GENERAL INFORMATION AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The Mini-14 Rifle is a gas operated, box magazine fed, semi-automatic firearm. The Mini- 14 mechanism is composed of relatively few, rugged components. Its breech and firing mechanism are held to minimum size and weight by the efficient use of hardened chrome molybdenum steel. Music wire coil springs are used throughout the mechanism to ensure reliability.

The Mini-14 Rifle resembles the U. S. Military Garand-type rifles in outward appearance and in all basic mechanical principles. It is much smaller than the Garand-type rifles and incorporates a number of minor mechanical differences.

The 181, 182 and 183 serial number prefix Mini-14 Rifle includes changes from the earlier Mini-14 Rifle. Therefore, when ordering parts or requesting information. it is essential to give the entire serialnumber of your rifle. The changes in the 18 I, 182 and 183 prefix rifle have been made primarily to simplify the mechanism and to provide better protection of the action from external dirt.

SAFETY MECHANISM
The manual safety mechanism is located forward of the trigger as illustrated in Figure A. The safety can be moved to "ON" (extreme rearward position) only when the hammer is cocked. When the safety is "ON" it blocks both the hammer and sear. WARN I NG: The user should never depend on a safety mechanism or any other mechanical device to justify careless handling or pointing the rifle in an unsafe direction.

BOLT LOCK MECHANISM
The Mini- 14 Rifle is designed so that the bolt remains open after the last shot has bccn fired, provided there is a magazine in the rifle. When the magazine is empty. the magazine follower actuates the bolt lock which is designed to retain the bolt and slide in their rearward position.
WARNING: The bolt lock is not a safety device. It should not be used to hold the bolt back when there are cartridges in the magazine. A slight jar to the butt end of the rifle will cause the bolt lock to disengage and to feed a cartridge into the chamber.
The bolt lock should be relied on only to hold the bolt in its rearward position when the chamber is empty and an empty magazine is in place in the action. The onl> purpose of the bolt lock is for convenience in the rapid changing of magazines and for holding the bolt in its rearward position when the rifle is unloaded forthe purpose of cleaning or inspection.
To release the slide (which allows the bolt to go forward) either:
1. Remove the magazine, draw the slide handle to the rear and release, or:
2. With the magazine in place, draw the slide handle fully to the rear. l'hcn depress the
magazine follower slightly with the thumb and allow the slide to go forward. To manually engage the bolt lock to keep the bolt open: I. Pull the slide handle all the way to the rear.
2. Depress the bolt lock plunger and allow the slide to move forward until it stops.