My dad visited and after seeing some of my polymer AR mags, he would really like some for his Mini14.

I have found ProMag and TAPCO variants:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1506171938/promag-magazine-ruger-mini-14-223-remington-polymer-black

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1116127495/tapco-magazine-mini-14-223-remington-30-round-polymer

Does anyone have experience with either of these and might give a recommendation? Just based on the appearance and site reviews, I am leaning towards the Promag.

Is there another manufacturer that I have missed?

ETA: It also looks like the Promag has the slot for a spoon to load stripper clips. Anyone confirm this?

I own several brands and although I like the Promag poly mags, for me and my Mini14; my #1 go-to mags is the Ruger all metal 20 rounders....then the ProMag metal 30s.
They give me no issues or problems and seem to work best and last the longest.

Have you had experience with the polymer 30's from promag? He already has a bunch of the Ruger metal 20 rounders. He is interested in some polymer 30s.

check this out. My experience has been the same as the video.

okay, good info, do you know if stripper clips will work to load those?

Not to my knowledge

I have a 2013 Mini tactical and anxiously awaited the updated Tapco mags.
Didn't work.

Some wouldn't lock in with any rounds in them.
Some wouldn't lock the bolt open when empty.

Tried the $9 Thermold mags from Sportsman's Guide and they were worse than the Tapcos.

That said, I bought some older Tapco mags and they work fine in my father-in-law's old Mini, and a lot of people swear by the Thermold mags.

I would log on to sportsmansguide.com.
Should be able to get poly Promag, Tapco, and Thermold mags.
Order a few of each and try them.
Send the ones that don't work back for a refund.

That's how it goes for Mini 14 owners trying to find mags that work in their gun.

I'm not sure about the new Thermold magazine's but I do know the vintage Thermold's are highly reliable. Back in the mid 80's, Ruger 30rd mags were damn near impossible to get and the aftermarket steel 30rd mags, were hit and miss (mostly miss). The Thermold's filled the void. I've never had one miss feed or jam up. I did though, have to break my rifle in (300-400 rds), before it would use anything other then the factory 5rd magazine. The vintage Thermold's can be found gunbroker.com all the time. Worth checking into.

I've read that the Gen 1 TAPCO's were not good. They improved things with the Gen 2's. But peeps were still having issues. Especially with the post 580 series of Mini. TAPCO, was exchanging those for their Gen 3's but, the Gen 3's have yet to hit the market place. I had wrote TAPCO little over a year ago asking on the status of the Gen 3's. I was told a couple of month's. That hasn't panned out, hopefully we'll seem them soon.

It would be cool if Magpul or Lancer (especially), designed a well functioning magazine for the Mini platform. I don't see that happening. Even though they would sell boat loads of them. The market share is so small, it would not make good business sense, me thinks. I sure do hope they prove me wrong. I think the biggest hurdle is not so much of investment it would take but, the uncertainty of the political environment.

Maybe Ruger will source out a poly magazine one day. They have done it for many, of their product line. Maybe one day that will happen too.

I got a few of the $12 Thermolds from CTD. They were draggy and caused failure to go into battery for the first 3~5 rounds until the sharp edges broke.

Since then they have worked 100%. I bought more and they also needed to be broken in but work fine after that.

H

If you use a Striplula, these work on the factory mags.  Not sure about the Tapco mags though.
Striplula Video

I had some of the original Wilson NC thermolds and they worked fine in my old 185 series Mini-14, but they won't lock in my newer 580 series .  I'm sticking with the factory mags.