{"id":7531,"date":"2020-02-20T10:19:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T18:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=7531"},"modified":"2020-02-21T16:19:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T00:19:03","slug":"mini-14-accuracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/20\/mini-14-accuracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mini 14 Accuracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7092\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7092\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7092 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/650-160602_1512-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/650-160602_1512-900.jpg 650w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/650-160602_1512-900-300x103.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7092\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Davidson&#8217;s Circassian walnut Ruger Mini 14. It was a limited production item offered for sale about 10 years ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My Mini 14 quest for accuracy is over.\u00a0 I have the answer and an honest-to-God 1.5 MOA Mini 14.\u00a0 With open sights.\u00a0 At 100 yards.\u00a0 Yippeeee!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been an interesting journey.<\/p>\n<h2>Davidson&#8217;s Circassian <span style=\"display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: #ffffff; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Merriweather,Georgia,serif; font-size: 28px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 900; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.25; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\">Mini 14<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I like rifles with fine walnut, and about a decade ago when Davidson&#8217;s (a large Ruger distributor) offered a limited quantity of Mini 14 rifles with Circasssian walnut stocks, I had to have one. Most of the Circassian Mini 14 rifles had very plain wood, but when I saw the one you see here, I pulled the Buy Now trigger.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a light trigger, I&#8217;ve learned.\u00a0 If it&#8217;s for a rifle with highly-figured walnut, in my case you might even say it&#8217;s a hair trigger.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7595\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7595\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7595 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20190827_4031-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20190827_4031-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20190827_4031-600-300x133.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another shot of the Circassian walnut on the Davidson&#8217;s Mini 14. That&#8217;s a Springfield Armory M1A in the background. I like fancy walnut.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The problem I had is that Davidson&#8217;s Circassian Mini 14 wasn&#8217;t legal in California because of its two 30-round magazines and flash suppressor.\u00a0 Here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia (Gavinland, if you will), we can&#8217;t have mags that hold more than 10 rounds, and semi-auto rifles with flash suppressors are verboten.\u00a0 So I had the rifle shipped with no magazines to an outfit with a Class III license, and they replaced the flash suppressor with a muzzle brake.\u00a0 Then I had to wait my state-mandated 10-day cooling off period.\u00a0 After I had chilled sufficiently, the rifle was mine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7592\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7592 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9255_1724-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9255_1724-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9255_1724-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The muzzle brake on my Mini 14. It may seem silly to have a muzzle brake on a .223 rifle, but if you fire this rifle and then a Mini 14 without a muzzle brake, there is a perceptible difference in recoil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I think the muzzle brake looks better than the flash suppressor, and I don&#8217;t need a 30-round magazine.\u00a0 I hated the idea of leaving those 30-round mags with the guy I bought the rifle from (they were worth about $80), but hey, our mush-minded legislators think they made the Golden State safer and that&#8217;s what matters.<\/p>\n<p>My rifle has a 16-inch barrel (most Mini 14 rifles have 18-inch barrels), which looks cool but it is not conducive to great accuracy.\u00a0 There&#8217;s nothing inherent to the shorter barrel in and of itself that hurts accuracy, but what that shorter barrel does is reduce the sight radius.\u00a0 A longer sight radius offers an accuracy advantage, a shorter one can work against accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line? \u00a0 The rifle is beautiful.\u00a0 I shoot it a lot, and whenever I&#8217;m on the range with it, folks are taken with it. \u00a0 It draws a crowd.\u00a0 You just don&#8217;t see Mini 14 rifles with\u00a0 wood like mine.\u00a0 But it wasn&#8217;t terribly accurate.\u00a0 I was going to change that.\u00a0 And I did.<\/p>\n<h2>The First Accuracy Mod:\u00a0 Tech-Sights<\/h2>\n<p>I did not like the standard rear sight on my Mini 14.\u00a0 To adjust elevation, you had to loosen the windage adjustment and then rotate the entire rear aperture, and to adjust windage you had to loosen both Allen screws at the base of the sight and move it.