I’m trying to refine the list of guns that I’m considering purchasing in 2026.
I’m currently considering the Springfield Armory Kuna. Also on my list is either a Springfield Armory Prodigy 5″ Comp or a Ruger Mini-14.
I immediately focused on the Mini-14 Tactical 5.56 Stainless. That gun looks nice! It’s the gun that Hannibal uses in the A-Team TV series of the 1980s.
Although I love the looks of the gun, it does look somewhat gaudy. Sadly, Ruger doesn’t sell a blued version of this gun with the folding stock, and if I’m going to get the Mini-14, I want a folding stock. I did look to see if they sell blued stocks separately – they do, but they’ve been out of stock for a long while. The folding stocks are also far from cheap, at $300+.
There are blued folding stocks being sold by 3rd parties, so that’s an option (prices are similar to Ruger’s pricing, though). For example, Samson Manufacturing has a blued version of the folding stock for $347 – the stainless one is $320. If I buy a blued non-folding stock version, I can find them for approximately $980. That’s $1300 for both, which is around the same price as a folding stock stainless Mini-14, which is good, because I can customize a blued Mini-14 for the same price as an upper-class stainless Mini-14.
Also, the magazines are $45 each! I do not think aftermarket mags are an option, because research tells me that anything other than Ruger-sourced magazines will cause malfunctions. It appears that Ruger mags are pretty much mandatory.
One thing I’m wary of is accuracy. Lucky Gunner stated and showed that his Mini-14 is isn’t really accurate. He said that the gun has a habit of throwing flyers at range. That’s something I do not want to deal with, and that’s a serious downer. All of my guns have to be accurate. I’d hate to spend the money (they aren’t exactly cheap) on a Mini-14 only to have accuracy issues.
This post is just me thinking out loud. I also wanted to share my thoughts in case others are considering the Mini-14.
UPDATE (11/2/2025): I checked themagshack.com and saw factory 20-rnd mags for $29 (and 30 round mags for $39).