Ruger 10/22 Magazines: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly???

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RickR1100

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Looking at 10/22's, and one thing I've noticed is that there's many different companies offering different magazines for them. Some of these mags have been around a long time and are proven, some are brand new and may not hold up to lots of use.

Sooo...for myself and all other 10/22 users, what are the magazines to buy, the ones that are just ok, and which ones should we avoid at all costs because they either don't last long or are unreliable?

To start with, is it safe to assume the original 10 round Ruger factory magazines are reliable?
 
Factory 10 rders are as reliable as a mag gets. Promags are good, my 32 rders are due for replacement however after a couple thousand rds the followers are jamming at about 25 rds. The new shooters ridge mags are junk. avoid at all costs. I was lucky to get 200 rds. thru one before the follower started jamming at about 9 or 10 rds. Others have bought ones that wouldnt work at all from the start. The one BC hotlips mag I bought was a jam-o-matic though some people have had good results (they seem hit or miss) BC steel lips seem to be the kings of 10/22 hicap mags but I have yet to try them.
 
I only use factory mags. I'd like a drum, but it seems like a waste if it's not prefect. I think it's volquartsen that has a piece to join 3 factory mags into a sort of 30 rd unit.
 
its tri-mag your thinking of Harbourone, and there great have 4 of them here and now you can get belt pouches that hold the tri-mag system (ebay was awsome for getting these) stay away from promags 50 round drum that thing was a epic fail, lots of guys like butler creek steel lips mags, Tac Inc make great mags but hard to find sometimes in Canada
 
The 25 rounders i have are old ramline models. Work great but i haven`t bought a 10-22 mag in 15 years so don`t know how the new ones work. As well i keep finding factory mags in the damndest places. The only time i have trouble with them is if they get gummed up, a little cleaning and good to go.
 
I bought 2 BC Steel Lips mags in 2 separate purchases. I loved the first so much I figured I should have a second. The second mag gave me some issues from new, but as it worked itself in, it became just as reliable as the first. Now I can blast through all 25 rounds as fast as I can pull the trigger with both of them, and there are no problems to be had.

The factory mags are great for reliability as well, and have NEVER given me any issues. Problem is, they're only 10 rounds, and who wants that? :p

I load all the magazines (BC and factory) both by hand and with the BC magazine loader.
 
The Good:
-factory 10rd magazines
-Tactical inc magazines after proper adjustment
-BC 25rd steel lip, when it worked

The Bad:
-shooters ridge 30rd double stack. Not horrible, but not reliable enough to get through whole magazine. dirty gun as well, might have caused some trouble
-out of adjustment tactical inc magazines. Take the 5min and adjust them.

The ugly:
-BC steel lip that didn't feed properly, and the bolt slamming into the cartridge, while still in magazine, cause it to exploded out of battery. Luckily, and surprisingly, rifle undamaged, magazine mostly undamaged, remaining cartridges undamaged, shooter unhurt. Ego, bruised.
 
Richard Cranium said:
I wish I could find TI25 aluminum mags in canada......
Click to expand...

If you dont mind ordering from the states, Brownells and SKSman have them. I bought 2 from Paul and couldnt get them to feed reliably. The only ammo that they would actually take 25 rds. of was blazer, all the others would jam the follower up at 9-12 rds. The last 5 rds or so of blazer would jam 100% in the rifle every time so I sent them back.
 
BC Steel lips work great with all ammo I use. Had the soft lips and they wore out and screwed up. Some times it could be the ammos fault though
 
The 25 banana mags(Steel lips only) work well but I find it sticks to far from the bottom of the rifle. It's difficult to shoot from a bench and it just gets in the way in the bush. I purchased several of the TRI-MAGs off a guy on the EE and really like them. Just uses 3 of your own original 10 rounders, that function perfectly, and snuggles them together into a small 3 spoke unit. The Tri mag doesn't hang but about 1/2 the drop of a 25 banana, is very easy to grip for pulling out and reinstalling and holds 30 instead of 25. You can also install different types of bullets into each mag if you desire; Stingers in 1, HP in 2 and Subsonic in 3 for whatever purposes you have. After trying mine a friend also bought several and another guy at the range wanted the info so he could get them as well. Good luck.
 
lone-wolf said:
The Good:
-factory 10rd magazines
-Tactical inc magazines after proper adjustment
-BC 25rd steel lip, when it worked

The Bad:
-shooters ridge 30rd double stack. Not horrible, but not reliable enough to get through whole magazine. dirty gun as well, might have caused some trouble
-out of adjustment tactical inc magazines. Take the 5min and adjust them.

