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Mini Thirty or Saiga x39


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I have a Mini already and I love it. I have taken a few whitetails with it, but I saw this Saiga in the same 7.62x39 and I just love the look of it, as is, I wouldn't chance a thing about it. My question is if I got one and left it as is, how would it compare to the Mini. I have read a lot of threads about people converting theirs, is it for cosmetic reasons or for better performance or both. My Mini isn't the best shooting rifle in the world, but for hunting purposes at distance no greater than 100 yds it work fine for me, would the Saiga shoot as well as the Mini at that same distance or could it be better. Also does the Saiga fires O.K. with the Wolf Ammo. I shoot the 123 HP. Sorry for the drawn out questions but I need all the help I can get. By the way I live in the Atlanta area and I find a place that sales them NIB for $239.00 is that a fair price or should I keep looking.

Thanks :blues:

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I have two Mini-14's and I love them.

 

At the same time, I think everyone should have at least 1 AK. Especially one that can use standard AK mags.

 

I would say an AK's accuracy is on a par with a Mini-30's.

 

Mini-30's are fine for hunting with a 5 round mag, but, the lack of readily available affordable 30 round mags is a REAL PROBLEM for me for 'other' applications.

Edited by Oswald2001
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Saigas in 7.62x39 are nice since you can convert them if you like as I recently did. The price also sounds right. I also added a peep sight to mine because I don't like the open sights. If you convert the rifle you get a Russian AK at a price lower than a crappy Romanian commercial copy.

 

The Mini-30 magazines are not as rugged as the Saiga or AK mags and they always work. I'm not sure the Mini-30 aftermerket mags are any good but ProMag has new magazines which I believe are good if they were made like the Mini-14 ones.

 

If you want a low cost rifle which shoots the 7.62x39 rounds then the Yugo SKS is still a good deal for $119 at AIM's

Edited by uzitiger
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There is no question I'd go for the Saiga x39 any day, for the above reasons, I have just 580 bucks in mine, and I have the gun I want, first a 74 style muzzle break, Galil front hand guard (tan), adjustible rear sight (K-var), G-2 trigger group, SAW pistol grip (tan), Tapco floder (tan). the gun shoots great for an optic I have a PK-01 automatic brightness controlled red dot. Also here s a plug of Dinzag I used his bullet guide and muzzle break.

 

Mini 14 or Mini 30 all I could get for the money is a plane Jane rifle.

 

If you look at the picture on my Avitar I'm holding the x39 but that is before I put the muzzle break and tan furniture on it. (red space shirt)

Edited by topmaul
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I'm not unhappy with my Mini-14 but when I see the prices today, I'm thankful I got mine 28 years ago for $172. If I had to start over I would go with the Saiga because it's more affordable and its magazines are more rugged. You can use any AK magazine after converting it. ( I haven't added a feed ramp yet but I modified AK magazines and added Tapco followers and Falcon Arms floorplates for 922r compliance.) I recently converted mine and added a peep sight. You can also mount Soviet scopes of good quality. Left handers will have to find another scope which mounts over the rifle's centerline and isn't made for right handers.

 

The only decent aftermarket magazines I found for the Mini-14 are the Pro Mag polymer ones, I haven't tried their steel ones.

Edited by uzitiger
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  • 1 month later...
Hehe... I just sold my mini 30 and bought 2 saigas

 

If you got two Saigas for the price of the Mini-30 then you got a great deal. You can do a lot more with a Saiga than a Mini-30 and when you convert them you can legally use AK mags which are more rugged and are a lot less expensive than Mini-30 mags.

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Hehe... I just sold my mini 30 and bought 2 saigas

 

If you got two Saigas for the price of the Mini-30 then you got a great deal. You can do a lot more with a Saiga than a Mini-30 and when you convert them you can legally use AK mags which are more rugged and are a lot less expensive than Mini-30 mags.

 

 

Shit, I bought 2 Saigas (x39) and had about $80 left over from the money that my mini brought, even after shipping and such on the Saigas.

 

Magazines suck for the Mini, and despite what most people will tell you, the gas system on the Mini is not that great.

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If you are thinking the Mini-30 will shoot the cheap(er) military rounds, ie Wolf, Barnaul, Uly etc, then DO NOT buy the Mini-30. Why? I have a Mini-30, tuned it so it can shoot 2-3moa 5-shot groups all day (Cheetah ammo), and then one day..... Click, no fire. The firing pin tip was broken. Than was within about 2000 rds. Ruger doesn't warranty the Mini-30 firing pin, they automatically assume you are using military ammo which has "harder" primer and that was supposedly what killed the firing pin. And Ruger doesn't sell you a pin, once the pin is broken you have to send the WHOLE rifle back to ruger, service charge is $75 PLUS the back and forth shipping. You will be looking at $100 plus and three weeks plus of turn around time....

