Kim du Toit

"I’ve always had a soft spot for the Ruger "Mini" rifles: the Mini-14 in .223 Rem, and more especially the Mini-30 in 7.62x39mm (7.62x39mm). In truth, a number of individuals, whose opinions I respect, would choose the Ruger Mini as their "sh*t hits the fan" (SHTF) rifle.

Indeed, in times of civil unrest or catastrophe (think: Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast), there is a cogent reason for every citizen to have one of these stashed away. If you recall the newsreel footage of Korean storekeepers in L.A. protecting their establishments from looters, they were brandishing semi-automatic military rifles, not bolt-action hunters.

And I agree, absolutely. I still wouldn’t choose the Mini-14 in .223, but many people would, because the ammo is cheap and plentiful, being the NATO military cartridge. For anti-personnel purposes (in which role the 7.62x39mm excels), I’d pick the Mini-30 myself, if I didn’t already have my own SHTF rifle picked out."

The above is from Mr. du Toit. Misha loves the guy, but it's uber-obvious he's never fired a shot in anger at anything that was shooting back. Yes, the AK-type mini-30 round is probably more effective than the FMJ...repeat...FMJ 5.56 mm, but who in their right mind would use 5.56 in FMJ as a defensive weapon? There are literally dozens of expanding 5.56 mm cartridges on the market and any one of them making a .45 to .50 caliber hole would be preferrable to a 7.62X39 making a .30 caliber hole. Velocity doesn't mean all that much if the round is merely going to pinhole the target...we're talking immediate or close to it incapacitation now, not dying from blood loss a half hour down the road.

Velocity coupled with making a much bigger hole...now that's the ticket. For home defense pick the 5.56/.223 over the mini-7.62. Just be sure you feed it what has been proven to kill on contact. That's of course up until the time when someone comes out with a 7.62X39 round that was actually designed to kill a man, and not some tradeoff to soothe the Hague Conventioneers.

Oh yeah, and the Mini-14 types have been raked over the coals as being troublesome from the get-go, overpriced, underengineered and inaccurate. I have found them to be okay, nothing to write home about, just okay when it comes down to getting down. If it's the looks and the gotta-have-one that tickles the fancy, then by all means, fancy away. Just understand that there are far better choices and calibers available to do more than plink.

So much for the Imperial Firearms Advisor.