\u00a0 There was not indexing for windage, so where you ended up was only repeatable with a repeated fire, check the point of impact, loosen the sight, adjust, tighten the sight, fire again, and repeat until you were happy.\u00a0 I also didn&#8217;t like the range of elevation adjustment on the stock sight; it seemed liked the aperture had to be way too high to bring my shots to the point of aim.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7587\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7587\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7587 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9248_1707-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9248_1707-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9248_1707-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7587\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tech-Sights rear sight on a Mini 14. It&#8217;s a first class product, and it is much better than the stock Mini 14 rear sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The hot setup is a replacement rear sight from Tech-Sights.\u00a0 It was about $70, but it was well worth it.\u00a0 The Tech-Sights rear sight is click adjustable for both windage and elevation, and it is repeatable when I make adjustments.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a much better mousetrap.<\/p>\n<h2>Mini 14 Accuracy Loads<\/h2>\n<p>I tried different reloading recipes until the cows come home, and over the last decade, I&#8217;ve converged on two that gave the best results in my Mini 14.\u00a0 Both use inexpensive Hornady full metal jacket boat tail bullets.\u00a0 The first is the 55-grain Hornady FMJBT with 26.2 grains of IMR 4320 propellant, a Winchester small rifle primer, and a cartridge overall length of 2.255 inches. That&#8217;s a near max load, and the only reason I don&#8217;t run it up to the max load is the 26.2 grains damn near fill the .223 case.\u00a0 The second favored load is the Hornady 62-grain FMJBT bullet with 23.2 grains of ARComp propellant.\u00a0 I use the same primer and overall cartridge length as the first load.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7586\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7586\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7586 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9246_1722-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9246_1722-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9246_1722-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7586\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hornady 55-grain full metal jacket boat tail bullets. The boat tail reduces aerodynamic drag and allows a flatter trajectory, or so the theory goes. These are accurate bullets with the right load.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Either bullet (Hornady&#8217;s 55-grain or 62-grain FMJBT) can usually be purchased for something between $7.50 and $8.00 per hundred when they are on sale.\u00a0 I probably get 10 emails a day from the different reloading houses advertising their sales, and when they throw free shipping into the mix, I&#8217;m in.\u00a0 You usually have to order above $100 in stuff to get the free shipping, and that&#8217;s why I have 1400 of the 62-grain Hornady bullets inbound.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll burn through those in 6 months or so.\u00a0 Yeah, I shoot my Mini 14 a lot.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t crimp the bullets in either of the above loads, and I&#8217;ve found that what kind of brass I use doesn&#8217;t make a difference in group size.\u00a0 Using brass from different manufacturers does move the group around, though, so when I load, I do so using only one kind of brass for each lot of ammo.\u00a0 For me, that is usually either Remington or military brass.\u00a0 I have a good supply of both.<\/p>\n<h2>Factory versus Reloaded Ammo in the Mini 14<\/h2>\n<p>There may be good factory ammo out there that groups well in the Mini 14, but I haven&#8217;t found it.\u00a0 I buy bulk factory only to get the brass (believe it or not, when loaded bulk ammo goes on sale, I can actually buy it for less than what unprimed brass costs).\u00a0 When I shoot the bulk factory ammo, the accuracy is truly abysmal. \u00a0 At 100 yards from a bench rest, a 20-shot Remington bulk ammo group spans about 12 inches. \u00a0 For all you keyboard commandos out there&#8230;I know, you can do better.\u00a0 One guy keeps commenting that he can shoot the lock off a Cadillac with his Mini 14.\u00a0 Whatever.\u00a0 I&#8217;m reporting my results, and with factory ammo, they&#8217;re terrible.<\/p>\n<p>With either of the two reloading recipes described above, I can get the group size down to about the size of the 9-ring on a 100-yard target.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a big improvement from factory ammo and the other loads I&#8217;ve tried.\u00a0 The problem, though, was the rifle wasn&#8217;t consistent.\u00a0 I could get a good group, but then the next one would open up.\u00a0 Then I&#8217;d get another good group, but it would shift on the target from the last group.<\/p>\n<h2>Bedding the Mini 14 Action<\/h2>\n<p>Past accuracy quests with bolt action rifle always included bedding the action. \u00a0 What that means is creating a glass-fiber-impregnated epoxy bed for the barreled action in the stock. \u00a0 It&#8217;s a lot trickier on a Garand-style rifle (which the Mini 14 is) than a bolt action, because the Garand-type action doesn&#8217;t have a conventional recoil lug or action screws.