Welcome, Tom, and congratulations on your Mini purchase.
Good advice from our fellow members, especially the part about resisting the urge to add things in the attempt to turn the Mini into a DMR or AR look alike.
A sling, a micro red dot and maybe a short rail section bolted on the stock for a light are nice.
I don't know who first said "Less is More", but it's preferable to the "More is Better" method as far as carbines.
When it comes to ammo though, I like the "More is Better"crowd !
The strut was given to me in a trade, so I put it on. But I've found little advantage to having one on a .650" barreled Mini.
I just haven't gotten around to taking it off.
As others have said, strip the Mini down and remove the factory preservative.
When you reassemble, put a few dabs of grease where the bolt travels, and once or twice a year use a drop of CLP or other oil on things that pivot, like the magazine release, hammer and trigger pins, etc.
If you put your Mini away in the fall dirty, in the spring you might find the op-rod has fused to the gas pipe.
They usually break free when you mortar the charging handle.
Just clean before putting away long term and lube the gas pipe.
It's a good idea to get a chamber brush, I'm sure there are chamber brushes made for AR's that would work on a Mini-14.
I made my own out of a flux brush I got from the plumbing supply store. It works well on the fat and stubby 7.62 x 39 chamber.
I'd brush the chamber more frequently if shooting steel case, and with steel case, it makes sense to get a spare extractor.
I haven't heard of too many extractors breaking or chipping but since steel contracts less after firing than brass, a damaged extractor is a possibility.
A few things that make disassembly/assembly easier :
Always cock the hammer back and put the safety on before popping the trigger group out.
Remove the bolt stop and related parts before taking out the bolt. You can get the bolt out and back in without removing the bolt stop, but it is not as easy. When putting the bolt back in, turn the action upside down, locate the notch in the receiver web and start the bolt in at an angle, taking care to align the flange on the bottom of the bolt with the notch in the receiver web. You will find that pushing the tail of the firing pin back inside the bolt makes it easier to get the bolt started back into the receiver. If the tail is hanging out it's not as easy.
One other thing that trips up some new owners is putting the guide rod (that slips inside the recoil spring) upside down.
There is a pointy tip on one side of the guide rod end, that point must be facing up towards the handguard for the Mini to function properly.
Put the guide rod in facing down and the bolt will not want to retract all the way, and cycling will suffer.
Mini barrels do whip around, and not just with mag dumps.
But you aren't going to see it with the naked eye. slow down the frame 320x and the whip is noticeable, slow it down to 600x and it's really obvious. The barrel in the video ( a pre 580) whips around like it was made of pasta instead of hammer forged steel.
Barrel whip isn't a big deal though, especially now that struts are available.
I had a Youtube video that I was going to put up a link to, but my new laptop doesn't seem to want to copy the link.
Video is " Ruger Mini-14 Barrel Flex and Muzzle Blast, High Speed Camera", by wavelength 1970.
