Ruger’s rifle that never was– the hard hitting XGI
With a decade of fast Mini-14 sales behind them, Ruger decided to up-gun that .223 rifle to a much more impressive .308 caliber around 1984.
In the mid-1980s, Ruger was planning a reinvention of the company to include police and military products. They marketed the AC556 and the GB-series Mini, as well as introduced the P-85 pistol all aimed at law enforcement sales. Many police departments were adopting the ’14 for use from coast to coast and it made sense to offer an accurate but compact semi-auto in .308 Win that could be used by SWAT teams and the like.
Other 7.62x51mm options on the market for LE use at the time, the Springfield M1, HK G3, and semi-auto FN FALs, were and still are very long and awkward to use rifles tipping the scales at close to 10-pounds.
The answer was the XGI rifle and they are about as rare as it gets.
1985 Ruger catalog page on the gun offering great things to come…