\u00a0 On the Mini 14, two tabs on the receiver fit into sheet metal inserts in the stock, and the trigger group&#8217;s trigger guard pivots to lock the whole mess (barreled action, stock, and trigger group) together.\u00a0 On my rifle, I could detect a minor amount of play between the stock and the barreled action, both fore-and-aft and left-to-right.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7596\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7596\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7596 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9250_1709-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9250_1709-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9250_1709-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7596\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The jeweled bolt on my Mini 14. This photo doesn&#8217;t really add to the story and the bolt jeweling does nothing to improve accuracy, but I love the look. The jeweling was done by my good buddy TJ at <a href=\"http:\/\/tjscustomgunworks.com\/\">TJ&#8217;s Custom Gunworks<\/a>. I locked the bolt to the rear for the next photo so you could see the glass bedding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7593\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7593\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7593 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9260_1729-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9260_1729-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9260_1729-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7593\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">That brown stuff is the glass bedding below the action, between the receiver and the stock. Bedding a Mini 14 is a bit tricky, but it worked out well for me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7594\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7594\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7594 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9261_1730-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9261_1730-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9261_1730-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can just barely see that there is Acraglas bedding beneath the receiver, between it and the stock. The reason you can barely see it is because I did it well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I used Brownell&#8217;s Acraglas as the bedding compound, and after reading and watching everything I could on the Internet about glass bedding a Mini 14, I did so with mine.\u00a0 It turned out well, I think.\u00a0 There is zero play between the barreled action and the stock now.<\/p>\n<h2>ASI&#8217;s Mini 14 Gas Port Kit<\/h2>\n<p>I wrote about this before in a previous blog.\u00a0 The Mini 14 throws brass into the next county, and that&#8217;s a real pain in the ass.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve actually dented cars behind the firing line with brass ejected from my Mini 14.\u00a0 The reason the Mini&#8217;s ejection is so violent is that Ruger overdesigned the ejection approach to make the rifle reliable.\u00a0 Ruger uses a gas port with an approximate 0.085-inch-diameter opening to port propellant gas to the op rod, and that pretty much guarantees that no matter what type of ammo you&#8217;re shooting, the rifle will function.\u00a0 It&#8217;s way more gas pressure than the op rod needs, though, and the ejection is so energetic that the barreled action doesn&#8217;t stay in the same place after each round.\u00a0 That hurts accuracy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7584\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7584\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7584 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9253_1712-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9253_1712-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9253_1712-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7584\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mini 14 gas ports. The three on the left are ASI&#8217;s 0.035, 0.040, and 0.045-inch diameter ports. The fourth port in the kit (a 0.050-inch diameter port) is currently in my rifle. The port on the right is the stock Mini 14 gas port. You can see its ID is huge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7583\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7583\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7583 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9249_1708-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9249_1708-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9249_1708-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7583\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are four Allen bolts securing the upper and lower Mini 14 gas blocks. You have to remove the barreled action from the stock and unscrew these four bolts to replace the gas port.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7585\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7585\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7585 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9254_1713-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9254_1713-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9254_1713-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7585\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As delivered by Ruger, the gas block Allen bolts are staked in place. Getting them out (and back in again) takes some muscle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As an aside, the Mini 14 is kind of like the AK 47 with regard to its ejection energy. \u00a0 Both rifles have excess margin in the extraction and ejection gas porting design to make sure they always work.