I Own Guns

Testing Magazines for the Ruger 10/22

Written on August 19, 2014   By   in General Gun Stuff, Product Reviews, Repeaters, Rifles

In my ever continuing quest to find the best 10/22 magazines, I’ve tested a bunch of them.

The list isn’t complete, there are a number of mags that I haven’t tried, mostly due to time and budget constraints. My testing is somewhat systematic, but far from scientific.

The short version: The BX25 remains the most reliable magazine over 10 rds capacity that I have tested. Some other mags come close, but the BX25 would be what I would grab if I needed max reliability.

The Long Version:

For the last several years, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet where I’ve tracked the reliability of the 10/22 mags that I’ve been using. I’ve tracked only magazines fired by myself, and not counted magazines fired by other users (in case their technique played a factor etc.) Failures because of bad ammo weren’t counted against the magazines.

Any magazine that I only tested a single example of should be considered only for anecdotal value, as every brand produces the occasional lemon. Further testing would be required before I would be happy with the results of those.

Reliability Results, in no particular order:

(25 rd) Ruger Bx-25 (4 mags tested) Avg reliability 99%+/-

(25 rd) Butler Creek Steel lips Clear (9 tested 1 problematic) Avg reliability (minus 1 problem mag) 96% +/- (Problem mag averaged less than 60% reliability)

(25 rd) Butler Creeek Steel lips smoke (6 tested) Avg reliability 96% +/-

(30 rd) Ram-line 30 rd Double stack Pre-ban (4 tested) Avg reliability 95% +/- (This was shocking to me based on their terrible reputation, but I had good experiences with them)

(25 rd) Ram-line “Truncator” single stack (1 tested) 0% reliability (literally wouldn’t properly feed a single round, inclluding the truncated cone ammo it was designed for)

(30 rd) Ram-line single stack (opaque black, 5 tested) Avg reliability 25%+/-

(50 rd) Ram-line double stack (7 tested) Avg Reliability 35% +/-

(25 rd) HC3R single stack (3 tested) Avg reliability 90% +/-

(30 rd) Eagle mags (Pre Ban, 4 tested) Avg reliability 50% +/-

(25 rd) Butler Creek “Hot Lips” (1 tested) Reliability 85% +/-

(25 rd) Tactical Inc TI 25 Composite (5 tested) Avg reliability 92% +/-

(30 rd) Bingham Steel magazines (6 tested) Avg reliability 90% +/- (Tried with 3 different adapters, results very similar, though the adapters differed slightly)

(50 rd) MWG / Mitchell Teardrop (Pre-ban, 3 tested) Avg reliability 50% +/- (All the ones I tested were old. Others have had great luck with them, I didn’t)

(50 rd) Pro-Mag drum (1 tested) Reliability 25% +/-

(50 rd) AMT drum (Pre Ban, 1 tested) Reliability 25% +/- (This old drum was modified at some point in the past, not a great example)

(50 rd) Custom billet aluminum double stack (no markings 1 tested) Reliability 65% +/- (This is an odd magazine, likely someone’s shop project, well made, but modified at some point down the line)
Most of the mags I’ve tested:

IMG_0994

In the end, I boxed up all the mags that averaged less than about 90% reliability, and Only use the most reliable mags.