[Captain carbine]

Hey fellas, new to the forum, and ruger actually. Been a gun nut since i was old enough to start buying them. Anyway, i finally got my hands on an old 187 mini. Ive been lookin for one for quite awhile, but couldnt shell out the coin for a new one. Im looking for any kind of advice you guys may have to get the most out of her. Ive already installed some recoil buffers i made, did a trigger job on it, and have an accustrut installed. Handles and shoots like a whole different gun. Am i missing anything? I would also love to hear from some newer target model owners and hear what kinda groups youre getting. Thanks guys.

 

[Misfire51]

Welcome to the Forum, Sounds like you've gotten off to a pretty good start. Bedding or shimming the stock will also help with the accuracy . A Tech Sight is a great up grade from any factory sight also the Choate handguard is a great up grade and allows more air flow across the barrel. I'm guessing your from NY and I do not know what there laws are reguarding a muzzle device, I will tell you that you should use only Ruger Factory Mags to get the best reliability out of your gun. Sounds like your on the right track. Heres a pic of my 583 tactical, I prefer the syn stock although I have a wood and a hogue stock I find that the gun shoots the best with the syn. Good luck.

 

[Captain carbine]

Thanks for the tips. Damn fine looking weapon youve got there. The tech sights do look great and ive heard nothing but good things about them. Ive gotta scope on the way for mine because my eyes suck. Where do these shims go? I just run the wood stock the gun came with. I like the looks and feel of the wood. Thiking of trying a promag 10 round magazine because (as you guessed) i live in ny. I bought a ruger 10 rounder and had to file the catch block to get the mag to lock in. Pretty common on the 10 rounders ive read (since i joined here lol).

 

[TMB]

Both ProMag and John Masen 10rnd mags work perfect in my 185 series Mini.

I put a Mo Rod, John Masen front sight muzzle brake and Tech Sight rear on it.


The mag pouch on stock is for the M1 Carbine, factory 5rnd mags fit perfect in it. The Mini it fits in the Garand scabbard with 10rnd ProMags. The leather mag pouch by the scabbard holds 4 10rnd ProMags.

 

[Misfire51]

Here's a pic , a credit card or a gift card or any kinda rewards card work the best . Cut them to fit the notch in the front , the one in the rear is optional . If there is any play with the receiver moving around in the stock that will affect accuracy. I've used these kinda shims for a year and they do not ware out.

 

[Captain carbine]

I will try the promags tmb thanks. My mini is a 187 i believe. Hopefully i wont have to alter them to get the proper fitment. Seeing the pic those shims make total sense misfire. The first time i cycled the gun i noticed that bit of slop caused by those voids.

 

[KameDaTard]

Thanks for the tips. Damn fine looking weapon youve got there. The tech sights do look great and ive heard nothing but good things about them. Ive gotta scope on the way for mine because my eyes suck. Where do these shims go? I just run the wood stock the gun came with. I like the looks and feel of the wood. Thiking of trying a promag 10 round magazine because (as you guessed) i live in ny. I bought a ruger 10 rounder and had to file the catch block to get the mag to lock in. Pretty common on the 10 rounders ive read (since i joined here lol).

About Magizines for the mini you may want to take a look at this thread.
http://rugerforum.net/ruger-semi-auto/138776-fixing-aftermarket-mags.html

 

[KameDaTard]

I would also love to hear from some newer target model owners and hear what kinda groups youre getting. Thanks guys.

Also I'm sure these guys around here is sick of me talking about my Mini but I took a 188 and put a target barrel on it. It is not a new target model but here is a few suggestion I will throw your way. You can visit my youtube channel, I have a few Mini videos on it here is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzzaIZ7WrcY

 

[bwinters]

I use my mini 14 with no additions except a scope.

 

[223mini14]

New guy here,got a question,I hear a lot about these new sights for Minis and they sound great and everyone says so but then I see that you also put on small red dots ,so why upgrade the sight if your going to put on a red dot on also?

 

[RJF]

New guy here,got a question,I hear a lot about these new sights for Minis and they sound great and everyone says so but then I see that you also put on small red dots ,so why upgrade the sight if your going to put on a red dot on also?

Usually quicker access on target. All depends on your intended use. My old 181 mini has the original sights and I think they're fine, but I also run a red-dot for plinking. To each their own.

 

[sandog]

Any carbine that might me used for self defense should have a good pair of irons, and one should practice with them form time to time to keep proficiency up. Just because you primarily run a red dot or scope, doesn't mean that it won't fail on you when you need it most, then the iron sights might save the day.
My eyes aren't that good anymore either, up close anyway.
If you are going to always from a bench at the range, and see how small a group you can shoot, scopes and aftermarket barrels will help, but a Mini isn't the best platform anyway for precision shooting. The Mini is best kept as a light, handy weapon for close to medium range encounters with multiple, larger targets.
I scope a Mini when I first get it to determine what the most accurate load for it is, then remove the scope and put on a red dot.
I'm not going to win any benchrest competitions using my red dot, but man oh man is it quick for hitting randomly spaced silhouette targets as quick as you can pull the trigger. And the dot is great for picking up a target fast in low light, a scope or irons not so much.
By keeping the dot centered inside a bullseye ( or chest on a man sized target ), I can do quite well at ranges up to 300 yards with my Mini-30's, about as far as I want to shoot with that caliber.
I think everyone, at least at first, envisions doing a lot of long range shooting with their Mini's, but it just doesn't work out that way most of the time. Where I live, there are a lot of wide open spaces, but if I want to shoot at something a long ways off, a bolt gun shooting a .308 at minimum, works a lot better.
I have found that a micro red dot like the Burris FastFire or Trijicon RMR to be ideal for a Mini.
Since you have an older "pencil" barrel 187, the fixes you've already done and the ones suggested by RJF, Misfire and others will help a bunch.
Something else that will help, it helped on my 195 Mini-14 almost as much as a strut, is to chop an inch or two off your barrel and do a re-crown. A shorter barrel makes for a stiffer barrel, and most of the factory barrel crowns coming out of the Ruger plant haven't been that great.
Tech rear sights on my Mini's, and the Burris FastFire dot on them:

 

[223mini14]

So you are saying that you take them off and put them on as you need them? don't you have re sight the red dot every time?

 

[sandog]

Yes you will have to re sight. But not very much adjustment will be needed. The sight will go back to the same rail slot and be pretty close, only needing a few clicks to be zeroed again.
I only take mine off a few times a year. My wood stocked Mini wears irons all the time now, so I domy irons practice with it.

 

[Loose Noose]

Above is a photo of my Mini-14 in the 186 Series, it is not the Ranch Rifle, however, I don't remember the brand name of the scope mount, but it requires that you remove the rear sight. Note this is a simple procedure.

My rifle will shoot a 3 shot group under moa, and a 5 shot group right at 1.5-2" (generally the first 3 go under a moa, however the last two seem to have a slight flier) at 100 yards using my hand loads. The Accu-Strut definitely stopped the stringing and allowed me to shoot very acceptable groups. Not to mention a trigger job, and placing it in a Choate over-molded stock, with aluminum inserts for bedding.