In working with semi-auto AK variants from IO (the polymer-stocked Sporter Model) and Century Arms International (the under-folding Polish variant), I have come to a better appreciation of the AK. There is a lot to be said for one that is of reasonable quality. While the BATFE regulations that require a certain amount of American-made parts be added to the mix—40 percent, I believe—seem very silly on their face, I think it has added an additional level of quality to the weapons, as opposed to the AKs that were strictly imports prior to the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. If I couldn’t afford the AR of my choice, I would be totally comfortable with one of these partly American AKs as my primary survival guns despite their two operational deficits of looser accuracy and a tedious safety system.
There is only one other concern that I have for the AK as a survival gun in current times. It is only a theoretical issue, but one often mentioned. The AK is clearly seen as the “bad guy’s gun.” Due to its low cost and its ability to deliver a high volume of firepower, it is very often the weapon selected for use by criminals such as drug traffickers and active shooter. (Of course, that same low cost is the reason so many recreational shooters who just like to fire a lot of rounds on the target range purchase them.) What’s worse is that it’s the weapon the liberal news media portrays as being responsible for the crime problem in its entirety. Because of this, certain police officers who are not gun enthusiasts themselves will view the possession of this type of weapon with suspicion. Now, in the case of total chaos, this won’t matter, but in current times it might. This means that you must be very careful in terms of legality and visibility if you travel with an AK in pre-disorder times. It is just a factor of its rather ill-portrayed reputation that will require a bit more attention on your part in order for you to travel with one without issue.
Ruger’s Ranch Rifle
If you want a weapon with piston operation reliability but don’t, for whatever reason, wish to use an AK-47 variant, there are still some other excellent choices available. The next one that comes to mind is the excellent Ruger Mini-14.
The Ruger Mini-14 has been around for a very long time. It was considered a premier law enforcement patrol rifle for those very few agencies who would allow them, primarily because it shot the .223 Remington cartridge rather than a pistol round, and it was far more available and less expensive than Colt’s Model 1 Sporter. I once borrowed a personal Mini-14 from a state trooper friend of mine when I was a detective on our drug unit and was tasked with checking, by myself, a rural location used by devil worshippers; devil worship was considered a major threat, in 1983. The Mini-14 was convenient to carry and provided an extra measure of comfort when I located the site, which did appear to have been constructed for its alleged task.
I purchased my own a year later. It was full hardwood stocked, in blued finish (the stainless model wasn’t available yet), and had the hardwood upper fore-end cover, instead of the more efficient, yet uglier, fore-end upper that later became standard. It was a handy rifle, and it was thanks to this rifle that I discovered the .223 round was far more powerful than rumored at that time. It never missed a beat. Unfortunately, that particular rifle is on the list of the ones that I let get away, being traded for something else I felt I needed more.
The Ruger Mini-14 was the first rifle issued to our patrol sergeants at my sheriff’s office in Union County Ohio, as a field test of the advantage of the patrol rifle over the shotgun. Turned out it was a big advantage in our wide-open, flat, farmland patrol area. By that time, we were issued the stainless steel, synthetic stocked variants and Nitrex-coated steel magazines. Over the years of supervising annual qualifications and training with these guns, I’ve never seen one malfunction or have any other issue. In fact, they would have been the standard patrol rifle for both sergeants and deputies alike, had it not been for the Department of Defense Law Enforcement Assistance Program, which provided our agency and many others with M16A1 rifles for just the cost of shipping. Still, even with M16A1s in hand, several of the supervisors, including the Chief Deputy of the sheriff’s office, elected to stick with their Ruger Mini-14s.
The Mini-14 offers several great advantages for those who select it, and it would be another top pick if I didn’t already own several AR-15s.
For starters, the Ruger Mini-14 is patterned after the operating systems of the M14 and M1 Garand, two service weapons whose reliability is beyond reproach. Using investment casting, Ruger managed to build a scaled-down version with some small variations, the most noticeable being that the placement of the trigger guard is slightly to the rear of the action, rather than beneath it as it is on the parent rifles.
Like I said earlier, the Mini-14 runs and runs with little attention. According to Shawn Herman, the gunsmith at Vance’s Shooter’s Supply, in Columbus, Ohio, the Ruger Mini-14 is one of the guns that doesn’t come back to him in need of repairs. Truly, I believe that it would have become the dominant 5.56mm law enforcement (LE) rifle had it not been for 1). the DoD program, and 2). the fact that all the Desert Storm and Iraq/Afghanistan war vets who have been filling our law enforcement ranks had not been already so familiar with the AR operating system. Not to mention the greater versatility of the AR platform, but I digress.
The open-top action design of the Mini-14 allows one to totally view the entire action when the slide is retracted. The chamber is totally visible and accessible for everything from an emergency clearance (not likely) to a quick field cleaning. On the AK and AR, one can see only a portion of the operating area without a field strip and, even then, the direct view of the chamber area is limited.
The Mini-14’s safety, which was debuted on the M1 Garand, is truly ambidextrous. It is located inside the front end of the trigger guard ahead of the trigger and is pushed forward to take off safe, pushed in to safe, and is clearly visible from both sides of the rifle. I also like the gun’s sight system, which is rugged, simple, and low profile.
The Mini-14, in original configuration, is a lightweight rifle. I favor the blued steel model listed as the Mini-14/20 Ranch Rifle, which comes with a 20-round magazine and hardwood stock. Wood is nature’s camouflage material. We really didn’t need much camo in the pre-synthetic stock days. At seven pounds, it is a tad heavier than the black-stocked synthetic variant at 6.75 pounds, but I prefer the wood variant. Need more camo? Put some camo wrap on the barrel. In any event, it is lighter than many of the M4/AR-15 variants out there. The tactical variants of the Mini-14 can add up to a pound to the gun and $60 to the cost. By way of comparison, the Standard Model of the Ruger SR556 M4-type piston driven carbine is a pound heavier than the Mini-14/20 and costs $1,000 more, which is pretty much the price for any piston-driven AR. You can sure purchase a lot of gear for that kind of money.
Unlike the AK-47, the Mini-14 is not considered a “bad guy’s gun,” particularly in the wood stock version. Remember that the Clinton Assault Weapon Ban of 1994 targeted “Black Guns,” the synthetic-stocked models and guns like the AK, which were tactical black in color and had bayonet lugs on them (massed bayonet charges being a common criminal gang tactic at the time—not). The Mini-14 was still produced after the ban, but only with five-round magazines (even though 10 would have been legal, Bill Ruger, Sr., didn’t want to draw any more attention to his company). For years, 20-round magazines were hard to come by. Fortunately, with a change in company direction, Ruger once again, though long after the sunset of the Clinton gun ban in 2004, began producing 20-round magazines for sale to civilians. If five-round factory magazines were still the only type available, I might have been a little hesitant to recommend the Mini-14, unless I’d been able to find a quality brand of reliable aftermarket magazines.