[Gearhead Jim]

(I tried Search and didn't find a good answer)

My rifle is a skinny barrel 580 with Ruger wood stock. It works fine with Ruger 5 rd and 20 rd mags.
It seems like the Ruger factory 10 rd mags are really 9 rd unless you lock the bolt open first.

I've got several Ruger 10 rd, two will barely lock in with some heavy pressure, the others will seriously dent the top round in the mag if I push them in hard enough to seat, and most of them won't feed the first round when I release the bolt because there's too much friction.

Two questions-
Do these mags usually work well when loaded with only 9?
Is there a way to trim the bottom of the follower or some other mod that allows them to work properly with 10 rds?

Thanks!
(My apology if this has already been answered and I missed it)

 

[faawrenchbndr]

I’ve really never had any issues with any Ruger brand mags
I typically only run 20# mostly

 

[Beck]

I had the same problems with Ruger 10-rnd for Mini-30 in my 189 Series Mini-30. Not much room in those things.

 

[RIBob]

In my experience, with known GTG mags, there should be enough room inside the mag to almost allow insertion of 1 rd over design capacity; perhaps 1/2 ctg width/diameter surplus room.

If there is less room than this, something is probably out of spec.

Most often either the spring has too many coils, and is too long, or the vertical post on the bottom of the follower is too long.

Sometimes, both post and spring are "off". The post on bottom of the follower is to stop downward movement of the follower before the spring is fully compressed. An over-compression of a too-long spring, or due to a too-short post on the follower can sometimes cause the spring to collapse on itself, and possibly binding-up.

 

[kwg020]

I have one Ruger 10 round that is flawless and one that rarely goes 10 rounds without a jamb. Go figure ?

kwg

 

[RIBob]

I have one Ruger 10 round that is flawless and one that rarely goes 10 rounds without a jamb. Go figure ?

kwg

If you haven't already done so, carefully take apart both mags, keeping them entirely separate, so no mixing of parts.

Examine the follower of the jamming mag, and smooth any and all roughness around the edges of the follower, no matter how slight. You want a smooth, friction-free follower, Even a slight chamfering of the top and bottom edges of the follower might be useful.

Next examine the springs. Should both be same # of coils, and nearly same overall length. FWIW, I have seen mag springs installed 180 deg out (Rotation within mag body) that caused problems. Use the orientation of the good mag spring, as a guide.

Finally, look inside the mag body for any projections or points that could be causing a hang-up of the follower or spring. Remove them, and refinish.

Possibly the feed lips are mis-adjusted on the bad mag, so use good mag as a guide, and carefully bend lips of jamming mag to suit good mag.

I know many here already know this, but just trying to be helpful. Perhaps there are some things I've forgotten, so please chime in.

 

[40nascar]

This is on Purpose. Ruger designed this mag to be a true 10 rnd mag vs a 10+1 mag. They had to do this so that the communist states couldn't sue them for going 1 rnd over, and stopping sales. The manual says to insert the mag with the bolt open ( retracted) You are auctually going against the instructions from Ruger when you try to insert a magazine into a closed action

 

[Gearhead Jim]

This is on Purpose. Ruger designed this mag to be a true 10 rnd mag vs a 10+1 mag. They had to do this so that the communist states couldn't sue them for going 1 rnd over, and stopping sales. The manual says to insert the mag with the bolt open ( retracted) You are auctually going against the instructions from Ruger when you try to insert a magazine into a closed action

I have the Owner's Manual for my Mini-14 Ranch (it's a 580 series) in front of me right now. Page 13 says "The magazine may be inserted with the bolt either in the closed or open position." The Manual available on the Ruger website says the same thing, with the mention that more pressure may be needed to seat high capacity magazines.

The packages that my 10 rd mags came in did not say anything about inserting the magazine, nor did they say that anything has changed from my original Owner's Manual.

It appears that Ruger isn't telling anyone about the situation, we get to find out for ourselves.

The first restricted capacity mags I bought were for a Glock 19, back when the AWB first went into effect. (I sometimes travel to restricted areas) Loading that 10th rd into the mag was a b!tch at first, but the mags could be inserted with the slide closed and would feed the top rounds properly.

Getting back to my original question; has anyone developed a mod for the mags that will allow them to be seated with the bolt closed on 10 rds, and feed properly?
Taking one of my 10 rd mags apart that was purchased new from Ruger, that middle "fin" sticking down from the underside of the follower has a rough surface on the bottom end, like it had been trimmed down after the follower was molded. It would seem logical that shaving a little off the bottom of the follower would fix the problem, but maybe it's more complicated than that.

Anyone with experience?

