Unlike the earlier Mini14, the Ranch was designed to take a scope. The Mini14 will pound any scope to pieces - including Leupolds. The violent slamming of the slide against the receiver (which acts like a tuning fork and dissipates energy in part to the scope base/scope), the upward ejection of the shell striking the scope base all work towards scope failure.
The Ranch overcame these problems with the introduction of a buffer ring (steel) between the receiver and the slide. This help dampens and dissipates some of the slide's recoil. The bolt was modified by excluding the ejector. The slide stop was modified to include an ejector which ejects brass to the side and not upwards. And everything else Gizmo99 said.
Lesson - unless you buy lifetime warranted scopes and don't mind rescoping your Mini, don't scope a Mini14.
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