Ruger Mini-14 build: suppressed, scoped and tested to 600 yards

Key points: Ruger Mini-14 build suppressed

• Adding a suppressor to a stock Mini-14 overgassed it badly enough to throw brass into the next county and lock the bolt back on a loaded magazine; an adjustable gas block fixed it and made the rifle cycle smoother than it did stock and unsuppressed.
• Steel hits came easily from 100 through 500 yards, but 600 was not repeatable — identical holds scattered left, right, high and low in dead-calm wind, putting the target past the rifle's practical accuracy.
• Paper groups at 100 yards ran about 8 MOA with 55-grain remanufactured ammo, 3.5 MOA with Badlands 85-grain match and around 3 MOA with the 77-grain, landing at the loose end of Ruger's advertised 1.5 to 3 MOA.
• Switching ammo weights shifted point of impact by whole targets, and the GG&G side-mount scope system needed re-zeroing on every range trip despite being torqued to spec and thread-locked.
• A second shooter with PRS experience got the same results, which ruled out the mount as the sole culprit and put the accuracy ceiling on the rifle itself.
• The two upgrades Mayfield recommends to any Mini-14 owner are the Ghost Mountain Group extended magazine release and the Diligent Defense grip; a lightning bolt release from Axis Engineering is on the list.
• The verdict is honest rather than flattering: quirky, proprietary, mediocre on paper, near-faultless in reliability once gassing is dialed, and bought for how it looks and feels rather than what it groups.

About this Gun Review video

Ruger Mini-14 build and accuracy test: Micah Mayfield modernizes a 50-year-old platform with an Otter Creek Polonium 30 suppressor, an adjustable gas block, a Samson upper rail and folding stock, a GG&G side mount carrying a Steiner H6Xi 2-12, and a Ghost Mountain Group extended magazine release. The suppressor alone broke the gun until the gas block went on. Steel from 100 to 600 yards, then paper groups with 55-grain remanufactured ammo and Badlands 77 and 85-grain match: roughly 3 to 3.5 MOA, the top end of Ruger's own published spec. Affection for the rifle survives the data.

Transcript: Ruger Mini-14 build