I've written a little about the AC-556, but it's hard to find information on Ruger's early competitor to the M16.
The AC-556 is a selective fire variant of the Ruger Mini 14. Occasionally you'll see one in the US at a gunshow, one that was sold early on to a police force when police forces didn't want to look like the 82nd Airborne Division. The Mini 14 was regarded as looking less military, or perhaps less hostile, so some police forces favored it. As I've noted here once before, the Wind River Reservation game warden carried, at one time, a Mini 30, the 7.62x39 variant of the Mini 14.
The selective fire variant is, of course, different in that its an assault rifle and was originally conceived of as a competitor to the M16.
That it did receive military and paramilitary use if known, but murky. The Marine Corps, which didn't like the M16, considered adopting them early on but Ruger couldn't supply the anticipated needs for the Corps so they went on to partially redesign it, leading to the later variants of the M16. The Corps, of course, no longer uses the M16/M4 at all, although the rifle it does use is closely related to it, omitting its gas system.
Some AC-556s were used by Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, which of course is policing use. French police still use a selective fire variant of the Mini 14, produced in France, some paramilitary units in the Philippines used them. The British Bermuda Regiment seems to have used them, although some claim they actually used the Mini 14.
Now it turns out that the United Arab Emirates army used them.
This is typical for the AC-556. You don't tend to find any large military using them, but they were used. But details are nearly impossible to come by.
2 comments:
I have a Mini-14 Ranch version that I bought way back when they only cost about $350. They are a decent little rifle for what they are and are a lot more useful than an AR15 (at least for my purposes).
I mounted a little 1.5x5 scope on mine and worked up some accurate loads with a 68gr bullet. If I'm remembering it right, it would shoot about 1.5 inch groups at 100 yards and I was going to use it for deer hunting for some reason but I never had the confidence that it was big enough for a reliable deer hunting setup. But, if feral hogs ever show up, it will be perfect as my hog shooting truck gun.
The Mini 14 is a great rifle and at one time was very widely used. They came to be shunned in some quarters due to the Cult of the AR15.
Early Minis were way more reliable than AR15s/M16s which had a jamming problem. Indeed, the jamming problem was never fixed with the ARs, just abated to some degree. And truth be known, for field use they were just as practically accurate as early ARs were as well. In later years, particularly after the M14 was disallowed for service rifle competition, ARs came to be very accurate. But for those who packed M16A1s around, it isn't as if we thought that it was the most accurate rifle on earth, and we sure didn't think it was the most reliable.
Indeed, while it would get a guy tossed out of the Arm Chair Commando Lounge now, a lot of us early on hated the M16 and loved the M60, whereas a lot of people who never carried either now hate the M60 and love the M16. As for the Mini 14, it frankly is a great little rifle that deserves more respect.
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