 

[SAN14]

I have the Owner's Manual for my Mini-14 Ranch (it's a 580 series) in front of me right now. Page 13 says "The magazine may be inserted with the bolt either in the closed or open position." The Manual available on the Ruger website says the same thing, with the mention that more pressure may be needed to seat high capacity magazines.

The packages that my 10 rd mags came in did not say anything about inserting the magazine, nor did they say that anything has changed from my original Owner's Manual.

It appears that Ruger isn't telling anyone about the situation, we get to find out for ourselves.

The first restricted capacity mags I bought were for a Glock 19, back when the AWB first went into effect. (I sometimes travel to restricted areas) Loading that 10th rd into the mag was a b!tch at first, but the mags could be inserted with the slide closed and would feed the top rounds properly.

Getting back to my original question; has anyone developed a mod for the mags that will allow them to be seated with the bolt closed on 10 rds, and feed properly?
Taking one of my 10 rd mags apart that was purchased new from Ruger, that middle "fin" sticking down from the underside of the follower has a rough surface on the bottom end, like it had been trimmed down after the follower was molded. It would seem logical that shaving a little off the bottom of the follower would fix the problem, but maybe it's more complicated than that.

Anyone with experience?

I had a mag long ago that the last round was very hard to insert and the mag was hard to seat with a closed bolt.

I figured either the spring or was too long. I removed the spring and held the follower at top with fingers inside the mag. Next, I slowly lowered the follower as I loaded rounds to number it was supposed to hold and keeping just enough pressure on the follower to somewhat simulate spring tension. Now I could examine where the bottom of the follower was in relation to floorplate. It was not that close so I got to work on cutting 1 spring coil and testing the assembled mag. I think I ended up taking only the 1 coil off to get things working as they should.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

^^^
Excellent, thanks!

 

[RIBob]

I had a mag long ago that the last round was very hard to insert and the mag was hard to seat with a closed bolt.

I figured either the spring or was too long. I removed the spring and held the follower at top with fingers inside the mag. Next, I slowly lowered the follower as I loaded rounds to number it was supposed to hold and keeping just enough pressure on the follower to somewhat simulate spring tension. Now I could examine where the bottom of the follower was in relation to floorplate. It was not that close so I got to work on cutting 1 spring coil and testing the assembled mag. I think I ended up taking only the 1 coil off to get things working as they should.

Classic example of too-long mag spring. Not an uncommon thing.

 

[Beck]

I have one Ruger 10 round that is flawless and one that rarely goes 10 rounds without a jamb. Go figure ?

kwg

That's been my experience with mags in general of every brand I've tried.

For my Mini-30, the only two Ruger factory mag styles that have been flawless are 5-rnd and 20-rnd. The two factory 10-rnd I had were problematic. There was no way to fix it. ProMag steel 10-rnd work better in my Mini-30 and I've had to tweak 3 of the 5 I have to get them all running smooth. The good thing is that they could be tweaked into functionality. The Ruger 10s could not.

 

[RIBob]

Most reasonably decent mags can be modified to full functionality. I've rehabilitated quite a few "bad" mags for my Mini-14 over the years. Only had to give up on a few, perhaps 10%. To be fair, I passed on a great many mags that were obviously poorly made.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Today I took one of my unmodified Ruger 10 rd mags that needs to be crammed into the gun when the bolt is closed, and dents the top case. Loaded it with 10 rds and tried to load a short section of 1/4" dowel (.223 cartridge base is .373) in like a skinny 11th rd. It wouldn't come close to fitting, so it was telling me what I already knew- not enough room for 10 rds + the bottom of the closed bolt.

Then I slid the floorplate back about 1/2" (rearward) with 10 rds still on board. I could see that the spring was heavily compressed but not completely so, at least in the front. Couldn't see the back because the floorplate only slides rearward. Looking in the front, it appeared that both the "fin" on the bottom of the follower and the front "leg" on the bottom of the follower were within 1/16" of hitting the floorplate, so they would bottom out before the mag would seat properly with 10 rds on a closed bolt.

Right now I don't have time, but will eventually take one of the "cram it in" mags and start taking small amounts off the bottom of the follower fin and legs until I can also get that 1/4" dowel to fit in the mag with 10 rds. Then remove the dowel and verify that the mag will seat properly with the bolt closed, but that an 11th round will not fit in even when the mag is out of the gun. Followed by test firing to ensure that the mag still functions properly.

The important things to verify are that the magazine will not accept an 11th round even with pressure, and that the gun functions properly.

If you get impatient and want to experiment on your own Ruger 10 rd mags, please post what you did and how it worked. Thanks!

