***Now the supposedly most popular “modern sporting rifle” out there.***
Not BEFORE late 1976. Back in 1966 I got to shoot my first one and fell in love with it. Yet no one had one in stock. I bought my first in 1970. People asked..”What good is it? A mouse gun! Will it knock down a deer?”
The idea of recreational shooting was still limited to the .22 rimfire as no one had money to buy expensive cartridges to waste on paper targets.
You could not even give one away! The gun magazines in the 1970s panned the rifle as...”inaccurate. No knock down power. Illegal in most states for deer. Looks like a Mattel toy. Costs too much for what it delivers.” When one was found it stayed on the gun store shelves for months or years.
Then Mel Tappan wrote his book on SURVIVAL GUNS and interest began.
When GUNS AND AMMO magazine began a series on survival written by Tappan the desire took off! The Mini-14 was born! Then the AR-180 became popular! AR-15s began to fly off the shelves! Junked military rifles were reassembled with old parts and new frames.
The AK-47/s was released in .223.
The Mini-14 was released in 1975 and was a hit! Bought my first then. It then disappeared from the stores and were not to be found as Ruger was filling contracts for French Police.
The rest is history. Now the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the USA.
My dad bought a Colt AR back in the early 70s. I couldn’t believe what a fantastic thing it was. How fast it was! It was unbelievably easy for me to shoot with such accuracy. The bullets hit the target what seemed to be the instant they were fired. I had never seen a rifle like it. Less recoil than a BB gun.
What is referred to as lock time for me can be added to the time the bullet is in flight. So when you “call your shots” I had previously been disappointed with the result. With that rifle the shot you called was where the bullet went. I was only 19 or so but it was like getting a gift from the shooting gods.
50% of all war vets surveyed said in an urban environment, they would prefer a Mini-14 to an M-16/AR-15........the Mini-14 is as reliable and rugged as the old M-1 and M-1 Carbine.......
But the Mini-Thirty is even better for urban environment......EXCEPT I read a long article by a military doc who had treated thousands of actual battlefield wounds from both the M-16 and AK-47 - and he showed statistically that the wounds from the 5.56/.223 were far more serious and lethal.....