Ruger did. Way back. I've seen pictures in books, but never one in the wild.
Oops. That's what I get for jumping ahead in the thread.
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Why doesn't the Mini14 come in .30 Carbine?
- Thread starter Ex313
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Oops. That's what I get for jumping ahead in the thread.
Why not rerelease it as a turd. Oh snap! it already is.
Apologies to OP - but -
Having thought about this for a while, one of the things I kinda grok about Ruger is that they'll come up with a design, launch it with a few standard chamberings, and then blossom out into other more speculative ones, see if they sell and then cut their losses quickly when they don't.
With the Mini-14, it really isn't surprising that they released .222, .223(5.56), 300BLK, 6.8 SPC (and yeah, 7.62x39) versions. Sure, they stopped making the .222 and 6.8 SPC but they could start them up whenever they want based on market demand. After all, with the exception of the 7.62x39, all the chamberings are similar form-factor (I think the 6.8 has a slightly greater OAL and the bolt head would be different, but mags are probably the same). 30.30 is just sufficiently different that extractors, bolt head, probably mags etc would all be different. A Bridge Too Far, you might say.
The Ruger parts catalogs are full of "models that didn't make it" and it always seemed to me that the models they made were usually designed EXPECTING to be used for multiple calibers.
Without digressing too much, the discussion of the PC Carbine in something heftier than 9mm came up.
I remember reading a discussion about this somewhere, and IIRC there was a good explanation why it becomes more difficult with higher power chamberings - and that's the dead-blow weight in the bolt assembly.
The weight for the 9mm is a tungsten alloy - considerably denser than steel. For 10mm, the corresponding weight would need to be much heavier, but have the same or very similar dimensions, which would require a much denser material - and there aren't many candidates to choose from that aren't expensive and/or radioactive.
Having thought about this for a while, one of the things I kinda grok about Ruger is that they'll come up with a design, launch it with a few standard chamberings, and then blossom out into other more speculative ones, see if they sell and then cut their losses quickly when they don't.
With the Mini-14, it really isn't surprising that they released .222, .223(5.56), 300BLK, 6.8 SPC (and yeah, 7.62x39) versions. Sure, they stopped making the .222 and 6.8 SPC but they could start them up whenever they want based on market demand. After all, with the exception of the 7.62x39, all the chamberings are similar form-factor (I think the 6.8 has a slightly greater OAL and the bolt head would be different, but mags are probably the same). 30.30 is just sufficiently different that extractors, bolt head, probably mags etc would all be different. A Bridge Too Far, you might say.
The Ruger parts catalogs are full of "models that didn't make it" and it always seemed to me that the models they made were usually designed EXPECTING to be used for multiple calibers.
Without digressing too much, the discussion of the PC Carbine in something heftier than 9mm came up.
I remember reading a discussion about this somewhere, and IIRC there was a good explanation why it becomes more difficult with higher power chamberings - and that's the dead-blow weight in the bolt assembly.
The weight for the 9mm is a tungsten alloy - considerably denser than steel. For 10mm, the corresponding weight would need to be much heavier, but have the same or very similar dimensions, which would require a much denser material - and there aren't many candidates to choose from that aren't expensive and/or radioactive.
Well, in part, Ruger recognized that (it wasn't just an issue with stainless steel barrels) and changed the barrel profiles on more modern guns.
When they did that the problem largely went away and they changed the serial number prefix to 580 - but as you say, the actions aren't really designed to take full-power battle cartridges.
I just came here to say the mini-14 is and always will be an inaccurate piece of ****.
The A Team TV series proved that - they fired hundreds of rounds and never hit any of the bad guys.
It’s a joke
