[Hrdnox]

Went to the range today to tryout my new 10/22 rifle and to put a few more rounds through my Charger. Gosh, I'm proud of both these new toys. Both are stellar shooters. Both my paper targets had 5 ragged holes over each bulleye. Split a brick of 550 between the two of them and only experienced one stovepipe. It was with my lesser hot lips hi-cap mag and I heard it before it happened. A squib Federal bulk round, so no worries.

Anyway, I got 2 factory mags with my rifle and while cleaning them last night, I noticed that the springs seemed awful weak compared to the new one that came with my Charger. Wasn't sure if it would be problematic or not, but found that both fed perfectly. Got me to thinking about how to get the new one a little looser, because it's tough to load compared to the other two. I'm wondering if I should keep all my mags filled and if that would aid in loosening up the spring in the new one. I've always kept them empty. Do you guys keep yours empty or loaded? Additionally, I'm wondering the same thing about my Butler Creek high-caps (I have 1 hot lips and 2 steel lips), because they're pretty tight, too. Should I keep them loaded or empty when not in use? I'd appreciate any experiences or suggestions, good or bad.

 

[22lrfan]

I've read several articles that have said it doesn't hurt a magazine to keep it full loaded. I used to keep mine 1 or 2 rounds below max but for the last couple of years I've kept them maxed out. Haven't had any problems. The 10/22 mags have a coil spring that is wound to pretension the rotor when it is assembled. I can't remember right now how many turns it is supposed to be wound when assembling one. You could try unwinding the tight magazine one turn and see if it still functions ok.

 

[Hrdnox]

Thanks 22lrfan. I was wondering about that, too. Just didn't have all the info I needed. I think there's a write up over at Rimfirecentral about disassembling and cleaning factory mags. It probably tells how many turns is right. Think I'll read over it this weekend. Then too, I may need to give these mags time to break in before cracking them open. I think I'll clean and load them tonight, leaving them loaded until my next range trip next Thurs. It's good to know it's OK to leave them full, though. I have zero experience with a wound coil spring and didn't know if they could be overstressed or not. I keep at least one mag for all my handguns filled all the time with no worries about ill effects, but they have a different type of spring and replacements are easy to find, if need be. Seems I can find a lot of stock parts for these 10/22s, but I don't remember seeing any mag parts. Prolly because the mags are fairly cheap and probably aren't considered serviceable by Ruger. Anyways, you've given me something to work with and it's very much appreciated.

 

[Rw]

From my personal experience, factory mags do ok being left loaded... but they will loose tension over time. Aftermarket mags, i wont leave them loaded at all. I have had several ramline and butler creek mags go bad being left loaded. These mags dont use the same type spring as most other rifle and pistol mags, they are flat spring steel that is coiled/wound and attached to the follower and the bottom of the mag. They dont like being left under tension at all.

 

[Hrdnox]

Thanks Slngblde, you probably just saved me some grief, because I had planned on loading at least one of them up. The Butler Creek steel lips are fairly easy to load, since they have the ejector ledge on them that can be used as a guide, but the hot lips version is flat and doesn't have a ledge at all. Makes you have to aim the rounds home and they slip and slide a lot. I usually drop a half a dozen rounds each time I load that one. Sorta wish I hadn't bought it, but I wanted to test them all. It works OK, but it's difficult to load and most of my stovepipes have occurred when using that mag. There's definitely a difference that's probably worth the extra 5 or 6 bucks. Wish I could afford to replace all of them with TI metal mags, but they sure are proud of those babies. They make a plastic version, but it didn't look any better than the BCs and was still twice the price.

 

[TankerHC]

I have 2 25 round butler creek mags and they are both POS.

 

[Hrdnox]

Which ones TankerHC? I have 2 steel lips and 1 hotlips. The first time I used them, I was disappointed, too. However, when I got home and started cleaning them, I noticed that they looked like a pet monkey had glued them together. The sides were offset a good 16th of an inch on all 3. I took a utility knife and spent 15 or 20 minutes trimming all the plastic slag off the seams, especially concentrating on the area around the tops. Then, I followed up with some light sanding to get them down a little more and smooth. Since then, the steel lips have been bulletproof and I've only experienced one stovepipe in the plastic lipped one. That's with about a brick and a half through them, so they may degrade with time, but they're working well now.

If you're sure you don't like yours, I've got a couple of older factory 10 rounders I'd trade for them. Mine work well enough that I'd be willing to take a chance on yours. You might want to try that with yours first, though. You might be able to salvage them and be happy.

If my BCs didn't work, I'd have to do something else, because I find the 10 rounders to tedious to be worthwhile. I've heard the TIs are great, but they're so expensive. I'd be afraid to get them dirty.

 

[TankerHC]

These are the steel lips I think. The problem with them is that they wont feed if you load more than 15 rounds into them. Anything more and its just loose ammo. I have run about 500 rounds through them and tried adding a few rounds past 15 at a time. Someone told me I should just load them full and let them sit for a while so I did that, didnt work.

 

[Hrdnox]

Sounds almost like they're crudded up inside. I think the instructions that came with them said they could be washed out with warm water and dishwashing liquid. Might try that and see if it helps. Only harm I could see is the spring trying to rust, but if they aren't working anyway, might not be any worse. I've also read that sometimes squirting a little graphite lock lube helps some of them. The factory 10 rounders seem to crud up worse where the rim of the bullet rubs the case, however it seems to be more of a brass residue than wax and powder buildup. I know it's tough to scrub off. My BCs are smoked, so I really can't see what's going on inside. I can see the rounds, but just barely. If yours are clear and you see gunk in there, you could probably take a length of wire with a pipe cleaner or something similar soaked in Hoppes and swab it out. I think it would pass the follower once it's out of the throat. If not, push the follower along with it.

 

[smoffett]

FWIW I have two of the BC steel lip mags. If I load past 20 rounds, they won't feed. I keep 'em loaded with 20 rounds, and I'm hoping they will eventually relax and feed with a full 25, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[chburnham]

I've got 2 BC steel lips and i load them down to the max ad never hve a problem with them