But if Mini-14 gets adopted by the military, it will promptly join the list of the "evil assault weapons" and get's banned in NYS, where it's the only legal rifle of a kind. So I will not suggest it to her.
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The gas bolt on my Mini-14 would sieze tightly if allowed to seat for more than a few days without being fired due to carbon build up on the seating face of the gas bolt, even when cleaned it tended to freeze up after a few days. The running joke in the crowd I used to shoot with was the mandatory rubber mallet accessory for using for banging down on the charging lever when the action froze up.
The accuracy of my Mini-14 beyond 50 yards was a joke. Sighted with good optics it became no better. I recall at the time it supposedly had something to do with barrel length and rifling twist (1-14) and the only bullet that would maintain any sort of acceptable repeatable accuracy was the 65 grain boat tail. This problem was compounded at the time by all military surpluss being the 55 grain variety. Even then I recall 65 grain rounds grouping at something like 36 inches at 100 yards with a good scope discounting the occasional round that missed the target clean. For comparrison, my M1 Carbine could group under 12 inches at 100 yards with the old iron sights and that wide pattern usually took into account one or two rounds throwing out what tended to be a 5-6 inch group.
Apart from looking rather cool, the Mini-14 is, in my opinion, undesirable for anything greater than wall hanging.
Lots of better guns avaliable.......
