[rktman]

I like mine. Well I liked it before it drowned. ;-)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Meh.

[Mark17]

The Mini 14s we used at my place of employment, looked more like this.

[109ACS]

I have the very first version and it’s very accurate, but no after market goodies are available for it.

[Flatus I. Maximus]

Only accurate rifles are interesting. Every Mini-14 I’ve seen and tried was a great and fun way to spray a lot of bullets in the general direction of the target, but couldn’t begin to touch a well-made AR for accuracy.

Emphasis on “well made.” Not, “AR slapped together in a garage from surplus parts by Joe Bob Amateur Gunsmith.”

[Spirochete]

Out of the box, their accuracy is equivalent to an AK; about a six-inch shot group at 100 yards.

[Mariner]

Before the boating accident...a horrible personal tragedy...I owned both.

The mini is by far the superior carbine. Far more reliable and plenty accurate enough.

It hits a 6in target at 250yds every single time with a red dot scope. The AR with scope will do 2in at 250yds.

And a 3in group at 100yds with the iron sights.

The ONLY thing I don’t like about it is it does not use the standard AR mag, making sharing impossible.

[crz]

Its the action on it.

[wrench]

Poor accuracy in the 2 I owned. Will never own another.

It shoots marginally better than a handgun, and that is only because it has a shoulder stock. After the first 5 shots, barrel heat causes impact to shift up and right, dramatically after 25+ shots. It is a design problem.

It looks better than the AR, but will never equal the accuracy of the AR platform.

[AlaskaErik]

Ford vs Chevy. Each side can give you a ton of reasons why their pickup is better than the other.

[AlaskaErik]

Lower Profile – doesn’t look aggressive as an AR15

That makes it better?! That's a pretty lame reason.

[jpsb]

The rifle caliber is 223 Remington and is basically a scaled down version of the M-14.

Scaled down M-14? I think not. M-14 pictured below is an American selective fire automatic rifle that fires 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition.

[JamesP81]

The Mini-14 never quite stacked up. Tried to like mine, couldn't, traded it off.

Most of the older ones had fantastically bad accuracy. There were a few gems here and there, but most of them were on par with AKs if not a little worse. They tended to spray shotgun patterns at 100 yards, especially with less expensive FMJ ammo or steel case imported ammo.

The newer ones shoot a lot better. They can hold their own against rack grade ARs shooting ball / FMJ ammunition. That would be fine, except that a Mini-14 will set you back $800. A rack grade AR will only set you back 500 to 600, and less than that if you assemble it yourself (not hard to do, even for mechanically inept fools like myself). If it were cheaper than an AR, the newer ones would have a niche. As it stands, there's just no reason to get one other than you just happen to like the looks...which is fine if you do, not everything needs to have a practical purpose.

In my opinion, the Mini-30 has more relevance in the current market. If you install the heavier firing pin spring from Wolff, it will reliably run inexpensive steel case ammunition. This setup gives you a reliable rifle that is on par with an AK in cost, but has better ergonomics and far, far better iron sights. I think the Mini is at it's best in the 7.62x39 caliber running iron sights.

[DonkeyBonker]

I will stick with my AM-15 from Anderson Manufacturing.

[AAABEST]

Yes I'm sure all the operators around the world would agree - the clunky, non-modular Mini 14s are much better than ARs.

Author sounds like he works behind the counter at a gun store.

[clee1]

I own a couple mini 14s and several ARs....

I much prefer the Mini.

[LouAvul]

I've owned several minis and currently own several ARs: two AR 15s and an AR 10. The minis would throw the ejected cases into the next time zone, at best only gave minute of pie pan accuracy, and were very hard to field strip and work on. The ARs are a much better battle rifle in many ways.

As far as the "fun" quality? I still like my M1 Garand and my M1A. Something about the nostalgia factor? Although in bitterly cold weather, I'd hate to load/unjam the Garand w/frozen fingers.