Lofty, When we first started looking into patrol rifles/carbines,I sent out two letters. One to Colt and the other to Ruger at the same time. In about three days,we received a package from Ruger with 50 owner's manuals for the Mini 14 and dates for armorer's courses for the Mini-14 and other Ruger firearms.
Never heard back from Colt.....ever.
So,obviously our first patrol carbines were Mini-14s and I had one set up with a Ceiner 22lr conversion unit in our indoor range for the officers to practice with.