 

[RIBob]

Today I took one of my unmodified Ruger 10 rd mags that needs to be crammed into the gun when the bolt is closed, and dents the top case. Loaded it with 10 rds and tried to load a short section of 1/4" dowel (.223 cartridge base is .373) in like a skinny 11th rd. It wouldn't come close to fitting, so it was telling me what I already knew- not enough room for 10 rds + the bottom of the closed bolt.

Then I slid the floorplate back about 1/2" (rearward) with 10 rds still on board. I could see that the spring was heavily compressed but not completely so, at least in the front. Couldn't see the back because the floorplate only slides rearward. Looking in the front, it appeared that both the "fin" on the bottom of the follower and the front "leg" on the bottom of the follower were within 1/16" of hitting the floorplate, so they would bottom out before the mag would seat properly with 10 rds on a closed bolt.

Right now I don't have time, but will eventually take one of the "cram it in" mags and start taking small amounts off the bottom of the follower fin and legs until I can also get that 1/4" dowel to fit in the mag with 10 rds. Then remove the dowel and verify that the mag will seat properly with the bolt closed, but that an 11th round will not fit in even when the mag is out of the gun. Followed by test firing to ensure that the mag still functions properly.

The important things to verify are that the magazine will not accept an 11th round even with pressure, and that the gun functions properly.

If you get impatient and want to experiment on your own Ruger 10 rd mags, please post what you did and how it worked. Thanks!

No expert, but please read my post above, in this thread. I understand your frustration, but please be patient. There is most likely a fairly simple fix for your problem. No guarantees, of course...

 

[Gearhead Jim]

I'm thinking that trimming the bottom of the follower a little is a simple fix, but anything that's easier or better will get my attention.

 

[RIBob]

I'm thinking that trimming the bottom of the follower a little is a simple fix, but anything that's easier or better will get my attention.

As another poster suggested, remove floorplate of mag and mag spring. Insert specified # of rounds, while pushing up against follower with fingers, and see if post on bottom of follower contacts where mag floorplate should be.

If follower post is too long, trim follower post to suit. If not, perhaps mag spring is too long. If so, then trim one complete coil, and try out.

As mentioned above, most properly functioning mags will have about 1/2 ctg diameter excess capacity over and above nominal capacity. If so, then this says both spring and follower are of correct dimensions. If not, then either follower or spring are too long. In my experience, generally spring is too long. Rare that follower is too long, but possible.

 

[Neurotic-hapi-snak]

Today I took one of my unmodified Ruger 10 rd mags that needs to be crammed into the gun when the bolt is closed, and dents the top case. Loaded it with 10 rds and tried to load a short section of 1/4" dowel (.223 cartridge base is .373) in like a skinny 11th rd. It wouldn't come close to fitting, so it was telling me what I already knew- not enough room for 10 rds + the bottom of the closed bolt.

Then I slid the floorplate back about 1/2" (rearward) with 10 rds still on board. I could see that the spring was heavily compressed but not completely so, at least in the front. Couldn't see the back because the floorplate only slides rearward. Looking in the front, it appeared that both the "fin" on the bottom of the follower and the front "leg" on the bottom of the follower were within 1/16" of hitting the floorplate, so they would bottom out before the mag would seat properly with 10 rds on a closed bolt.

Right now I don't have time, but will eventually take one of the "cram it in" mags and start taking small amounts off the bottom of the follower fin and legs until I can also get that 1/4" dowel to fit in the mag with 10 rds. Then remove the dowel and verify that the mag will seat properly with the bolt closed, but that an 11th round will not fit in even when the mag is out of the gun. Followed by test firing to ensure that the mag still functions properly.

The important things to verify are that the magazine will not accept an 11th round even with pressure, and that the gun functions properly.

If you get impatient and want to experiment on your own Ruger 10 rd mags, please post what you did and how it worked. Thanks!

Remember that the .223/5.56 case tapers slightly, so the cartridge stack will angle as you put in more rounds. So the rear of the magazine is most likely where an obstruction to putting in all ten rounds would be.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

^^^
The 10 rd Ruger mags get "taller" at the back to allow for that. But are they taller enough? Further investigations when I get the time.

 

[franzkh]

i have a 10 round ruger mag that the last few rounds would end up nose down after chambering rounds. I took spring out, rotated 180 degrees and works now. I am using in a American ranch version. All of the mags are hard to insert full with bolt closed and damn near impossible to pull the bolt back if mag is full. I might try trimming or bending spring to relieve tension. Glad I came across this. I’ll follow up if I do trim the spring.

I have one of each 5, 10 and 20 round mags.