wayupnorth
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Northern Alberta
to Accustrut or not to Accustrut - that is the Mini 14 question!
I'm sure some of you are like me and have your favorite Ruger Mini 14 Ranch rifle tucked away behind the seat of your truck on on the back of your quad and its your go to gun - its your fun gun! And what is not to love on this little gun! It's short and light and shoots an inexpensive round and best of all its Non Restricted!
Over the last couple years i have seen talk here and there of the Accustrut system and how it works good to rein in the accuracy of the mini 14.
now for me this has never been a big issue. i have always shot my mini 14 open site....... but...... (there is always a but!) as i get older i find that my eyes are not what they use to be.
So in walks this winter/springs dilemma;
1) to put some optics on the Ruger mini 14
2) now with the gun running optics should i look at putting a Accustrut system on it?
(cause if your gonna go through the trouble of putting glass on the gun you should probably try to hit what your shooting at!)
In the end i decided to put a Vortex on my mini 14, its the first time ive tried the Vortex brand optics so that in itself will be fun. And I decided to pick up a accustrut system and experiment with it to see if in fact they do cut down on the group size and increase the accuracy of the Ruger Mini 14.
so here was my today, enjoy!
So first off I put the new optics on the mini 14 and bore sited it.
then it was outside with some supplies and a nice afternoon out in the wild!
and here is a shot of the mini 14 from half way through the shoot when i put the Accustrut on it
but pretty pic's of me shooting are not what you are all here for, you are here for the brass tacks.
you want to see the results.
well my friend, the time has come for us to go down the rabbit hole, so hang on here we go!
For this experiment i decided to NOT use surplus ammo, instead i used mid range stuff, so no norinco or russian ammo i used Remington and sellier and bellot. I believe i used the S&B to site in the new optics and season the barrel with 100 rounds then the Remington was what i used for the test. The test itself what i did was shoot 4 groups of 5 shots at each target with and without the accustrut for a total of 40 rounds - 20 with and 20 without. then i did a final 20 as one big group with the accustrut on.
here are the targets;
Normal Mini 14 - All Targets Overview
here are the 4 targets individually with measurements;
group 1 = 2.949
group 2 = 2.856
group 3 = 1.728
group 4 = 2.083
Ruger Mini 14 WITH ACCUSTRUT - All Target Overview
here are the 4 targets individually with measurements;
group 1 = 2.283 (interestingly with this group it was high which surprised me at first, then i thought about it and we did change the barrels harmonics with the accustrut so maybe i shouldn't have been surprised that the gun was now shooting high, i lowered the scope 6-7 clicks to fix)
group 2 = 1.197
group 3 = 2.081
group 4 = 1.733
Overview
Normal Mini 14
group 1 = 2.949
group 2 = 2.856
group 3 = 1.728
group 4 = 2.083
total = 9.616/4= average 2.404
Accustrut Mini 14
group 1 = 2.283
group 2 = 1.197
group 3 = 2.081
group 4 = 1.733
total = 7.294/4= average 1.8235
Total difference works out to be about 24.5-25% decrease in group size.
for interest sake here is a group or 20 rounds with the Accustrut on with a group size of 2.391 for the 20 rounds.
Conclusion.
i had wanted to see a decrease in group size after i put the accustrut on the mini 14 and i did.
i got roughly a 25% decrease in group sizes with it on. so at the end of the day it did what it said it would do and what i had wanted to see it do so it will stay on the rifle. keep in mind that i did this test outside with a slight wind and i was not slow shooting, i would say i was popping the 5 rounds out at under 1 sec per shot which would explain some of the flyers. this summer i will do this test over again but in the reverse and with more targets. i plan on doing 100 rounds or maybe even 200 with the accustrut on then another 100/200 with it off if i can make it to the range on a nice warm calm day. what a person needs to ask themselves is the following - is a 25% decrease in group size worth $160 Canadian Dollars?
hope someone finds all this info helpfull!
