Alpha Industries Ruger Gunsite Magazine Review

Alpha Industries Manufacturing
Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle Magazine Review
Alpha Type 2 Ten Shot Magazine
September 3, 2011

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to review the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle and I was impressed with this rifle. One of the features of the Gunsite Scout Rifle is that it comes with a 10-round box magazine. In an act of wisdom and/or kindness, Ruger designed this rifle to allow the use of commercially available magazines. The configuration of these magazines matches the same basic configuration as the AICS (Accuracy International Chassis System) magazines. Actually the magazines that come with the Ruger Gunsite are manufactured by Accurate-Mag. Since the magazines are not proprietary and are commercially available, Alpha Industries Manufacturing also produces this type of magazine and Alpha Industries may have found a winning configuration that puts their magazine above those which come standard with the Gunsite Rifle. This review is of the Alpha Industries Manufacturing Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine (Model A3082). These magazines sell for $62 from the Alpha Industries website.

During my reviews I like to compare my results to the manufacturer's claims where possible so the following text in colored italics was taken directly from the Alpha Industries Manufacturing website on 9/2/11 and gives some key features of the Alpha .308 Type 2 10-Round Magazine. The , and are my way to keep up with details that I have covered in this review with either photos, commentary or both. I may also add commentary after these marks as necessary to explain some items if needed.

Every Alpha magazine is custom made in the US.
Only the best stainless steel and proprietary finishes are utilized for construction.
By Utilizing a double stack single feed, the Alpha magazine is shorter than any other magazine of its type on the market.
The Alpha Type 2 magazine has an internal OAL (Over-All Length) of 2.985. These are more commonly used in the AI and Badger actions.
You will also be able to use these in a REM 700 style, but only if you have modified the feed ramp to accept the longer rounds. This modification can be done very quickly by most competent gunsmiths.
This magazine also works for the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle (GSR) platform with no modification needed.

The magazine is constructed from stainless steel and has a polymer follower. The magazine is coated in an Alpha Industries proprietary Teflon coating and has a nice black finish.

Figure 1 - Alpha .308 Type 2 10-Round Magazine

The back of the magazine is stamped with the Alpha Industries logo and "308 WIN" as shown below.

Figure 2 - Back of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

On the left and right sides of the magazine you have some ribbed areas which help to give the side of the magazine strength and control the space inside the magazine for the double stack column of cartridges.

Figure 3 - Left Side of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

Figure 3 - Front Side of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

Figure 4 - Right Side of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

Figure 5 - Top of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

Figure 6 - Bottom of Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine

I loaded 10 rounds of Hornady 155 Grain A-MAX Match ammo into the magazine to show how the cartridges stack into the magazine. After the first two rounds, the remaining 8 rounds are in a double stack configuration. All 10 rounds easily loaded into the magazine. From this photo you can also notice that this magazine is a single feed magazine.

Figure 7

The Alpha .308 Type 2 10-Round Magazine measured 3.96" in length and the Ruger (Accurate-Mag) 10-Round Magazine measured 4.87" in length. The Alpha magazine also includes a steeper sloped shape on the bottom of the magazine.

Figure 8
Alpha .308 Type 2 10-Round Magazine Ruger (Accurate-Mag) 10-Round Magazine

Additional differences between the two magazines are the feed lips and follower configurations as shown in the photo below (Alpha on top, Ruger on bottom). You can also see that the Ruger magazine includes a spacer which reduces the over-all length (OAL) of ammunition possible in the Ruger magazine.

Figure 9

The Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine weighed in at 5.25 ounces which is a 37% weight savings from the magazine provided with the Ruger Gunsite Rifle which weighed in at 8.35 ounces.

Figure 10 Figure 11

These next two photos show the two different magazines installed in the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle. It is hard to dispute that the Alpha Industries magazine has a sleeker more compact look than the original magazine that comes with the rifle.

Figure 12 - Ruger (Accurate-Mag) 10-Round Magazine

Figure 13 - Alpha .308 Type 2 10-Round Magazine

I loaded the Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine with 10 rounds of PMC 147 grain FMJ-BT ammunition multiple times and cycled each round through the rifle. I did not encounter any feed issues throughout this process. I also did the same with the Ruger magazine to compare and did not have any feed issues with the Ruger magazine either. I did feel there was a slight improvement on feeding the rounds with the Alpha Magazine. Each time I pushed the magazine release lever, the Alpha Magazine dropped out without any issue. Lastly the Alpha magazine had a slightly improved fit in the Ruger Gunsite Rifle. What I mean by "fit" is that the magazine did not have as much looseness when compared to the Ruger magazine.

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Bottom Line:

If I were to purchase another 10 round magazine for my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle, it would be the Alpha .308 Type 2 Magazine. It is shorter, lighter, fits better and adds a sleeker look to the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle than the magazine that comes standard with the rifle. I'm hoping that Alpha Industries will produce a 5 round Type 2 magazine so that legality is not an issue when taking this rifle hunting.

Feel free to post comments about this review or your experiences with this product on my Reader's Comments page.