Oh Shoot

  Whichever you can find and afford. The Mini will eat it all, including lacquered steel.   5.56 military is hotter than Russian steel which may not chrono but 27-2800 even with 55gr.  Civilian 5.56 is often loaded closer to the military spec than perhaps most .223 in general, but that's not a hard and fast axiom or anything, ammo varies among manufacturers and over time, and bullet weight is one of the biggest variables.   Don't know of any source for either that won't reliably go boom.   - OS

  Not all the 580 series got the improvements, started after a month or two into that run of serial number.   - OS

He's in campaign mode too, of course, comes up in '14 in KY.   - OS

  Which one is "best"? Excepting the target, current models are all the same, 'cept for the clothes.   Modern models (580 after the first couple of months or so, and 581)  have the improved barrel and sights also, definitely desirable over the older pencil barreled models, some of which also don't have scope bases.   Like anything else, good luck finding one for reasonable price during this panic though, old or new. I saw a ratty old one at last gun show apparently go for an even grand, and didn't even have Ruger factory magazines. Oh , the magazines, which have always been pricey, and also even more out of sight right now too. Sorry for all the good news.   - OS

FedEx Ground about the same. But if you don't have an account, you can't do it at the terminal, so only leaves FedEx Office (Kinkos) though I dunno if you can do it there. Worth checking though,  if you have a heavy shipment, as FX Ground is cheaper than UPS Ground, and the heavier the cheaper.   You can also ship up to 150 lbs with FX Ground, but maybe that 66lb that Andy mentioned is a hazmat rule, dunno.   - OS

Acute shortage really started after Black Friday...just like ARs, 'bout every semi-auto .22 rifle in America got bought too up in anticipation of O's second term, so was immediate run on .22 just like .223.   One other factor also unmentioned: since other calibers have become scarce and expensive, just the rank and file shooters have gone to shooting more .22.   Add in all the other factors since the election, and there you have it. Sandy Hook and proposed legislation afterward just made it a perfect storm.   - OS

  Good deal, I put it under 2A Issues, so it gets full exposure, thnx for posting.

I love to come to TGO area shoots, far too few of them....   - OS

I see no updated news on it today so far...nada update on her own page either, beyond "on the first day of the new Congress"   Maybe Reid has put the mute button on it for a while or something ...and btw, according to him,  it's still the "first day" now, for twenty something days, if you didn't know about that.   - OS

Is posted now onsite at:   http://www.nranews.com/#/nranews   Link at top of page, doesn't go directly to it.   There are versions on YouTube also, but of lesser quality, so I didn't link one.   - OS

  Hey, watch it, I resemble that!

  Yeah, for some reason, the caliber on the Mini is not marked on the barrels, only a "Cal.223" on the receiver. Has ever been thus.   Never seen a statement from Ruger, but it has been opined that when they designed it, there wasn't any commercial ammo out there labeled 5.56x45, so they just labeled it for the designation folks would actually see on the shelves, and just never changed it.   - OS

  Just shows how much urban gun legend is out there, Triple.   See Swim's post.   The Mini14 has been chambered in 5.56 since its inception in 1973   Only the recent Target model is .223 only, and that's really more for accuracy purposes than actual safety.   - OS

Caught part of it on MSM, I'm sure there will be a complete vid available pert quick.

  Most of them have an extra lever or two more than a Glock. Plus a hammer, maybe.  ;)   - OS

  Speaking of the man mentioned in this thread title, I'll echo this from TGO David's salute in the Announcements section. Certainly should well apply here in general:   "There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self respect." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Did it wear out your widdle finger ... or your widdle headbone? :taunt:

Gordon has mentioned an exact list of needed equip or $200 or so.   - OS

  CDNN seems to get a lot of them. People grab 'em and shoot another 50K rounds through them.   Or that place just across the line in GA from 'Nooga, always forget the name.   - OS

Methinks Sig Sauer has out sales repped Gaston or something. Maybe Sig stole S&W's guys.   Sigs are too complicated for cops.  And 99.984% of cops nationwide couldn't wear out a Hi-Point in 4 years, let alone a Glock.     - OS

Better to keep it on long existing thread methinks:   http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/59202-tomorrow-feinsteins-bill-is-to-be-filed/

  Well, we still haven't actually read the bill, only her pre-synopsis of it, so you may have yet still underestimated the extent of the madness.   - OS

  I always had a few guns all my life, like never more than five, and usually just 2 or 3. When I almost half accidentally retired early in '07, I just leapt into guns for whatever reason. Just in time for shortages to start appearing, becoming full blown in 08. So I sort of starting grabbing what and when I could from the git go.   And didn't really stop once everything was flowing again, either. As I watched my stashed money making less by the month as interest rates dropped, I figgered damn near anything popular was worth more money than money, and that at worst I'd beat the spread even if I wound up selling a lot of it off once I get too feeble to shoot it for sport or shoot or trade it in the coming meltdown or revolution, so within budget limits, just put left over into ammo here and there. And guns of course, let's not forget the blessed guns.   But all through 98-99, I don't remember a single stretch as bad as from Thanksgiving through now, on availability or pricing of guns or ammo. The impeding second BHO kingdom + Sandy Hook has really been something.   - OS

  That is ironic. Sort of like the Gift of the Magi in a left handed way. Or "few good deeds go unpunished". Or something.   Anyway, that's why I put stuff in carts a lot too. Since Sportman's Guide stays there for at least a month or two, and Amazon apparently forever, I stick stuff there I'm only half interested in sometimes, and also as a basic price reference, might come back two months later when I've decided I do indeed want it, or finally delete them, whatever.   - OS