https://lynxdefense.com/ruger-mini-14-vs-ar-15/
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