The ugly:
-BC steel lip that didn't feed properly, and the bolt slamming into the cartridge, while still in magazine, cause it to exploded out of battery. Luckily, and surprisingly, rifle undamaged, magazine mostly undamaged, remaining cartridges undamaged, shooter unhurt. Ego, bruised.
Click to expand...

^My experience is pretty darn close to this. I'll add I have yet to try the newer Tactical Inc mags. And I also purchased the 10 round (but still hang below the riflestock) see through Butler Creek Steel Lip mags after some research. And for no reason other than I found that some reported these long ten rounders, as very reliable in operation.
 
Ruger now makes a 25 round mag very similar to the B.C. steel lips Mag.
It feeds (so I am told) as reliably as the 10 rounders and is called the BX-25. Only problem though is that they are prohibited in Canada.
Seems Ruger advertised them as also working with the charger pistol and so the RCMP in their infinite wisdom used that as an excuse to ban them.
 
I have two of the Tactical T-25 mags and am having the devil of a time to get them adjusted properly to feed and not jam. A mag with 8-10 round in it, will chamber the top round when the bolt is released but the next round gets hung up. In fact, I started a thread in this forum decribing this problem with images of the stoppage within the past two weeks,

The mags will chamber dummy rounds fine but I don't dare try live ammo here in our Ottawa apartment and must wait until January back at the cottage when hopefully I can get them to :ar15:

Here is the earlier thread:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=679916
 
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SOF I bought a pair of TI25s and just couldnt get them to feed right. TI told me to adjust them for just slight wiggle by seating them in the action with the stock removed and adjusting each screw to about .003" clearance. I did that but the main problem was the feed angle of the follower, I filed it down little by little keeping it flat on top and feeding slowly improved but could not be perfected. I got to the point where it would feed 20 rds of Blazer flawlessly and jam each and every one of the last 5 rds 100% of the time. By then the bullets were scraping the feed lips and the angle could not be reduced any more. I sent them back for a refund. The other point I should mention is the mags would take 25 rds of Blazer but other types of ammo would only take 9-12 rds before jamming up completely.
 
supernova said:
SOF I bought a pair of TI25s and just couldnt get them to feed right. TI told me to adjust them for just slight wiggle by seating them in the action with the stock removed and adjusting each screw to about .003" clearance. I did that but the main problem was the feed angle of the follower, I filed it down little by little keeping it flat on top and feeding slowly improved but could not be perfected. I got to the point where it would feed 20 rds of Blazer flawlessly and jam each and every one of the last 5 rds 100% of the time. By then the bullets were scraping the feed lips and the angle could not be reduced any more. I sent them back for a refund. The other point I should mention is the mags would take 25 rds of Blazer but other types of ammo would only take 9-12 rds before jamming up completely.
Click to expand...

I bought my pair of TI 25s having read that they the best 25s then available, superior to the BC metal lips even, at of course more money.

I made the mistake of trying to get the wiggles out left & right, front to back, by adjusting the screws before trying them, So I loaded 10 rounds in the first, stepped outside and :ar15: all seemed well. at least on the first mag. So I then tried to duplicate the screw settings on the other.

The second mag would not feed properly, so more trial & error adjustment, problem not solved. Went back to the first mag, and it too started to act up.

I want to keep the mags if I can only get them functioning properly. I will try to contact Tacticalinc by email and then send them the OP from my thread with the images.

Wish me luck :confused:
 
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