New hope for a Mini 30 Grendel?

[Drift]

If I remember correctly , the Mini 30 conversion to Grendel was the first ever "allowed" conversion of a rifle other then AA ar s to the Grendel. The idea never went well. The rifles worked and shot well but (as always) the Mini 30 magazines were all buggered up. The only thing that worked were low cap factory magazines that held like 4 Grendel rounds. But at SHOT this year a new and clever magazine and follower was introduced that can feed reliably both the 5.56 and (24 rounds) of 6.5 Grendel. The new magazine looks to be a pretty standard AR magazine, its the follower that's different. Changing out a Mini 30 bottom metal to a mini 14 metal is easy. It's possible, even probable that replacing the Minis 14 follower is also doable. There are a lot of Mini fans out there that could come into the Grendel Hoard with this.

[tplace]

I would be on tap for a mini in 6.5G.

[Birdog]

Please tell me more.

I'd never heard of a 6.5 Grendel until I sent my Mini 30 into Accuracy Systems for rework. At that time he gave me a list of the conversions that were available to my gun. After pouring over ballistics chart, the Grendel was the hands down favorite. I remember being excited that night like a kid before Christmas, just waiting to enter my order.

I absolutely love my Mini 30 conversion. The bull barrel makes it a bit heavy for walkabout hogging. I'm working toward building or buying an upper for my AR. I'm using Ruger 6.8 mags. Although they hold 5 rounds I've found the gun feeds better if I limit it to 4. Every now and then the gun doesn't feed perfectly. For my needs the flush fit mag fills the bill in that I like the way the gun lays flat in my Caldwell Tack Driver shooting bag. Many of my shots are on turkey and hogs at 270 yards. Combined with my Swarovski Z3 4-12x50 (BRX) scope the shots are a breeze. Swarovski makes an app that you can upload your load into. For a Hornday 123gr SST the BRX reticle has vertical lines or intermediate dots at almost perfect 50 yard increments on the scope, and windage is measured by a vertical has mark and/or end of each reticle line. That scope is definitely the cat's meow.

But I digress. I'd like to hear more about the mags you saw at SHOT.

[stanc]

...at SHOT this year a new and clever magazine and follower was introduced that can feed reliably both the 5.56 and (24 rounds) of 6.5 Grendel. The new magazine looks to be a pretty standard AR magazine, its the follower that's different. Changing out a Mini 30 bottom metal to a mini 14 metal is easy. It's possible, even probable that replacing the Minis 14 follower is also doable. There are a lot of Mini fans out there that could come into the Grendel Hoard with this.

Maybe. But first, somebody has to actually do such a Mini-30/Mini-14 magazine/AR-15 improved magazine follower conversion in order to demonstrate that it will really work reliably. Who will do that?

[stanc]

I would be on tap for a mini in 6.5G.

I would also like to have one, but only if developed and produced by Ruger, with genuine Ruger magazines made specifically for 6.5 Grendel.

Perhaps five years ago I very briefly considered an ASI conversion, but quickly rejected it due to the total cost and lack of acceptable mags.

[LRRPF52]

The adaptable AR15 magazine follower is meant for AR15 feeding.

The Mini-14/30 has a totally different magazine geometry because it has to feed cartridges into a breech without use of feed ramps like on the AR15.

As a result, the magazines have a taper to the box as viewed from the top in cross-sectional perspective, whereas the AR15 magazines are parallel.

This causes certain considerations for the Mini-30 that would require a dedicated magazine to be made for it, and you're facing the economic reality of how hard it is to get into new production ventures for a marginal rifle when compared to the AR15 and the demand it generates.