<\/p>\n<p>The ASI gas port kit includes four bushings with different diameter ports, and the idea is you try each one to find the bushing that gives you reliable function.\u00a0 You want to use the smallest one possible consistent with reliable operation.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve tried all four and I&#8217;m now at the 0.050-inch port (the largest one in the ASI kit), and it is usually reliable, but not always.\u00a0 I still get an occasional failure to extract.\u00a0 I may take the smallest one (with its 0.035-inch bore) and have it opened up to 0.060 inch, but that will come later.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not going into combat with my Mini 14, so I can tolerate the occasional failure to extract.\u00a0 I like to think of my Mini 14 as a SHTF rifle, but truth be told, I&#8217;m more concerned about shooting tiny groups than I am about doomsday scenarios.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<p>I think the reason the largest of the ASI ports still sometimes fails to extract is because my rifle has that short 16-inch barrel, which imparts a little less of a gun gas pressure pulse to the op rod than would a rifle with an 18-inch barrel.\u00a0 It may be another disadvantage of the shorter barrel.<\/p>\n<h2>ASI Gas Ports and Glass Bedding<\/h2>\n<p>My last Mini 14 blog was on the effects of both the glass bedding and the ASI gas port.\u00a0 Both of these upgrades made a difference, but the rifle still wasn&#8217;t where I wanted it to be from an accuracy perspective.\u00a0 Interestingly, the dispersion got smaller top to bottom, but it was still about the same left to right as it had been with my preferred 62-grain bullet load.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7599\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7599\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7599 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9262_1731-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9262_1731-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9262_1731-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7599\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Better, but still no cigar on a 100-yard target. Glass bedding and the 0.050-inch ASI gas port reduced vertical dispersion to about 3 inches and brought the lateral dispersion down to about the size of the bullseye, but I still wasn&#8217;t where I wanted to be.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>5.56 NATO versus .223 Ammunition<\/h2>\n<p>Ah, here&#8217;s where things start to get both technical, and to ballistics geeks like me and you, extremely interesting.\u00a0 You might be wondering why this blog is suddenly going tangential into a discussion of 5.56 NATO ammunition and the .223 Remington commercial cartridge.\u00a0 Bear with me and it will all come together.<\/p>\n<p>As we proceed, keep this in mind:\u00a0 Even though the Ruger Mini 14 is marked as a caliber .223 rifle, it has a 5.56mm NATO chamber.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, there is a difference between the two cartridges (they are loaded to different pressure levels, with the 5.56mm NATO cartridge loaded to higher pressure than the .223 Remington cartridge), but the 5.56mm NATO and commercial .223 Remington share identical exterior dimensions.\u00a0 Military (i.e., NATO) ammo has thicker case walls, which means the interior volume decreases slightly, but on the outside, the dimensions are the same.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, the above addresses the two cartridges.\u00a0 Now, let&#8217;s consider the two chambers (the part of the rifle that surrounds the cartridge).\u00a0 There are lots of differences between the chambers in a 5.56 NATO rifle versus a rifle chambered for the .223 Remington cartridge.\u00a0 The first is the leade (the distance between the case mouth and where the rifling begins in the barrel).\u00a0 Rifles chambered for the 5.56 NATO round have approximately twice the leade as do rifles chambered for the .223 Remington cartridge.\u00a0 That&#8217;s what allows the 5.56 NATO round to be loaded hotter than .223 Remington cartridge (it&#8217;s exactly the same thing you see in a Weatherby rifle; they are cut with longer leades to allow loading the cartridges hotter for more velocity).\u00a0 Because longer leades allow loading a cartridge hotter (the bullet is free to move a little more before the rifling resists it), the longer leade allows higher muzzle velocities.\u00a0 But longer leades may allow the bullet to tilt a bit before it hits the rifling, so rifles with longer leades tend to be less accurate. \u00a0In a bolt action or single shot rifle, you could account for this by seating the bullet out further in the cartridge case to get it closer to the rifling, but you can&#8217;t do that in the Mini 14.\u00a0 If you seat the bullet out further, the cartridges won&#8217;t fit in the magazine.<\/p>\n<p>All that business above about the 5.56mm NATO chamber&#8217;s longer leade is interesting, but it&#8217;s not the primary concern here.\u00a0 The bigger concern as it pertains to the Mini 14 (and its 5.56mm NATO chamber) is that the 5.56 NATO chamber is slightly larger than is a chamber for the .223 Remington cartridge.\u00a0 That&#8217;s to meet the military&#8217;s combat reliability requirements (a rifle with more clearance between the chamber and the cartridge is less likely to jam). \u00a0 The difference in the two cartridges&#8217; chamber dimensi0ns is shown in the chart below.