[murphy4561]

Hi, my father recently passed and left me his 1982 vintage (182) ss mini 14.
I am in California and I just brought it back with me.
First of all, I have no state legal magazines for.it. So I went out and bought a couple ss 10 round magazines on eBay. The thought process was that I wanted to keep it all stainless and factory CA mags were only available in blue.
Well they came in and look beautiful but I can't fit them in the gun. They are just a hair to wide on the trigger side. I have thought about squeezing one in a vice a tad or even grinding it down a hair. I have also thought about grinding down the receiver on the gun a tiny bit to accept them (but ruining the gun over a magazine seems ill-advised.)
I don't know what the eBay magazines are. There are no markings on them except the number 7 stamped on the narrow barrel side and on the bottom. I hate to throw my first $65 mini-money away.

Second issue: a friend says that he believes my gun may have a (no-no) "flash hider" -blade front site combo on it. If I were to hack it off I might be making the barrel too short as well as losing my front sight. I don't know anything about flash hiders or muzzle brakes or compensators but I took a picture of it and posted.
I contacted Ruger about the barrel issue and they offered to sell me a new ss ranch rifle at about a $400 discount (from retail) if I send mine in to them. Much of that discount would be eaten up by sales taxes, ffl delivery fees and California gun sale and reg.fees.
What to do? What to do?

 

[murphy4561]

Correction: the discounted price from Ruger was $820 so probably only about $200 off retail after looking at GunBroker. So, I'm pretty sure that takes the new one off the radar.

 

[murphy4561]

Thank you very much for the leads and the time.

The front sight looks to be imbedded into the device. It looks like it could be removed from the device by removing a roll pin but it does not look like the roll pin has anything to do with the device fastening to the barrel, unless there is something hidden under the sight (like a set screw?) I guess I just need to remove the pin and see.

 

[murphy4561]

Can anyone identify what that thing is? The magazines are are apparently no return items. Can anyone identify them? Dad had a number of factory mags that I could not bring back (although I hear there is a court stay on the over 10 restrictions) but they did fit smoothly.

 

[murphy4561]

On another matter, I wanted to add a red dot (or maybe just move my Eotech). I ordered and received a gg&g mount that said it would mount. But it would not. I then bought a billet mount that was said to fit almost every pre 580 except a couple numbers that were not mine. It would not fit without major modification involving removal of the rear peep, cutting a groove so that it would fit parallel over the rear peep hole and adding a 10-32 front of rail socket set screw. This makes a very strong 3 point mount system.
I bought a 3x M3X Votatu multiplier and a Vortex red dot is on order. Of course the proof of how this works has to be at the range. The rail also fits very low over the block and I have real concerns about possible ejection issues. It hand ejects my laser cartridge just fine. But I have not fired it yet.

 

[murphy4561]

 

[murphy4561]

So much for keeping it all stainless!

 

[murphy4561]

Device is gone. Two factory 5 rounds ordered from cdnn.
The Votatu will probably be around a long time. I love the little bugger and it's crisp and bright and built like a brick turdhouse.
I just wish I could pronounce the foreign name.

 

[murphy4561]

Thanks
.But the mount is just a cheap chunk of billet aluminum. Hundreds sold and likely most already in some landfill.
5 star ratings from hundreds but it just didn't fit my gun because of a curve at the trailing top that interfered with the rear peep mount. I have noticed that Accuracy Systems Inc. sells a very similar mount that does not have that curved piece on it and might work with no mods.
At any rate, being somewhat a hobby machinist, I decided to give a better mousetrap a try ($30 risk with no gun modification).
What I did was machine a slice in the aluminum curve that fits tightly top and both sides over the peep mount on the rifle (theoretically preventing any lateral or downward movement of the rear) I machined in a notch in the top of the new replacement bolt release cover plate giving it 2 resistance points rather than just the screw, and I machined in a 10/32 set screw at the front center of the rail (that prevents any forward/down movement as well.as locking in the groove at the rear). With 4 substantial anchor points, I will be surprised if this thing walks anywhere. Theoretically, I think it's as good or better than any of the high price spread. But I have been wrong before and only time and use will tell.
Here's a couple Votatu links for what it's worth, or not. As always only time will tell here to.

