I purchased a used Ruger American Predator recently. The pluses were huge. Forged short-ish threaded barrel, adjustable trigger, built-in rail on top, low get-in price, and a common caliber (.308)

The downside is the shit-tay flimsy rotary-style magazine these rifles come with. However, the guy selling it said just call Ruger customer service, and they will sell you the conversion to AICS mags for a super low price.

I didn't really know if I should believe him, but the rifle was priced right, and I had a case of the I-wants, so I bought it anyway. Today I had the time so I made the call, and I'll be danged if Ruger customer service - who was very nice and friendly - didn't sell me the conversion piece for an extremely good price, just like the man said.

However, it doesn't come with any magazines. So, my question, for those of you who've used these in rifles like this, what works well? The metal mags? The Ruger stamped ones? Magpul? If you are experienced with these or have had issues, please let me know what to try and what to avoid in these short-action magazines.

Thank you!

I ordered some Ruger brand plastic AICS magazines off ebay. A 5 round and a 10. They are very nice magazines.

I've got a couple each of 5 and 10 round Magpul mags. They fed okay for mag length 308 and 6.5 Creedmoor. I've since put Bob Sleds in either gun because my OAL exceeds mag length in those calibers. They work okay in my 6 GT so far.

(Please note these are 2 ARC Nucleus and 1 Remington 700 action, but they're all using short action AICS mags.)

Pros:

low price point.Long range shooting is an expensive sport and it let me feel like I was saving money. They're thus great as a stopgap for a new competitor.

Cons:

Super thick walls (plastic requires far more bulk for to get to the same strength as steel) rob you of potential length if you reload (and it matters to you).

I've been told durability is suspect. They'll work until you get so frustrated you toss it down range and start taking pot shots at it.

Personal experience: I've had to bring in OAL once on one of my 6.5 Creed loads because recoil was causing the noses of the loaded rounds to slam into the front wall of the mag, scratch up and deform the plastic and cause binding. I haven't had a failure I couldn't deal with so far but I haven't really driven it all that hard yet.

Quite frankly I'm going to MDT metal mags when I get the spare cash. I'd possibly compromise with a MDT Polymetal mags, but that's about it.

Overall, I don't think I fall into the intended market (at least, not any more as I continue my path to shooting competitively and start spending more in the short term to keep equipment failures from costing me the match, anyway), so there's that, though.

Thank you for the insight. I was wondering about the difference between the metal and the plastic ones. I am 99% shooting factory loads, but it's good to know. Just because something works great for one size (Magpul 5.56) doesn't mean that translates to other calibers.

quote:

They'll work until you get so frustrated you toss it down range and start taking pot shots at it.

This same fate may or may not have fell upon a Butler Creek 10/22 magazine I owned for a short period.

Brother: "Are you shooting at a magazine?"

Me: "Nope, it's a plastic container."

Brother: "It looks like a magazine."

Me: "I understand my target may look like a magazine, but it's just a piece of plastic shaped that way. It will hold ammo, but under no circumstance will it feed into a rifle."

Brother: "Proceed."