It's strange, I'm with Sharkey here. I've had a couple of mini 14s, maybe three of them, and had nothing but good results. Never had jams, my gas system never gave me trouble and they shot more accurately at 200 than my AR. At least as well...They aren't cheaper than anything nor is the ammo. Here in Canadaicon, ammo isn't cheap anyway. The mag thing is a moot point because we can only have 5 rd mags so the factory mags are fine. They work perfectly. I never owned a new one, just the older models in blue and wood. I'm not really a novice at this either, and I hardly spared the ammo when shooting. This observation is spaced over 25 or 30 years too. I've watched this post since it first came out and never understood the grief expressed about minis...