I must not be living right, because when I say the same thing, people laugh at me. I always hear how no Mini will hit a pie tin at 50 yards, or that they are the "Amish Gun," or whatever other great putdown is current. The ones I have owned were every bit as good (or bad, I guess) as any M-1 Carbine I ever fooled with, which is all I ask of them. I have owned Minis and ARs, and if I had to head to the hills without much in the way of cleaning supplies, etc., I'd prefer a stainless Mini-14 from about every aspect except accuracy.
The aftermarket 20 and 30 round magazines for them do generally suck, though.
All a person has to do in order to screw up a Mini even worse that it is, tighten the 10-32 screws on the gas block. You will find out that is the reason some Mini's can't hit a pie plate at 50 yards. If Ruger had only copied the M14's gas system and used a barrel band, this wouldn't have been a problem.