It is a cold, rainy Sunday so I was looking for something to do indoors. The Ruger Mini-14 was suffering a case of inaccuracy that I attributed to an aftermarket M-14 style flash suppressor/front sight my grandfather had installed back in the 1980′s. The rifle had been locked away in my gun safe until I could get the motive, means and opportunity together to remove it.
Finally, I found an Allen wrench correctly sized to remove a set-screw holding the device in place on the barrel. Once that was removed it was a matter of battering the suppressor off the barrel using a dead blow hammer, without bending the barrel or damaging its crown. A few careful lick with the hammer and the thing hit the floor.
I inspected the crown and rifling to see if they had been damaged, but they looked intact. I field stripped the whole rifle, cleaned and oiled the mechanism then reassembled it. The only hitch to a test firing was the absence of a front sight. A bit of digging through my shooting supplies I found a cheap Simmons red dot optic that would mount on the Piccatiny rail forward of the bolt. I installed the optic and used a laser bore-sighter to get the dot “on the paper” at 75 yards. I loaded up some magazines with a variety of .223 Remington ammunition and hit the firing range.
At 25 yards I fine tuned the optic and shot some groups. I was very happy to see it shooting cloverleaf patterns! At 50 yards I was holding under an inch, and at 80 yards (maximum for the range) it was under 2 inches. That was using generic 55 grain FMJ reloads and Wolf 62 grain soft points.
The Ruger has been saved from a fate worse than death for a rifle: banishment to the gun safe for all eternity. I had just started ringing the swinging steel plate when the optic died. Oh well, I need to get something with magnification anyway, so I can see how consistently it will hold 50 grain hollowpoints at 100 yards.