10/22 mags and Difference between Hot Lips and Steel Lips

JustinD

JustinD

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I am looking at buying a 25 round magazine for my 10/22. My local Cabela's only has the Butler Creek ones. Are they any good, if not what do you recommend? What is the really difference between the Hot and Steel Lips. Is there much of a reliability difference, or does one not last as long as the other?
 
My experience with Hot lips is they is not good. Jams, etc. Stick with steel lips for the few extra dollars. They don't have any issues.
 
The steel lips are worth the extra money. The plastic ones wear out fast and have jamming issues, up to u if u want to shoot and have fun or clear jams all day.lol
 
I have the Butler Creek steel lips. I just got my 10/22, so I've only been on one outing with it. I fired about 800 rounds through two mags. In my experience, the BC mags need to be broken in before their function improves. Near the end of the ~800 rounds, the mags were getting much better. They would only maybe jam once every 2nd magazine or so. Compare that to 3-4 jams per magazine initially. Waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy better than my old Remington 597, with the Remington high capacity magazines. I had 4 of those magazines, bought at different times, and they were all JAMOMATICS!

I have never tried the Hot Lips.
 
I tried the hot lips version once. the cartridge rims tended to cause a little dimple in the "lips" and get sticky/jammy.
Steel lips - after an initial break-in, no problems. First little while I found them stiff - left them fully charged for a few days and cycled a few boxes of bulk ammo through them and they were just fine. Lots of Richardson's Ground Squirrels can no longer attest to that...
 
Okay thank you very much, I think I will go with the Butler Creek Hotlips unless someone else has another magazine that will hold more than 10 rounds.
 
From my personal experiences and various forums regarding the 10/22, it's almost as if each mag and each 10/22 will have a varying degree of reliability. As others have mentioned, get 2, what should be "identical" mags from the same manufacturer, and one may run great, the other not so well. To throw another variable in, so does the ammo, as do other factors like the use of a "tuff buffer" or similar type of polymer buffer instead of the original steel buffer.

I personally had good results for the most part with HC3R which are somewhat readily available in Canada both in store (my local LGS has them) and online. Just another one to consider if you have access to them. Price is comparable as well. Might be worth your while to try out 1 or 2 different models used until you find one that works best. You see Butler Creek and other 10/22 mags being sold on EE regularly as well.
 
I've had hot lips and steel lips and they all fed fine. If you plan to keep it, and shoot lots, buy steel lips...worth the few extra bucks.
I have a Shooters Ridge with nylon lips that has a billion rounds through it and still going strong, although the long side is getting a wave in it.
I had one BC, don't remember which version that was sticky so I sprayed some WD (yeah I know) in it and worked the spring with one of the kids' paint brushes then jammed the air nozzle in and blew it out upside down. Ran fine after that...little dirty looking after but meh.
 
I have a couple of ugly old Eagle (?? I think) mags that work almost flawlessly in my older stainless carbine. I also have two or three BC steel lip mags. Any new ones I buy will be the BC steel lip.
 
Ya the aftermarket mags are hit and miss. Im done with them alltogether. Zero issues with the factory ones. Now if we could only get the factory 25 rounders!!!!!
 
zeuce said:
Ya the aftermarket mags are hit and miss. Im done with them alltogether. Zero issues with the factory ones. Now if we could only get the factory 25 rounders!!!!!
Click to expand...

What was the final verdict on those BX25x2 where they were 2 factory 25 rounders molded together?
 
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