AO M1 Carbine or Rugar M14 Ranch Hand?

[JTheBigJay]

Any thoughts?

The prices are about the same, $500ish, for either gun so i'm just down to looks and caliber at this point.

.223 seems a little cheaper then .30. Hows the performance?

I've played around with a M14 in the past but never a M1.

Is there any experience with either gun that i might consider when looking to gather one up?

JRH

[BlakeM44]

There's a lot of stuff you can modify on a Mini 14. Plus there's a wider variety of ammo.

[BlakeM44]

There's a lot of stuff you can modify on a Mini 14. Plus there's a wider variety of ammo.

[Junk Yard Dog]

M1 Carbine, it's a milsurp unless you buy a commercial copy, it's easy and cheap to reload for, spare parts are both cheap and available. It's combat proven, and just handles so nicely, as well as being light to hump around.

[desdem12]

Uh ..Both? I also think M1 carbine but the rugers are nice.

[target]

This is one of those rare times where I will cast a vote for Ruger. I would get the Mini if I was planning on a ranch rifle, wide variety of cheap .223 you can run in em and they have a warranty. Lots of after market stuff can be done to em too.

I don't know if they ever fixed the barrel whipping thing but over all I think that would be the better ranch gun. The M1 carbine is a good ranch gun too, but if you aint set up to reload for it... it's not cheap.

[BuckeyeSgt]

I'd have to go with the Ruger. Only because I wouldn't want the commercial version of the carbine. Although I'd like to have both if the carbine was an older one.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Some commercial copys of the carbine are better than others, unless you know how to spot the better ones it's best to go with an original.

[JTheBigJay]

Both would be my preferred choice but not recommended by the wife.

Thanks for the info guys. I'll stick to the MIni. Always loved that thing, time to gather one up.

JRH

[bunkysdad]

Have you ever looked at the Ruger Mini 30 that shoots the 7.62x39 round? Pretty cool stuff. All of these are fun choices, but my vote would be a original M1 carbine but then I would never turn down a nice Ruger.

[JTheBigJay]

That mini 30 is pretty cool. I could get a SKS and that thing and stick with one round. But the price is about double what i'm looking to spend.

The gun show is tomorrow so i might just have to change what I'm willing to spend to how much grief from the wife i want to take...

[Greasemonkey]

I have an older standard model Mini 14, it's the 186 series. I'd gladly trade it in a second for the Mini 30 or another .30 carbine. That way I could at least drop a caliber I don't shoot much.

It's a decent rifle, but I shoot the .30 Carbine round more, seems to carbine is more accurate, at least to me.

[bunkysdad]

There was a time a few years ago that 30 carbine ammo was hard to find, and had a price spike from opportunists, but at the current rate of 15-20 bucks for a 50 round box that sems reasonable to me. It is the Garand that is expensive to feed.

[Ironnewt]

There was a time a few years ago that 30 carbine ammo was hard to find, and had a price spike from opportunists, but at the current rate of 15-20 bucks for a 50 round box that sems reasonable to me. It is the Garand that is expensive to feed.

Reloading the .30 carbine is a snap, straight walled case, light charge weight (more rounds to the 1 lb of powder) and you can use cast bullets (boolitts) with gas checks. An all around fun carbine. My .02

[SA1911a1]

I can't think of a firearm that is more fun to shoot then a .30 carbine.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yea, everybody loves to shoot the carbines, I wish I had bought more of them when they were under $200, a dealer I knew bought a couple of crates of them and was blowing them out cheap, he worked from his home and had limited storage space.