HC3R Mags HC3R Tactical Pack

by B. Gil Horman, American Rifleman Monday, October 27, 2014

This year Ruger is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of the most popular rimfire platforms yet devised, namely, the 10/22 semi-auto rifle. Its rugged reliability, affordable price and modular design make it a useful option for a wide variety of shooting endeavors including casual plinking, small-game hunting and target competition. One of the rifle’s most interesting selling points is its removable 10-round rotary box magazine. Aftermarket entrepreneurs quickly recognized that this particular rifle design would allow for the use of magazines that extended below the receiver, and thus an entire increased-capacity magazine market was born.

Although some unusual 10/22 extended-capacity magazines have been offered over the years, the most common aftermarket option has been the single-stack, 25-round “banana” magazine. Manufactured by several different companies around the globe, the curved 25-rounders usually feature a two-piece plastic housing glued together around a polymer feed-lip block. They are affordably priced (about $20), but they have their limitations. The polymer feed lips can wear out or run unreliably. The magazines are relatively slow to load and impossible to clean. While some companies have addressed the slow loading time with hand-cranked magazine loaders which do work, the devices can sometimes cause bullet damage and they’re not particularly handy to haul around in the field…