Un-tacticooling a tactical Mini 14

About ten years ago I had the chance to buy what possibly was that very machine gun. At least one of those machine guns was a pre-86 transferable and it’s been sold a few times. It came with all of the provenance tying it to the show including a bunch of pics in action and behind the scenes. It was in remarkable condition for a movie prop but the price was inflated about 4K due to the A-Team connection. They don’t make the greatest full auto guns but the A-Team made them look cool.
Several years ago at one if the now shut down machine gun shoots there was a argument over if a AC556 was ever actually used in the A-Team. One of the old timers said go watch carefully they pull the trigger over and over and listen carefully the machine gun over dub is awful and often not even the mini ?
Its always fun stuff when you get 10 or so experts together
 
I'd assume that's because the mini thirty wasn't offered as a folder, leading me to think the original manufactured config of the individual gun would play into this.
Precisely. And one might think “why include those rifles if they’re not assault weapons anyway? Well, I think just about every single firearm on that Appendix A list is already AWB compliant as manufactured in 1993.
 
Several years ago at one if the now shut down machine gun shoots there was a argument over if a AC556 was ever actually used in the A-Team. One of the old timers said go watch carefully they pull the trigger over and over and listen carefully the machine gun over dub is awful and often not even the mini ?
Its always fun stuff when you get 10 or so experts together I knew the current owner of that A-Team AC556 lived in Massachusetts.

The last time I ran across that A-Team AC556 was about 7 years ago, and as you noted it was owned by a dealer from Massachusetts. I made the trip up to take a look at it and some other interesting machine guns he was selling. I didn't want anything he was selling but he had possession of an HK-91 that had been converted to a belt-fed machine-gun, I would have paid almost anything for that HK but he was not remotely interested in selling.
 
I still regret not getting the stainless folder AC556 that I fondled at Greg’s
I fired one. Nice rifle. Belonged to a family friend. His version had the fixed full stock. He had a few Class 3 items, but wasn't a big MG guy. He also let me fire his M2 carbine.
 
Indeed. If barrel changes were easy back then, it would have overcome the reputation I think. But it had those crap pencil barrels for far too long and it got engrained in people’s brains.
When Ruger changed the receivers in the 580 series the bone headed decisions:
1. Did not make them compatible with STANAG magazines
2. Did not put the sling swivels on the side and make them 1.25"
3. Did not reduce the gas bushing size slightly to not beat the action to death
4. Did not make the barrels threaded as standard on all models (ranch models for people that hunt in states which allow suppressors and below the three evil feature limit anyway when the barrels whip less with compensators), tactical models should have kept the bayonet mount/setback for 22mm grenades/tear gas and added a dovetail to swap sight types.
5. Did not to extend the rear of the receiver to feature a picatinny rail to hold a standard bolt on AR pattern sight in favor of a stupid non-standard sight system when they already were changing the receiver from another (what had been better) non-standard sight system.

I don't understand why Ruger for whatever reason has refused to make even simple incremental improvements like moving the swing swivels or changing the gas bushings since then. Even going to STANAG magazines & AR rear sights would reduce the number of different necessary thanks to commonality of parts.
 
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