Wonder why the brain trust at Ruger did not use AR15 magazines in the rifle?
I see this stated SOOOOOO often..... and it drives me crazy. People do not understand gun design.
All ya gotta do is completely redesign the Mini-14 to take AR magazines, it would be so simple!... then why doesn't someone do it? They could make millions!
it's even worse than "they shoulda made it take Schlock mags!"
Umm since they are gun designers it would have been simple had they known about AR popularity at the time. Bill hoped the AR would die and his mini would live. We got lucky that Bill and the mini lost
umm yeah. simple. How would the mag catch work?
What kind of monstrosity would have to be made in order to make AR magazines go in a "mini-14"?
At the time, lots of people liked the M-14. Lots of people also didn't really care much for the M-16. The Mini-14 was made to emulate the M-14, down to the magazine design, and people didn't have a problem with that. And they sold the everlovin' schidt out of them. Even with magazines being fairly hard to come by.
It's just a different gun. Not everything has to be AR compatible. The Mini-14 used to be the economical choice... by FAR. It's not anymore. And the magazines have nothing to do with that.
