It's been a few months since I popped in here. I really like reading your stuff, too!
I can hardly wait to get back home, now. I've been over here in the sand, dust, and sun for 9 months. I even missed the entire hunting season last fall!
The internet is up and down, finding time between e-mail, and work, to check out the world back home,... well, it's been three months.
To my real reason. The battalion I'm in, is pretty cool. Most of the guys are from Alabama, and a bunch from Arkansas. I'm one of a handful from various places.
Somebody thought a deployment pistol would be a nifty idea, turns out some upper Sgt got a quote for some Sigs something like $800 with unit engavings and such. I never heard about it though. Then another idea was going around for a $1100 Kimber 1911 .45ACP. I love 1911s, but I can't get over Kimber prices.
Finally, SSG got a deal for AR's that look like our issue M4s and engravings, too! $699 for a Superior Arms piece. Nice deal and I don't care for M16/AR.
Myself, and a couple of guys drool over American Rifleman, Shotgun News, Handgunner, and such when we get them. In particular we've been keeping an eye on Panther DPMS, Stag, and those offering the 6.8mm Rem. SPC. Its good stuff, for special forces budgets.
Me and at least one guy were contemplating converting out new AR, after we get them, to the 6.8. Not hard, one nice thing about a widely produced, mil. spec. firearm. The cost was starting to bother me though.
$700 for a gun that shoots great, capable of dropping deer size game, if you take the time to do it right. Then another $600-900 to upgrade to better terminal ballistics of the 6.8. $1400 for a decent gun, getting steep! So I've spent a week humming, hawing, and poking around the web.
Today, I punched in Ruger in the search window. Went to the Ruger web sight, I knew that they were working on a target Mini 14. There it is, they put out the Mini in Stainless, 18 inch barreled, all-weather stocked, and 6.8mm Rem. SPC! Wow, for me anyhow, and $835.
Now, it seems that I'm at an impasse. (I think I spelled that right) I'm sure that if I pull my name out of the AR buy, that the price could go up for my buddies bent on the really nice memorable AR. Nice for me, too. I wouldn't mind hanging the memory on my wall, and putting a few kills on it. I don't care much for 5.56mm or .223 Rem, but it's still fun and usefull.
Then again, I know I'd like the tiny .270, for the ftlb energy at distance, and the trajectory is better, the terminal ballistics are way more leathal. I know I'd shoot, hunt, and love the poop out of it. Not to mention how I drooled when I saw that Ruger had made it! All but one of my guns are Rugers. I can't complain.
I've shot a lot of guns in my 16 yrs of Hi power rifle, and pistol shooting. Subguns, Light med heavy machineguns, Remingtons, Winchesters, Colts. Ruger's all seem to do it a little better. Some is just me, I'm sure.
Maybe it's because the first gun I ever bought was a Ruger Old Army .45 cap&ball revolver. Six Rugers and I haven't had a problem yet.
I think I'm asking for a few objective opinnions on what I should do. Drop the M4 stiled AR, and hope that there will be enough interest that my buddies' price will be a good one. Lose out on the memorabilia, for my self. Get the Ruger I've been waiting for. Or try to swing the bank acount and get both!
I'm sure that there would be some of you that would say neither!

Sounds like your kinda between a rock and a hard place. If you back out of the AR deal your going to let your buddies down. If you go for your going to have a dandy wall hanger in a caliber you don't care for.

Only help I can give you is "You can never own enough guns". Get them both.

Sounds like your kinda between a rock and a hard place. If you back out of the AR deal your going to let your buddies down. If you go for your going to have a dandy wall hanger in a caliber you don't care for.

Only help I can give you is "You can never own enough guns". Get them both.


Well said. I agree that you can't own too many guns. All I will add is that you should buy them now while they are still affordable.

Well said. I agree that you can't own too many guns. All I will add is that you should buy them now while they are still affordable.


...& still legal, too.

I just saw an ad for the new 6.8 SPC Ruger in SHooting times. Sure looks purty. I have heard that RUger is finally doing something about the lousey accuracy of the mini 14. That's one thing you wouldn't have to worry about with the AR.

You asked, so here's what I'd do. Buy the AR and later get a 308 top. From what I've heard, the 6.8 is fairly limited as a hunting round...the 308 would be much more versatile. So you'd end up w/ two rifles for the cost of 1 and 1/2.

BTW...thanks for putting yourself on the line for all of us back home. Tell your buddies we all appreciate them more than they'll ever know.

Big Sky,

Thanks for your service. Thank all your buddies over there too.

I'm generally not into commemorative guns, but the situation you're talking about here is different. You and your buddies have been there, and put your lives on the line. You've given up your lives back home, and made sacrifices few of us could know. Years from now, something to commemorate that time could be one of your most cherished possesions, while the Ruger Mini will be long forgotten.

As others have said, if you want something a little more potent than .223/5.56, you can always get a 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, etc. barreled upper for your AR. Getting sub MOA accuracy with an AR only envolves buying a few boxes of different kinds of ammo to see what it likes. Someone's going to have to prove to me a Mini can get anywhere near that before I'll believe their advertising claims.

In other words, go along with your unit. If the fascination with the Mini doesn't wear off in a month or two, you can buy one of them anytime you want.

If your budget limits you to choosing just one, I would buy the AR. For one thing, you can get a full-length match upper with matching bolt and and match trigger from Compass Lake Engineering or another match rifle builder and have a service rifle match qualified conversion. Conversion for the other rounds are also options you won't have with the Ruger.

On top of that, it is a collectable. If you turn out to be really unhappy with having it, and if you are careful to log the number of rounds through the barrel, keep the finish intact and don't use it much, you can probably sell it for what you put into it. If you don't fire it at all, you will certainly find someone who will bid more for it than you put into it. In either condition, you can sell it for more than the cost of a new Ruger.

Iowaloha BigSkyGrandpre,
Thank you for your service.
Free advice. And worth every penny. Stick with your buds and buy the AR. This is a chance you will have only once. If you pass it by, you may regret it later?

Finish your tour and come on home! There will be time and money to find the Ruger that you want when you get here.

Stay frosty and safe.

Cheezywan