Butler creek 10/22 magazines

dave · Mar 21, 2010

Super extra disappointed with these. I bought 3 when Bimart had them on sale a couple of weeks ago. I loaded all 3 with 25 rounds and tried running them through a new 10/22 and would have a FTF every other round.

No problems with the factory 10 round rotary mag.

I was using federal champion 525 round value pack.
Then tried Remington golden bullets.
Both of these have been very clean and reliable .22lr rounds for me.

They would work fine once I got down to about 12 rounds per magazine.
But whats the point of them at this rate.
I tried to be patient and let them break in. Loading 20-25 rounds in all 3 and limping through FTF over and over again.
Not much fun for sure.

I then googled butler creek hot lips and read several reviews that read very similar to mine.

Huge waste of time and money.

Anyone have a better alternative?

afrank250 · Mar 21, 2010

send them back they used to have a lifetime warranty if remember , they are the only clips I use. I have some that are almost 20 years old and still work great and I have put alot of rounds through them.

Member 5605 · Mar 21, 2010

I had the same issue.

I ended up selling mine to somebody for his son. I don't think he was really concerned with the rapid fire like I am.

Crazy as it seems, I think these would work well with a bolt better than a semi-auto. Sadly yes. I lubed mine, tried different ammo.. I couldn't get the action to come far enough back to properly pickup the round.

Sold 4, bought 1 steel and it's worked flawless. The top of the mags (plastic vs steel) are actually different. I don't understand why they made them different.

pogi · Mar 21, 2010

<broken link removed>

The things aren't cheap but they do work. You can adjust the feed angle on these things.

rider · Mar 21, 2010

I bought the same mag and had no trouble with them. 2 25 round and no problems. do they have the metal tops on them?

Member 5605 · Mar 21, 2010

pogi said:
<broken link removed>

The things aren't cheap but they do work. You can adjust the feed angle on these things.

Wow.
I bet those are SOLID. Not a fan of the price.. but you get what you pay for.

soberups · Mar 21, 2010

I only have problems with my Butler Creek mags if I use the Remington 525 rd. bulk pack ammo. I get light primer strikes and FTF's. But, if I load that same ammo in the factory 10 round rotary mag, it is a lot more reliable...maybe 95%.

If I load the Butler Creeks with CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers, they are 100% reliable.

I have noticed a huge decline in the quality of the Remington bulk ammo. I get good hits on the primers but the rounds arent going off. It happens in my bolt gun as well as my 10/22 so its definately an ammo issue.

rider · Mar 21, 2010

I use the blazer 40 gr. with some of the others I've had some problems if I try to fire them to fast.

madcratebuilder · Mar 22, 2010

If your going to buy the less expensive (cheap) mags at least get the steel lip mags. Otherwise TI is the only way to go. I saw some TI's at the gunshow for $35 ea.

kornphlake · Mar 22, 2010

What do you mean by FTF, is that Failure to Fire or Failure to Feed? I assume the latter as you say you had the same problem with both remington and federal ammo, if it was failure to fire the problem would have gone away when you switched to federal. The bulk ammo may not be pushing the bolt back all the way when it cycles and it may not be catching the next round in the magazine just right when it returns to battery. Try radiusing the back of the bolt to give it a little bit of a mechanical advantage on the hammer and see if that improves anything.

Instructions here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251031

I have a couple of the "hot lips" mags and they work okay, as I recall I did have quite a few problems with them initially but after a while they seem to break in and they start working better. You might try loading one up and let it sit for a couple days to stretch the spring, it may improve things a little bit.

Blitzkrieg · Mar 22, 2010

Hot lips are the bottom of the Butler Creek barrel

BC Steel Lips are far better mags

If you want a step up from them, try the MWG 50 rd wind up drums.. have several..steel lips and have worked flawlessly for me

Some 10/22s need any mag to be fitted to them.. if your mag fit is extremely tight you might want to try a few passes at the top of the mag with a file

goneshooting · Mar 22, 2010

my experience and its been a lot

using hot lips (plastic lips) only work good with round nose lead bullets No hollow points No jacketed

Using steel lips good to go on every kind i have tried so far

not 100% reliable all the time but pretty darn good.

e28rusty · Mar 22, 2010

My buddy went through the same thing when he got his 10/22. We found they worked great if you hold them forward while you fire. Pretty hokey, but it worked.

onearmedswordsman · Mar 22, 2010

e28rusty said:
My buddy went through the same thing when he got his 10/22. We found they worked great if you hold them forward while you fire. Pretty hokey, but it worked.

+1 - I had the same problem. Once I figure this out, I drilled a small hole on the back of the mag and screwed very small screws to keep 'em aligned. Go for the highest thread pitch you can get.

ZeroRing · Mar 22, 2010

e28rusty said:
My buddy went through the same thing when he got his 10/22. We found they worked great if you hold them forward while you fire. Pretty hokey, but it worked.

+1 same thing here. I assumed my issues were because my mags were all OLD... so I got new ones... same issues. Ammo brand didn't make much difference so I went back to factory mags and they work 100% of the time. Found a sale on factory mags, bought five of 'em, and never looked back. :s0155:

Probably helps that I use my GSG5 for "rapid fire" .22LR fun now and not the 10/22, so high cap 10/22 mags aren't much of a necessity for me anymore.

safooma · Mar 23, 2010

I tried out my new cheapie plastic hot lips last weekend and it worked great, In fact, I have one just like it that is several yhears old and it works fine too. Maybe it's because my 10/22 is old and worn?

Blitzkrieg · Mar 23, 2010

safooma said:
I tried out my new cheapie plastic hot lips last weekend and it worked great, In fact, I have one just like it that is several yhears old and it works fine too. Maybe it's because my 10/22 is old and worn?

Some 10/22s are just not mag sensitive, some are.. :s0092:

dave · Mar 23, 2010

kornphlake said:
What do you mean by FTF, is that Failure to Fire or Failure to Feed? I assume the latter as you say you had the same problem with both remington and federal ammo, if it was failure to fire the problem would have gone away when you switched to federal. The bulk ammo may not be pushing the bolt back all the way when it cycles and it may not be catching the next round in the magazine just right when it returns to battery. Try radiusing the back of the bolt to give it a little bit of a mechanical advantage on the hammer and see if that improves anything.

Instructions here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251031

I have a couple of the "hot lips" mags and they work okay, as I recall I did have quite a few problems with them initially but after a while they seem to break in and they start working better. You might try loading one up and let it sit for a couple days to stretch the spring, it may improve things a little bit.

My problem was failure to feed. Only with the Hot lips mags, the Ruger 10 round rotary worked perfectly with both ammo makers rounds.

MacBookProAR · Mar 23, 2010

I have found it depends on the barrel you have. Mine feeds fine with just about any mag I put in it and any combo of ammunition. Custom barrels tend to be more picky. If I ever get a better barrel I will get the TI so that I can adjust the mags to the action.