Stainless Steel Series 181 Mini-14. {wood handguard}

Blued Series 184 Mini-14. {fibreglass handguard}

Both mint w/ box.

I have shot both and they are comparable. Blued gun has a slightly crisper trigger. Blued gun rear sight leaf jiggles a bit but doesn't seem to effect accuracy.

I get to pick which one I want.

Which one would you pick and why?

Ready. Set. Go.

Given a choice between blue & Stainless, I always go Stainless.
Because, well, Stainless...

Obligatory you should get both comment.

Wooden hand guards look cool.

Although I love the original wooden hand guards, didn't Ruger stop supporting the 181 series? Spare parts may be harder to come by.

Get the 181-series stainless. Ruger put a higher polish on these very early stainless Minis. I have a 181-series stainless made in December, 1979, just one month after production started. It's a cool rifle.

If the finish was good on the 181 series, it must have been really good! The finish on my 186 series (1996) was head and shoulders above my 580 series (2009). If you held both recievers side by side the 186 has much softer edges, the flats and rounds are completely smooth, and the bluing actually looks like bluing. The 580 has much sharper edges and the flat areas where the rollmark is was much rougher. Almost 'frosted'. Although they are both cast, the 580 screamed it. The color was also more black than blue. They both were 100% reliable but a blind man could tell Ruger spent more time on the 186. I'll have to look at a 181 some day.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
Although I love the original wooden hand guards, didn't Ruger stop supporting the 181 series? Spare parts may be harder to come by.

I called them.

They do not support the 181's. But then they don't support ANY of the light barrel guns anymore. That is, they have no spares and won't fix anything that doesn't interchange with current production.

I don't know about the newer Mini 14 but in the old days the stainless ones had a chrome plated chamber the blue ones did not. I always like the look of the stainless.

I always liked the look of the stainless mini, but the newer ones are much more accurate.

But that's not one of the choices. It's either a 181-series stainless or a 184-series blue. In terms of collectibility and appearance, the stainless 181-series is the winner.