American Ranch 7.62x39 issues with 10 round Ruger Magazine

I had an issue with one and after taking it apart, discovered what appeared to be some "weld splatter" inside the magazine. The follower was catching on these spots. I contacted Ruger and they sent me a new one. This one has worked perfectly. I'd suggest getting in touch with Ruger and I expect they will make it right.

I recently sent 4 10 round mags back to Ruger. I picked up some Promags and tweaked the spring to level the follower. PITA to load 10 and can't insert mag on a closed bolt. Best load 9 rounds but they worked in my Mini 14. I had my American Ranch converted to take AK mags. They run flawlessly.

I just received 4 new mags from Ruger. Each had 20 rounds run through them according to the paperwork. I will have to take the Mini 30 to the range and test them.

On April 10, member Bepe started a thread about Ruger 10 round magazine problems, the title was something to the effect of "Ruger Mini30 10 round magazines - range test", and the subject was thoroughly covered. Bepe developed a fix.

Also, ProMag 10-round Mini 30 mags seem to work well. Never thought I would recommend a ProMag product but there it is.

Find Bepe's thread, it's very informative.

ProMag 10-round work very well after a little tweaking. Ruger factory 10s can't be tweaked. I gave up on them. I have several ProMag 10s and they all work 100% in my Mini-30. Ruger's attempt at 10-round was a big fat fail.

The easiest fix for the ProMag 10 is to cut a coil or two from the bottom of the spring. Cut a coil at a time until you can fit 10 and a half rounds in the mag. Of course you can't fit half a round, but there should be that much space left over for 10 rounds to go in easy. All of mine hold 10 rounds no problem, and feed smoothly.

I was hoping the springs on the promags would ease off but I guess I will have to trim them. Ruger said they ran 20 rounds through each of the 4 new mags. Rather than fight it on the American Ranch I had a stock converted to Pmag AK mags. Work flawlessly although a bit bulky. I still have the original stock so it can be changed back any time.

The factory Ruger 20-round run flawlessly in my experience. I have 15 of them. It's the Ruger factory 10-round that are a disappointment. The most common problem with the ProMag 10-round is inconsistant spring length. The last three ProMag I bought had nearly twice the spring lemgth in them that they needed. Poor QC The good news is that can be fixed with some wire cutters. Snip, snip, snip!

Beck said:

The factory Ruger 20-round run flawlessly in my experience.

Click to expand...

Beck is quite right about Ruger factory 20-round magazines and the Ruger factory 5-round magazines are reliable as well.

Although I bought several ProMag 10-round mags, I was able to make somewhat of a fix on a couple of Ruger OEM mags. I am too cheap to just toss them. I bought a 3-pack of Wolff AK magazine springs and replaced the lame Ruger magazine spring with a length of AK magazine spring. It took some tinkering but I got to a length of spring that worked. It is successful in that it feeds properly but I lost one or two cartridges of capacity.

I think the answer is to avoid Ruger Mini-30 10-round magazines until Ruger fields a functional magazine.

My 20 round mags also run flawlessly. 10's didn't. I explained that to Ruger and referenced the forum threads in the cover letter. We will see what the new ones do.

As far as Ruger Mini-30 10-round magazine improvement(s), it feels like glaciers mover faster.

Along with the ProMag 10-Rnd for the Mini-30 (and American Ranch), the best mags were the USA brand 10-Rnd... unfortunately discontinued years ago. Pushing down on the follower feels smooth as silk. I've got 5 of the old USA brand. Never had a problem with them. They are longer than the Ruger factory 10-Rnd and have the characteristic AK curved look.

Ruger could learn from the USA mags, that mags don't have to be that short. Ruger 10-Rnd don't have enough real estate to function properly. They work for some people, but if they don't work, no amount of tinkering will make them work.

Here's a thread about the excellent 10-round Promags for the Ruger Ranch 7.62x39. The Promags I have required no modification whatsoever. Highly recommended.