Though I got this gun unexpectedly, it is going into the 50+ gun safe chuck full of lots of modded and not modded good stuff. My other gun safe is just ammunition. I have a personal gun range on my small ranch and looking forward to shooting the Ruger. So, I'm not a total neophyte, but I am also very respectful of others informed inputs. Often as I get older I find there are all kinds of innovations I know nothing about. Recently I wanted to put an on-off light switch in a ship container. I was all prepared to spend $80 on romex and switches, when I found out they now have radio controlled remote battery operated switches for $12, and nobody ever told me.

 

[murphy4561]

My next project may be to try and make a replacement rear site to sit in the see-thru channel in the rail (if it holds up). Since I've lost my iron sight peep.
This gun is far from my best, but holds sentimental value. For me it will always be a short range woodland carry rifle and I don't expect it to ever perform better than maybe 3" groups. But if it can't make that, then it won't hunt.

 

[murphy4561]

My OEM rear sight is just fine in it's plastic baggie. I just can't put it back on the gun right now with the current rail setup.

When I look down the U in the center of the rail the front blade is centered perfectly. I assume if I were to put a piece of clear tape.over the back end of the rail and put my laser in the barrel, I should be able to mark a V on the clear tape exactly at the point for a rear V sight. Then if I were to fill the rear 1/4" of the U with epoxy to the top of the V and when cured, Dremel out the V on the tape and I should have (although crude and hokey) a rough functioning open sight back up should I ever unexpectedly lose the red dot. The epoxy could always be removed. And I prefer an open V to a peep anyway for hunting.
Just thinking aloud and probably.wont do.this. But, just centering in the U will probably get me on paper at 30-50 and I do enjoy experimenting.

 

[murphy4561]

I've been thinking along the lines of a JB Weld product like Water Weld putty. No dam required. I have a bunch on hand.
I have been trying to get a picture of the rail view for this thread, but can't hold the gun just right, need the camera upside down, and can't get the focus right all at the same time. Not enough hands.
I think the experiment might be easier than the photo.

 

[murphy4561]

Thinking about this more, while the open sight sounds like a fun project, it might be more practical to just pack a second pre-sighted QR sight in my bag. For example, I have both an Eotech halo and a Vortec red dot..I'll have to look into those qr mounts. Maybe something like the Monstrum tactical qr?

 

[murphy4561]

Duplicate post

 

[murphy4561]

Another question regarding my rail. If you look at the picture in post #10 of the right side of the rail, it sits low, but also has a bit of a nob with a set screw hole in it. Does anyone have an educated guess if this might come into play with ejection of empties?
I know the best way to tell is to go out and fire it, but the only ammo I have is Barnes TSX and at over a buck and half a pop several rounds are starting to add up.I'd rather save it for sighting in. And there is no such thing as cheap ammo in the people's republic.
It would be fairly easy to mill the rail down, and if I do, I want to do it before I semi permanently mount and sight in my Eotech. With some Aluminium black it shouldn't look too bad.
Any thoughts?

 

[murphy4561]

Other than several shotguns and a couple rimfires, I only have one semi rifle. It's my absolutely limited 4 shot 300 win mag Benelli R-1. And it is a tack driver like I have never seen in an auto loader
But I really don't know too much about the CA laws as they relate to something like the mini-14.
I have heard that if you have something called a mag lock (or something like that) that most of the other restrictions, like folding stocks, thumholds, etc. go out the window but don't take my word on this. It's just a lead to research. I guess the mag lock makes loading/unloading individual rounds through the breach your only option.
You could still use a speed loader but I don't think so if you have optics over the breach.