so let's talk for a minute if you don't mind about the mini-14 well what what
took you to Ruger to build that why why there
oh he wanted ok the m16 of course introduced the 556 cartridge
it was a military cartridge. He wanted to do that starting with the semi-automatic
version of the 556 rifle that was just a copy of the m1 m14 you can type of
weapon primarily for the civilian market but one that because of the the
introduction of the new military cartridge they had some military
potential to okay the gun was designed to be an automatic weapon with a
select-fire automatic
full and semi ok now it's kind of doomed to failure the army wasn't about to ditch the one
gun they just adopted to have to replace it with a different one
yeah but there was worldwide interest in the thing for some reason the
French liked it but i think it was their penal system, they had bought it for-
they where the first to buy I think and it was full and semi what turned into an
extremely popular civilian oh and commercial market gun you know I think
it's second only to the AR itself the AR-15 ok what design work did you do on
that because it how much work with all it was it is the same exact principles
is the m1 and m 14 but it was cast it had to be designed so that you can make
it with castings because that's how Ruger made so many of these guns ok and
castings if you machine something out of bar stock you know you can have thick
sections and thin sections in the same thing but if you try casting that it
doesn't work it you get weak sections of the thing so for people who don't
understand or don't recognize how much work is involved in taking the operating
mechanism from an existing and well-proven gun and doing something
like scaling it down to a different cartridge well when you say scaling it
you can't just take the exact dimensions and you know each one has the same
scaling factor it it's like the engine in that Ford or the engine and that
whatever the other one is a Challenger is that what it is okay this is
exactly the same principle of the parts don't fit each other
okay well neither does this ok so you're taking a system that you know
works but you pretty much have to design it from the ground up yeah yeah
designing that engine right there ok you have to design everything in it even
even though the principles
Ruger was a real gun fan you know that every kind of gun in mind
ok and he seemed to have a golden touch 'cos whatever he liked the whole
market place liked I ruger does have a history of some extremely successful
designs and he was another great man to work for
he was kind of hard to work for I mean he had a terrific sense of
humor yeah brilliant ideas he would just some kind of comic things that I
remember was when I did the mini-14 the it the takedown is like the m1, the m-
you know you pull the trigger trigger guard open then and the whole trigger
mechanism comes out and the action lifts off the stock
well I had the detent that was supposed to hold that thing closed broke off
I didn't have a designed right and but we were firing the prototype anyway but you
I you know if you have to hold the thing up there with this finger while you're
pulling the trigger with this finger Bill Ruger was test-firing the prototype
at the range he walked into the range at that time he says oh I want to fire it
know I said okay bill but but then I started explaining about this problem of holding
it with your finger and he says I know how to shoot a gun I mean that's the way
he was he went the fire it and the whole trigger
mechanism crashed to the floor and the gun itself goes
plop out of the stock like that and the
rangemaster and I just cracked up we were literally howling oh imagine but
bill ruger laughed too that's my point thats good
they listen to your next time you gave a caveat
talk about the hotdog trail
oh yeah but when I was designing with the mini-14 I just he wanted to get the
bolt design he says let's get the bolt design first well you kind of have to
design everything so together you know
so anyway just to please him i was doing the bolt drawing and he saw that it was
about half complete the big drawing you know lots of hours on it and he comes in
he used to it buy his lunch out of the vending machines in the company you know and
he came in with beans and wieners okay and he dropped it
ok one of the wieners right in the middle of this drawing it rolled out on the
drawing spreading grease all over just ruined drawing and we both just watched it
oh we'll be redoing that one yeah but yeah that was before you could just do the
drawing on a computer
oh yeah it was an actual drawing it was and then we know the real reason for the
mini-14's accuracy
yes that's actually hotdog grease that was the source he actually got a bad reputation
with a lot of gun owners over magazine size limit yeah he did
ok and oh that some people really hated him for volunteering what was it 10
shots or something limited to is there any background to that story why he did it
i wasn't there when that happened ok