(ill re-post this up in the Ruger Mini 14 accuracy sticky as well so its data is readily available)
I'm sure some of you are like me and have your favorite Ruger Mini 14 Ranch rifle tucked away behind the seat of your truck on on the back of your quad and its your go to gun - its your fun gun! And what is not to love on this little gun! It's short and light and shoots an inexpensive round and best of all its Non Restricted!
Over the last couple years i have seen talk here and there of the Accustrut system and how it works good to rein in the accuracy of the mini 14.
now for me this has never been a big issue. i have always shot my mini 14 open site....... but...... (there is always a but!) as i get older i find that my eyes are not what they use to be.
So in walks this winter/springs dilemma;
1) to put some optics on the Ruger mini 14
2) now with the gun running optics should i look at putting a Accustrut system on it?
(cause if your gonna go through the trouble of putting glass on the gun you should probably try to hit what your shooting at!)
In the end i decided to put a Vortex on my mini 14, its the first time ive tried the Vortex brand optics so that in itself will be fun. And I decided to pick up a accustrut system and experiment with it to see if in fact they do cut down on the group size and increase the accuracy of the Ruger Mini 14.
so here was my today, enjoy!
So first off I put the new optics on the mini 14 and bore sited it.
then it was outside with some supplies and a nice afternoon out in the wild!
and here is a shot of the mini 14 from half way through the shoot when i put the Accustrut on it
but pretty pic's of me shooting are not what you are all here for, you are here for the brass tacks.
you want to see the results.
well my friend, the time has come for us to go down the rabbit hole, so hang on here we go!
For this experiment i decided to NOT use surplus ammo, instead i used mid range stuff, so no norinco or russian ammo i used Remington and sellier and bellot. I believe i used the S&B to site in the new optics and season the barrel with 100 rounds then the Remington was what i used for the test. The test itself what i did was shoot 4 groups of 5 shots at each target with and without the accustrut for a total of 40 rounds - 20 with and 20 without. then i did a final 20 as one big group with the accustrut on.
here are the targets;
Normal Mini 14 - All Targets Overview
here are the 4 targets individually with measurements;
group 1 = 2.949
group 2 = 2.856
group 3 = 1.728
group 4 = 2.083
Ruger Mini 14 WITH ACCUSTRUT - All Target Overview
here are the 4 targets individually with measurements;
group 1 = 2.283 (interestingly with this group it was high which surprised me at first, then i thought about it and we did change the barrels harmonics with the accustrut so maybe i shouldn't have been surprised that the gun was now shooting high, i lowered the scope 6-7 clicks to fix)
group 2 = 1.197
group 3 = 2.081
group 4 = 1.733
Overview
Normal Mini 14
group 1 = 2.949
group 2 = 2.856
group 3 = 1.728
group 4 = 2.083
total = 9.616/4= average 2.404
Accustrut Mini 14
group 1 = 2.283
group 2 = 1.197
group 3 = 2.081
group 4 = 1.733
total = 7.294/4= average 1.8235
Total difference works out to be about 24.5-25% decrease in group size.
for interest sake here is a group or 20 rounds with the Accustrut on with a group size of 2.391 for the 20 rounds.
Conclusion.
i had wanted to see a decrease in group size after i put the accustrut on the mini 14 and i did.
i got roughly a 25% decrease in group sizes with it on. so at the end of the day it did what it said it would do and what i had wanted to see it do so it will stay on the rifle. keep in mind that i did this test outside with a slight wind and i was not slow shooting, i would say i was popping the 5 rounds out at under 1 sec per shot which would explain some of the flyers. this summer i will do this test over again but in the reverse and with more targets. i plan on doing 100 rounds or maybe even 200 with the accustrut on then another 100/200 with it off if i can make it to the range on a nice warm calm day. what a person needs to ask themselves is the following - is a 25% decrease in group size worth $160 Canadian Dollars?
hope someone finds all this info helpfull!
(ill re-post this up in the Ruger Mini 14 accuracy sticky as well so its data is readily available)
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