First off a ruger mini 14/30 is NOT a long range gun. It was never intended to be. It IS a <100yrd pest dispach tool. It works great as a saddle gun, Law enforcement patrol car long gun and any general use within the limits of the cartridge and at ranges that most here would consider slingshot range. If you think you want to shoot it at long range with any high accuracy get out your wallet and mail it and the gun to Precision Systems in Texas.
Otherwise sell it and buy a long range gun.
That being said I will say that I will grab my mini 14 first if the "alarms go off". It is 100% reliable as far as feeding goes. Dirty or not, it has failed to extract 1 single time and that was because I fired a case that was bent with a slight kink in the side. All other rounds from any mfg or any handload with a decent mag feed and fire and extract and eject. Period.
My only regret is that I bought the one without the integral scope mounts. I have a B-Square side mounting scope mount and no matter how well it performs (within the guns limits) I still dont trust it as much as the mounts that grab dovetails on the reciever.
If the "alarms go off" the scope comes off in 5 seconds and hits the floor in 2. Bye bye scope. Iron sights and peephole and off we go.
It makes a fun walking around gun and with the addition of a swivel stud under the fore end and a haris bipod and a scope on some sort of decent mount it is a fun ambush gun for coyotes.
Lastly, if you choose to keep the gun and break it in with about 1000 rounds of ammo (thats honestly when my groups shrunk to half their normal size.)be certain to treat your self to a real factory 20 round mag. They are available on some popular on line auction sites. They are so much better than any mag I have ever seen aftermarket that I am contemplating selling all my aftermarket mags to be able to buy more of these. They are not available any other way unless you are a purchasing agent for a law enforcement or military entity.
