You can take an out of the box Colt H-BAR and be competitive with some of the big boys at the NRA high Power matches. You might have to red LOC-TITE the front sight.
Not so with a Mini. The Ruger platform isn't designed for any precision shooting or for that matter any serious plinking. Ten MOA groups are very common for a Ruger. By the time you're done trying to hit anything with a Mini, you have rebuilt the entire rifle.
The Mini-14 system isn't based on the M-14. It's based on the M-1 Carbine. That and a horribly manufactured barrel makes it close to junk. I have one and they are a lot of fun. It's sort like owning a very expensive SKS in .223.
AS I SAID I'm not in any way saying that Ruger rifles are superior to Colts. I said they're performance is comparable during a short term (I had a barely-used Mini-14 borrowed from a friend) and that it's accuracy rivaled that of the nearly-as-new AR-15.
You aught to own up to the fact that most Colts need a lot of tweaking before being match-worthy due the faults inherent in mass manufacturing. While they're the best at what they do, what they do isn't perfect.
But hey, this thread's supposed to be about a valiant Marine and his astounding accomplishments in Iraq.