Originally posted by Creamo
To kill coyotes and varmints. No fancy gold plating, flash suppressors, folding stocks, 40 round clips, bayonets, or whatever will impress someone next to you at the range. I just want to plink mostly, and hunt once in awhile. The Ruger mini14 a good buy?
If you want to actually hunt and kill coyotes and other varmints, I'd suggest a mid priced bolt action rifle chambered in 220 Swift (my personal favorite), 22-250, or 25-.06 (the most versatile of the three), can be used to hunt more than varmints, effectively), with a nice 6x-24x scope. Any of the above will kill the desired game at ranges of 250 yards and more, especially the first two, if you're up to it they're good out to 400 yards or so. The 25-.06 is a great all around caliber for hunting game up to and including white tail and mule deer, as the 25 caliber round is a good performer on medium game, and the 25-.06 is a great 25 caliber round (I've never been a fan of the .243, I think 24 caliber is really small for medium game, and the round is not hot neough to make up for that on medium game, nor is it hot enough for true varmint hunting). One final possibility is the .270. The .270 is even better than the 25-.06 for medium game, and still retains good utility for varmint use. Both the .270 and the 25-.06 are a little large for true pure varmint hunting, and neither shoots as flat or has the range for varmints as the 220 Swift or the 22-250.
Should you prefer to just plink, I'd suggest you look for a nice .223 semi auto, I would prefer a better rifle than a Mini-14 myself, you spend enough making it (the Mini-14) truly accurate to buy an AR series rifle. If you don't CARE about really good accuracy (I consider the average stock Mini -14 to be adequate at best for a .223 chambered weapon), then the Mini 14 isn't a bad deal. Were I to buy a Mini-14, I'd get the stainless/laminate version.