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7580\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/556vs223ChamberDimensions.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/556vs223ChamberDimensions.jpg 512w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/556vs223ChamberDimensions-300x271.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 85vw, 512px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In particular, note Dimensions C, D, F, and L, which govern the length, neck location, and diameter of the chamber.\u00a0 As you can see above, they are all larger for the 5.56mm NATO chambered rifle, and like I said above, the Mini 14 has a 5.56mm NATO chamber.\u00a0 The cartridge has a lot more clearance between the case and chamber walls in the Mini 14 than it would in a rifle with a .223 Remington chamber.\u00a0 The cartridge can move around in the Mini 14&#8217;s chamber, and that hurts accuracy.\u00a0 Big time, as it turns out.<\/p>\n<p>With one exception in the Mini 14 family (that was the Mini 14 Target, which was kind of a commercial flop), the Mini 14 has a 5.56mm NATO chamber, because Ruger designed the rifle to work with either 5.56mm NATO ammunition or .223 Remington commercial ammunition.\u00a0 What that means to us is that the rifle is not optimized for accuracy.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a greater bullet jump from the cartridge case to the rifling, and there&#8217;s more clearance around the cartridge due to the slightly larger chamber.\u00a0 Both work against optimal accuracy.<\/p>\n<h2>Neck Sizing Mini 14 Brass<\/h2>\n<p>Well, that chamber issue sure had my attention as a potential significant contributor to the Mini 14&#8217;s accuracy woes.\u00a0 It made me wonder:\u00a0 Would neck sizing the brass (rather than full length resizing) make a difference?\u00a0 Maybe the Ruger&#8217;s chamber is just too loose to be accurate, I thought.<\/p>\n<p>So what is neck sizing? \u00a0 There are two approaches to resizing brass during the reloading process.\u00a0 The first is that you full length resize the brass, which brings it back to factory specification.\u00a0 The entire case is resized, including its diameter along the full length of the cartridge case, the case neck diameter, and the location and angle of the case shoulder (you know, where it necks down to the part of the case that holds the bullet). \u00a0 The other approach is to neck size only, and the idea here is you leave most of the case (in its post-fired condition) alone and only resize the part of the case that holds the bullet.\u00a0 The concept is that the case has formed (we call it fireforming) to the exact dimensions of the chamber in which it was fired, and resizing only the neck assures a near perfect fit of the reloaded cartridge in the rifle that previously fired it.\u00a0 It should be a near perfect fit around the case diameter and from the case shoulder to\u00a0 the bolt face. It should theoretically improve accuracy because the cartridge and its bullet are in exactly the same position for each shot.<\/p>\n<p>I know you usually would not ordinarily neck size brass for ammo to be fired in a semi-auto rifle, as it could degrade reliability. \u00a0 But my thinking was maybe the Ruger&#8217;s chamber is so big it would work.\u00a0 As a first step, I tried an empty case that had been fired in the Mini to see if it chambered and extracted easily.\u00a0 It did.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7615\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7615\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7615 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9247_1723-600-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9247_1723-600-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9247_1723-600-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">.223 cartridge cases that have been neck sized only. Only the area between the arrows has been resized. The rest of the case is left in its fireformed condition. It will more closely match the dimensions of the Mini 14 chamber in which it was fired.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are two approaches to neck sizing brass.\u00a0 One is that you can use the full length resizing die, but you don&#8217;t screw it into the press all the way.\u00a0 The intent is that it resizes the case neck but not the case body.\u00a0 The problem with this approach is that it is hard to get most of the case neck without the full length resizing die contacting the cartridge case body.\u00a0 I tried this as a first approach, though, and the results on the target were dramatic.\u00a0 Using the last of my 62-grain Hornady FMJBT bullets and 23.2 grains of ARComp propellant, I was now reliably getting groups I could mostly keep in the black at 100 yards.\u00a0 Yowzers!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7600\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7600\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7600 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9263_1732-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9263_1732-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9263_1732-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7600\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Progress at 100 yards! Neck sizing the .223 cases using a full length resizing die got the group sizes down to the size of the bullseye. Things were moving in the right direction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I ordered the RCBS neck size only .223 die on Amazon and when it arrived the next day, I loaded ammo with what had been my best load with the 55-grain Hornady FMJBT bullet (and that was 26.2 grains of IMR 4320 propellant). \u00a0 How did it work?