Well, it is now the end of January, and I have put about 400 rounds thorugh the Mini-14 Tactical. So, for those interested, some observations follow.
It is of note that all shooting has been with Wolf 62 grain HP, steel cased ammunition. All shooting is offhand except for an over the sandbags at 100yards for MOA record. All shooting has been with the factory installed aperture sights.
The initial 25 yards sight-in (1 shot in a 2 inch bullseye as sights came from factory) indicated that 200 yards shooting could commence.
The first outing digested 30 rounds and put the gun in the black of the 200 yards NRA target.
Subsequent 200 yards shooting sessions resulted in the sights being adjusted and capable of providing x-centered 200 yards bullseye hits when I could perform appropriately. Of note, removing the action from the stock for cleaning does not alter the POI at 200 yards.
A 300 meters session indicated that the rifle possesses the accuracy for application at this distance from the offhand.
A 100 yards sandbag session gave just about 2 MOA average. Scoped the rifle may shoot better. It shoots as accurately as my M4.
Some remarks on the rifle's characteristics:
The sights are improved over the 580 series sights, the difference being the flared protector wings on the front sight; thus there is less aperture clutter and sight picture acquisition is quicker than with the 580 series, at least for me.
Hot, the barrel does open groups up to about 2.5 to 3 MOA, as does my M4. Neither this Mini-14 nor the M4 walk the shots like the 580 series Mini-14 rifles I own.
The recoil of this rifle is almost non-existent; more so than usual for this cartridge.
It does seem that the Ruger engineers were able to perform product improvement with the changes incorporated into this 581 series Mini-14.