Ruger BX-25 Magazine

If you read one of my previous posts about my first gun, a Marlin Model 60, you know I'm very fond of it, meaning that particular rifle, but if I had to choose only one .22 rifle, it would have to be a Ruger 10/22.  The Ruger 10/22 in .22 long rifle has to be one of the most prolific, adaptable, and available rifles in America today.  My family has no less than half a dozen of these reliable, little guns in various configurations: wood stocks, all-weather stocks, target models, sporter models, compact models.

When Bill Ruger and company designed the original BX-1 10-shot rotary magazine for the 10/22 rifle, he created a reliable, sure-feeding magazine that didn't hang out below the fore-stock allowing the shooter to comfortable position their hand anywhere along the underside of the stock.  The problem was it only held 10 rounds.  While many others have provided a remedy for the limited capacity of the original BX-1 magazine, Ruger now offers their own BX-25 25-shot magazine.

 

Over the years, even back before the assault weapon ban of 1994 ran the prices through the roof, I have purchased no less than seven different brands of 25-shot-plus extended magazines for my Ruger 10/22s including Butler Creek, Shooters Ridge, Black Dog Machine, and Tactical Innovations ranging in price from $20 to $80 each with results ranging from "would not work at all" to "worked most of the time when seated just right".

When Ruger introduced the BX-25 magazines, like thousands of my fellow shooters, I went online to order and purchased three of these FACTORY magazines directly from Ruger for $29.95 each.  After an extended wait through the inevitable back-orders, we received our magazines and have been having fun with them for the last few weeks.  Now I have no intentions of providing highly detailed technical reviews on this blog, but I will review some items of interest to me that I've actually used and give you some "how it works or feels to me" reviews... and these things feel and work great!

Ruger did a great job designing the BX-25 magazines and has simulated the 30 degree feeding angle of their 10-shot rotary magazines while using a constant force spring so even loading that 25th round is not hard on the thumbs, which my gals love.  Constructed of what appears to be a tough, fiber-filled polymer with stainless steel feed lips and constant force spring, they lock firmly in the 10/22's magazine well and feed reliably.

Yes, we've had a couple of failures to completely feed in the chamber and failures to eject over a thousand-plus rounds during the past month or two, but nothing significant and I would blame that more on the lower quality of the boxes of bulk .22 ammunition and dirty actions after hundreds of rounds between cleanings than the actual magazines.  We did take the BX-25s apart and clean therm, but the only really dirty area with burnt powder and grime build-up was on the stainless steel feed lips which are easy to clean without complete disassembly.

My favorite plinking, hunting, and all-around shooting .22 long rifle ammo when I'm not worried about cost are the CCI Mini-Mags in solid and hollow-point.  The CCIs currently run about six to seven cents a round and always fire reliably in every .22 action we have and have never once given us a problem in these new Ruger BX-25 magazines.

Bottom Line: The Ruger BX-25 factory magazines are reliable, reasonably priced, and are my recommendation for extended capacity magazines for the Ruger 10/22 rifles (and Charger pistols).