I owned 2 Minis in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The first one was just a plain old Mini-14. Reasonably accurate for the first few shots, then started putting them all over the place (5” or more at 100 yards). I got a Ranch version and installed a scope, thinking that it’d solve my problem...which it did not. Even a good friend of mine who shoots 50,000 or more rounds/year tried it and told me to sell it and get an AR. The AR is a bit pricier (though not so much any more, with all of the competing brands out there), but very accurate with a decent barrel and trigger.
Yeah, the Ruger looks better. Yeah, it comes apart and reassembles easily. But that’s all (at least in my experience). I know that Ruger has tried to address the accuracy problem with heavier barrels...but they’ve also been at the forefront of trying to limit magazine capacity. So, for me, I will never buy another Ruger product.
Just my $0.02.
Bill Ruger was at the forefront of that idiocy back in the early 90s.
He’s dead and the company moved on to do things ol’ Bill swore he wouldn’t do like sell normal capacity Mini-14 mags to the public.
When that happened after the AWB expired, I went back to buying Ruger stuff.
Bill Ruger is likely rolling over in his grave seeing his company sell BX-25 mags, suppressors, 1911s and even worse, a few pretty decent AR15 variants.
I don’t buy Springfield Armory or RRA or CAI for similar reasons. Not crapping on your stance, just wanted to chime in on why I changed my mind on Ruger.