 

The only reliable mags for a mini-30 are either the factory 5rd or the Thermold 28/45 rd. Nothing else is guarrantied to work, even the Pro-mag 10rd steel mags doesn't work 100%. Good luck finding a Thermold, and when you find one be prepared to pay $60 for it.

 

A Saiga would never have the firing pin problem, it was designed specifically to shoot that ammo. and hi-caps are cheap and reliable. Have not attempt to tune a Saiga, but I imagin 3moa all day is doable.

 

If you want accuracy, get the long barrel Saiga. my mini-30 was much more accurate with original 18" barrel length (barrel is now chopped to 16.5", with thread/brake). 20" maybe an over kill, but at least you can chop it to 18 if you want to B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have both a Mini 30 and a Saiga x39. The Saiga has been converted to use AK mags, primarily to use 5 round ak mags for hunting. Otherwise, both are stock. The Mini is the better rifle of the two and has taken many deer.

 

On the other hand the Saiga is a good rugged rifle.

 

By the way, the Mini 30 action is based on the M1 Garand which is a proven gas system.

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By the way, the Mini 30 action is based on the M1 Garand which is a proven gas system.

 

Yeah the M1 garand has proven itself. I just can't trust these new AK 47 rifles, they have not been around that long and no one really knows if they will hold up well. I guess time will tell if the AK47 is any good.

 

 

 

OH WAIT IT ALREADY HAS!

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I have a Mini-30, tuned it so it can shoot 2-3moa 5-shot groups all day (Cheetah ammo), and then one day..... Click, no fire. The firing pin tip was broken.

 

Yup, that is why I dumped mine... All I shoot is wolf, and if you break a firing pin, you get to send it back to Ruger (the assholes won't sell them outright), and all of your custom work gets un-done.

 

I had a few things done to mine, and didn't want to have to pay to have them done again.

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I have a Tromix converted Saiga x39 w/folding stock and a new Mini-30 w/folding stock with good 10rd mags, not sure about the 20rd mags yet.

The Mini shoots Wolf ammo just fine I have a few hundred rds without problems.Now that the Mini is sighted in I will shoot White box ammo from Wallys(the only thing I buy there) and use the Wolf in my Saiga and Para SKS.

The Tromix conversion Saiga eats any ammo a easy shooting rifle.

For general carry or around the property the Mini-30 ,for bad times natural disasters,Zombies,War the Saiga.

Edited by skinnygun
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By the way, the Mini 30 action is based on the M1 Garand which is a proven gas system.

 

Yeah the M1 garand has proven itself. I just can't trust these new AK 47 rifles, they have not been around that long and no one really knows if they will hold up well. I guess time will tell if the AK47 is any good.

 

 

 

OH WAIT IT ALREADY HAS!

 

We all know the track record of the AK, my answer was in response to mention that the Mini did not have a reliable gas system. It was not intended to suggest that the AK didin't. -Reading is FUNdemental.

Edited by mac66
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The mini's gas system is NOT the same as a Garand or a M14. The bolt and receiver systems are similar, but Not the gas. The M14/Garand have cylinder/psiton gas, not a "pipe" /op-rod with a square "slider" block with a hole, like the mini's do.

 

I am not saying the mini's are not reliable, you will not likely to have any problem when doing range semi-auto shooting as long as high quality mags are used. But the design is not combat grade, the reliability is inherently much much less than the AK design. That is even before considering the firing pin issue.

 

Yes the mini-30 will shoot lots of steel case ammo without problem (2000-3000 rounds should be considered as a lot, right?), until the firing pin breaks. Then it will fire NO ammo of any kind, at all...

 

Don't get me wrong, I like the mini's, got a 30 and a 14, both in SS. Will probably never sell them. I always like the straight stock style :smoke:

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for Hunting purpose ONLY:

* a mini-30 can be tuned to consistant 2-3moa with good ammo (both Cheetah FMJ and Barnual SP can do that), provided you have a good scope and pulls the trigger the right way (yes there is special requirement on resting a mini, either a mini-14 or a mini-30).

* there are numerous mods/tuning can be done to a mini-30. 2moa is about as tight as you can get unless you insist on finding that "unique" load for a particular gun. Mods will cost you somewhere from $50 to $300, depends on how and what you want done. Or you can do it yourself, then it will take lots and lots of time to tinker, it is probably not worth it.

 

Have no idea how well a long barrel saiga will shoot, but after tuning it should be around 3-4moa I'll guess? Neither the saiga x39 nor the Mini-30 can be considered as a precision gun, but at least the saiga has good hi-cap mags and inherent reliability, which can not be said to the mini-30.

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