Salem 6 Magazines - Reviews

I received my 2x Salem 6 magazines today.

My initial impressions that I hope these get easier to load with practice and a breakin period. My wife loaded one mag, and I loaded the other; the first load, she was able to get 14 and I was able to get 13 into the magazine (go ahead, make whatever jokes you want). Once we unloaded both (to count!), which in and of itself was a chore, we were both able to load 20 rounds into the magazine. It was noticably easier the second time around, but getting rounds 18-20 in were still a pain.

We didn't get to test fire the magazines. We did, however, manually rack the bolt to test function, etc. With the first load, we had several failure to feeds where the next round was not being picked up by the bolt. We also had several instances where the bolt failed to go completely into battery. Whether this was a function of the rounds (thunderbolts) or a little extra friction causing a slowdown in the overall bolt speed, I do not know. We had some failure to extracts, so I'm willing to chalk it up to the ammo first.

We did have bolt hold open on all occasions, but since this was a manual charging, I would hope we would have BHO.

Lastly, the magazine has a bit of play left and right in the magazine well. A stock 10 round magazine had no such play.

On the plus side, they are pretty short, and they do hold 20 rounds. Opening them up is pretty easy. The spec sheet that comes with the magazines says they need a break-in period. I'll probably load and unload 10-20 times each tonight. I don't know when I'll be able to test fire them - perhaps this weekend.

Mine should be waiting in the mailbox at home. I guess I'll go through the loading/unloading process a few times tonight.

sithlord said:

We didn't get to test fire the magazines. We did, however, manually rack the bolt to test function, etc. With the first load, we had several failure to feeds where the next round was not being picked up by the bolt. We also had several instances where the bolt failed to go completely into battery. Whether this was a function of the rounds (thunderbolts) or a little extra friction causing a slowdown in the overall bolt speed, I do not know. We had some failure to extracts, so I'm willing to chalk it up to the ammo first.

Click to expand...

Manually cycling ammo through a semi-auto action often causes feeding problems.

Yea... don't lose that loader... but they did get easier to load... I put about 300 rounds through them and they did get easier to load... I guess they do need to be broken in... I like them... will like them more if they get easier to load..
that's the only thing I didn't like... like I said don't loose that loader...

Unless magpul starts making mags for the 15-22 I'll stick with factory mags.

Haven't had a chance to shoot with them yet, but my mags came in.

Paper insert that came with magazine. The only think I don't like is that it says "20 Round .22 Mag." Makes it seem like it's a 22 magnum rather than LR.




The magazine seems well built and sturdy. The rear of the feed lips is reinforced with metal. I couldn't get a good picture of the inside of the magazine body.



A bunch of pictures:













15-22 Mag. The rounds aren't packed as tightly as they are in the Salem6 mags:




The Salem6 mags do fit in the McFadden loader, but trying to load more than 10-15 rounds with the loader leads to a bit too much resistance from the spring. Loading the last few rounds by hand with the included tool works. The problem is that the McFadden loader pushes the next round into the side of the previous round, and to get enough pressure to load, you end up slightly denting the previous round with the rim of the new round. Using the loading tool you are distributing the force more evenly on the previous round.





After loading and unloading a few times, it did seem to get easier. The last round was always the most difficult. When removing rounds one at a time, when taking out number 20, the next round seems to hesitate slightly at popping up. All rounds after that seem to spring up fine.

One issue I noticed is that sometimes the nose of the ammo seems to be pointing more up than other times. In Blackdog magazines for the Lage .22 conversion kits for the Mac 11/9, this is an issue. If the nose of the bullet isn't pointed in a particular direction when you are done loading, you'll likely end up with rim-lock. Not sure if that is the case with these Salem6 magazines, but it is something I'll be looking at once I get a chance to take them out. Manually loading the mags, or only loading to 10 with the McFadden loader and manually finishing the load seems to help get the rounds seated correctly. I'd guess it's the angle at which you're pushing the rounds in with the loader (and how far they get pushed back into the magazine) under heavy spring pressure that causes any potential problem. Loading manually with the loader will help ensure the rounds are loaded correctly one at a time. I also noticed that just using the included load assist to press down and let go a couple times seemed to help get everything seated correctly.

Grjfer said:

Unless magpul starts making mags for the 15-22 I'll stick with factory mags.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your review. It was extremely helpful...

<back to reviews>

I've had similar experiences to Telero. Loading round #20 is a PITA!

Related to that, when I took the mags to the range today (it was cold, so I didn't stay long), the first round had issues being fed.

