[TODD 3465]

Here are some mods I made to a 181 series Mini-14 I bought last year.

It was already parkerized by me for the guy I got it from then I darkened the stock carefuly with a propane torch, beats trying to get a dark finish with stain hehehe....

 

[TODD 3465]

Then I bead blasted that glossy plastic butt-plate.

 

[TODD 3465]

When he had it the fellow had a scope on it plus he removed the front sight, which was replaced with a Choate combo flash hider front sight assembly. While shooting the rifle with a rear peep back on it took most of the elevation to get it dead on at 100yds so I trimmed 1/16" off the front sight post and parkerized it and the rear sight assenbly.

While that was off I had a friend cut 4 more notches on the windaged adjustment so it will be more on dead center when I re-zero it.

 

[TODD 3465]

And here is the flash hider note how the new parkerizing is a shade or so lighter than the old.

 

[brass hammer]

take a piece

of broken glass to that wood stock and shave that crap off, then coat with linseed, quickly now, blastphamy damnit ! i had a 181 series once that made running neck shots on red fox 2 days in a row , both male ! for your sins it's 42 hail bill rugers ! and please propane responsively thanks

 

[Guest]

What the hell crap are you talking about?

I simply torched off that crappy gloss finish Ruger put on the older guns and then steel wooled it down to the shade I wanted which is dark brown with a steel wool pad soaked in linseed oil.
Then rubbed it with linseed oil.

I do not like light colored wood on my semi-auto rifles. Birch with nothing but linseed oil is way too light for my taste.

If you like light colored birch stocks fine; myself I think they look like crap.

 

[brass hammer]

smokin'

from what i could see[ i might need glasses in 10 to 15 years]was the thing would leave charcoal on your hands, and smell it coming!

cabela's or any other mail jobber have what you want in the 'night-fighter' style.

i'm sure you did a fine job on it, i personally prefer a lighter blonde to tiger stripe grain on a wood stocked issue rifle.

rereading my post , it was not in my most humble of opinons!

take this big "i'm sorry" for my response to your post for what it's worth! thanks
:beer:

 

[mrostov]

I like what you did, especially with the rear sight.

May I recommend ditching the OEM stock and getting a Houge overmoulded.

With the Houge stock you can also take off the buttplate and replace it with the trapdoor buttplate assembly from an AR-15. Since the Houge buttstock is hollow, it gives you a rear stock storage compartment much like an M-16 but with a bit more storage like a Cavalry Arms AR-15 stock.

 

[andy]

dont forget the watch, secret compartment

and your "decoder" ring, 007

 

[mrostov]

No, Inspector Clouseau, I was actually thinking more along the lines of a USGI cleaning kit and some extras, like a ruptured casing extractor and a couple of fresh batteries for the optic.

 

[TODD 3465]

brass hammer- No problem.:beer:

The pic quality ain't at it's best, cheap digi. cam makes it look too digital or rough; plus dark.

I did have to scrub it down somewhat, the steel wool and linseed oil did a good job of knocking off the actual charcoal though.

mrostov- A Houge stock will be down the road soon. This is just a temporary fix . A fellow at the public range where I go had a Mini with the Houge stock on it and it felt pretty nice.

And GK- I think your the only one here who has a gun with a compass set in the stock and a saddle ring.

 

[Guest]

Was the gun stainless before you parkerized it? If so, how did you parkerize Stainless? It sounds like a real good shooter.

 

[TODD 3465]

It was not stainless steel.

Stainless cannot be parkerized. In fact you have to use a stainless tank to hold the parkerizing solution otherwise it would coat the inside of a regular steel tank instead of the gun parts.
Though I do use a small enamel coated pan on a hot plate for little jobs.

However Ruger does a good job of doing something to stainless that gives it a flat gray finish.

 

[Magnum88C]

However Ruger does a good job of doing something to stainless that gives it a flat gray finish.

Funny thing is, their "target grey" finish is just how it looks coming out of the tumbler, all they do is skip the polish or bead blast steps.