I just drank the Kool Aid......

[Mica]

For as long as it takes, I am sitting this one out. I refuse feed the frenzy, unless I must. If I planned right, I should be good for about a year.

 

[soberups]

Instead of $75 for a BX-25, why not just grab a Butler Creek mag from Bi-Mart for $19.99?

Are the BX-25s that much better?

Yes.

 

[soberups]

My experience with the Butler Creek 25 rd mags is that they are very ammo picky. With Remington bulk pack ammo they are only reliable when loaded with around 20 rounds or less. They seem to do a little better with hotter ammo like CCI Stingers or Mini Mags. They are fine for range use but in a SHTF type scenario I would only rely on BX 25's.

 

[KalamaMark]

I've got half a dozen Butler Creek hotlips mags that run flawless through all my 10-22s. I have several more new in packages that I've never bothered to unwrap. Now...when I say 'flawless', that's running the ammo that all my .22's came into agreement on... American Eagle in the 'fooledya' 400 round brick or the Federal copper plated 525 round bulk pack. All my rifles hate Remington rimfire ammo, some eat CCI, some will roll with Winchester, most balk at Peter's.
I wonder if the Butler Creek hate doesn't stem from the inherent ammo finickiness of .22's exaggerated by a similar finickiness of the magazine?

I recently purchased a couple BX-25 magazines, and frankly, my response was... 'Whatever.'

BX-25 Pros..
They worked flawlessly. (So do my hot lips mags.)
They have stainless feed lips. (The hot lips are plastic)
You can disassemble them and clean them. (I've ran 10,000 rounds through the hot lips and never felt the need to disassemble 'em.)

BX-25 Cons...
The mags are opaque. You can't tell if they have 2 rounds or 20 rounds in them. The Butler Creek mags are translucent, and you can identify load status in a second.

They are balky in the Butler Creek Speed Loader. Frankly, I would have moved on from the 10-22 platform a long time ago...but the quick 'snick, snick, snick' of the Butler Creek speedloader piling in ammo into those trouble free hotlips magazines has kept me anchored in the 10-22 zone.

If Ruger comes out with their own speed loader that is similar to the Butler Creek, but optimized for their own feed angle, AND goes translucent or puts a window to indicate load status, then the BX-25 is a no brainer. Until then...I'm loading slow and shooting slow until prices come back down, so it doesn't matter.

 

[Mephistopheles]

There's a guy in Eugene selling BX-25 mags for $125. and Butler Creek for $75. on Armslist!.