\u00a0 Read on, my friends.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7617\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7617\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7617\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9240_1717-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9240_1717-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9240_1717-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7617\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My new RCBS .223 neck size die. It cost just over $30.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The Sweet Feel of an Accurate Mini 14<\/h2>\n<p>Ah, the sweet feel of success.\u00a0 I was out of my 62-grain Hornady bullets (more are on the way as I write this blog), so like I said above I used my other favorite load with Hornady&#8217;s 55-grain bullets. \u00a0That load worked even better, and surprisingly, it required no sight adjustment from the 62-grain bullet load.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7588\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7588\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7588 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Good times with an iron-sighted Mini 14 at 100 yards. That group on the right looks like it could have been fired with a scoped rifle, but it wasn&#8217;t.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I had two targets set up at the 100-yard line (the two you see above), and I first shot the target on the left.\u00a0 I could see the holes with my 20X spotting scope, and it felt mighty good to see them all plunk right into the bullseye.\u00a0 Then I fired on the target on the right, and when I checked it in the spotting scope, I thought I had done well, but I wasn&#8217;t sure.\u00a0 The way the light was hitting the target I couldn&#8217;t count five holes through the spotting scope.\u00a0 At the next line break, my buddy Greg and I walked down to the targets and at first, I was disappointed.\u00a0 I could see only four holes in the target on the right, and I thought I had missed altogether with my fifth shot. \u00a0 I mentioned that to Greg, and then he pointed to the fifth hole.\u00a0 It was hiding right alongside the X.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7589\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7589\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7589 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/DSC_9239_1716-600-2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7589\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">100 yards, iron sights, and a Ruger Mini 14. I have this rifle dialed in now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As I said at the beginning of this admittedly long blog, this has been an interesting journey. \u00a0 I think everything I did to this rifle helped to improve its accuracy, but the major contributors have been finding the right load, glass bedding, and neck sizing.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary (every rifle is different).\u00a0 I&#8217;ve found what works for me.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>See Our Other Mini 14 Blogs<\/h2>\n<p>I mentioned several earlier Mini 14 blogs.\u00a0 Here are links to our Mini 14 posts:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/10\/the-quest-for-mini-14-accuracy-continues\/\">The Quest for Mini 14 Accuracy Continues<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/04\/pollen-politics-pundits-pistols-pasta-pizza-and-more\/\">Politics, Pundits, and More<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/18\/mini-14-marksmanship\/\">Mini 14 Marksmanship<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/09\/23\/tjs-custom-gunworks\/\">TJ&#8217;s Custom Gunworks<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/01\/15\/do-you-feel-lucky\/\">Do You Feel Lucky?<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/10\/10\/a-tale-of-three-garands\/\">A Tale of Three Garands<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/31\/refinishing-the-mini-14\/\">Refinishing the Mini 14<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>See Our Other Tales of the Gun<\/h2>\n<p>We have lots of cool gun stories on both handguns and rifles. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ExhaustNotes.us\/Guns.html\">You can see them here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Mini 14 quest for accuracy is over.\u00a0 I have the answer and an honest-to-God 1.5 MOA Mini 14.\u00a0 With open sights.\u00a0 At 100 yards.\u00a0 Yippeeee! It&#8217;s been an interesting journey. Davidson&#8217;s Circassian Mini 14 I like rifles with fine walnut, and about a decade ago when Davidson&#8217;s (a large Ruger distributor) offered a limited &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/20\/mini-14-accuracy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mini 14 Accuracy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[1066,1065,1058,1067,1068,1069,1070],"class_list":["post-7531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns","tag-accurate-mini-14-loads","tag-improving-mini-14-accuracy","tag-mini-14-accuracy","tag-mini-14-accuracy-improvements","tag-mini-14-review-2019","tag-mini-14-tactical-series","tag-ruger-mini-14-vs-ar-15"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7531"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7620,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531\/revisions\/7620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}