In a some tests, a few of the later rounds (ie, not the first) were not fed. Re-charging fed the next round successfully in most cases. It appears to be a spring tension versus friction issue, but only towards the bottom of the magazine. Once the follower gets past that point, feeding is mostly flawless.

Interestingly, at the end of my session, I was shooting subsonics (CCI SV) out of a suppressor. I was NOT getting BHO. What was really odd was I wasn't getting BHO even when I was charging on an empty magazine!

So, in short, these are still BETA. They do fit the bill of a short magazine suitable for bench rest and bipod use. The 25 round standard magazines don't allow me to rest the rifle safely when using a bipod - these, like the 10 round standards, do allow me to rest the gun safely with a magazine inserted.

I think a maglulu style loader would be of great benefit, especially as the magazine gets full.

Hopefully more wear and tear on the mags will allow them to run better.

sithlord said:

Thanks for your review. It was extremely helpful...

<back to reviews>

I've had similar experiences to Telero. Loading round #20 is a PITA!

Related to that, when I took the mags to the range today (it was cold, so I didn't stay long), the first round had issues being fed.

In a some tests, a few of the later rounds (ie, not the first) were not fed. Re-charging fed the next round successfully in most cases. It appears to be a spring tension versus friction issue, but only towards the bottom of the magazine. Once the follower gets past that point, feeding is mostly flawless.

Interestingly, at the end of my session, I was shooting subsonics (CCI SV) out of a suppressor. I was NOT getting BHO. What was really odd was I wasn't getting BHO even when I was charging on an empty magazine!

So, in short, these are still BETA. They do fit the bill of a short magazine suitable for bench rest and bipod use. The 25 round standard magazines don't allow me to rest the rifle safely when using a bipod - these, like the 10 round standards, do allow me to rest the gun safely with a magazine inserted.

I think a maglulu style loader would be of great benefit, especially as the magazine gets full.

Hopefully more wear and tear on the mags will allow them to run better.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the review. I wonder if the BHO issue may be related to the patent design. S&W sued promag and plinker tactical for patent infringement when they came out with aftermarket mags. The claims centered around the specific design and mechanism which caused the BHO. This company may have opted out of the BHO in order to avoid litigation issues. Just my 2cent guess.

Anyway thanks for the review and I look forward to updates as you get more time with them.

Good info Mr. T.

I'm all for silliness but the packaging does not inspire confidence from a firearm accessory manufacturer.

southcoast said:

I wonder if the BHO issue may be related to the patent design.

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Oops, didn't put a picture of it in the original post, but the BHO is there.

Curious why you would want a 3rd party magazine as opposed to the factory 10 rounder? Just because it holds 20 as opposed to 10?

RedNeck Jim said:

Just because it holds 20 as opposed to 10?

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Yes. Specifically, more rounds in less space.

Also interested in seeing what people can come up with in getting closer to true double feed in a rimmed cartridge. Keltec has 30 round 22 Magnum magazines, but they can really only do that because of the length of the cartridge from what I understand. Doomsday Industries is apparently still working on a double stack 22LR for the 15-22. There is a company working on a double stack shotgun mag for the Saiga shotgun. The innovation of it is interesting.

strobro32 said:

Good info Mr. T.

I'm all for silliness but the packaging does not inspire confidence from a firearm accessory manufacturer.

Click to expand...

Lighten up Francis!

I wonder if having the M&P 15-22 printed on the magazine will get them into a lawsuit from S&W?

I was thinking of taking it apart and spraying it with silicon lube... they seem to bind after 10 - 15 rounds mabe that'll help... worth a try I guess... worse senario I gotta take'm apart and clean them...

Brett248Vista said:

Lighten up Francis!

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I'm so light I can be split by a prism.

Shooterjgs said:

I was thinking of taking it apart and spraying it with silicon lube... they seem to bind after 10 - 15 rounds mabe that'll help... worth a try I guess... worse senario I gotta take'm apart and clean them...

Click to expand...

A better idea is to take them apart and remove any moulding flash still remaining on the inside or on the follower. Spraying plastic with any wet lube is asking for dirt and unburned powder to accumulate. DRY graphite lube is a better choice, if you must lube a plastic magazine.

The fact that Salem says up front that the magazines need to be broken in tells me their interior finish isn't all that great. The "break in" is most likely to wear down the moulding flash they failed to remove in the first place.

I'd try a couple if they weren't illegal to sell, own or possess in Connecticut.

Well I lubed them up and sure nuff... easier to load... now I just need to take'm out to the range and see what happens... but yea lot easier to load...

Shooterjgs said:

Well I lubed them up and sure nuff... easier to load... now I just need to take'm out to the range and see what happens... but yea lot easier to load...

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I'm glad it worked.

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