Your going to get a lot of negative responses here about he 597, but your problems can be fixed if you are willing to put very little effort into it.
The 597 mag's main problem is it comes with a spring that is too weak. the spring from a S&W 22s pistol mag is a perfect fit but twice the length so its good for 2 597 mags. You can get these from brownells. This spring takes 4 pounds of pressure to compress instead of the 2 lbs in the factory spring.
Besides this filing down a little of the outside edges of the plastic follower in the mag just enough so it freely drops into the mag also helps but the spring is the main fix.
call remington and complain about the mag and they should send you a new one to fix up also
I got my 597 brand new for 100$ (noticably cheaper then a 10/22) and it shoots better then many "tinkered with" 10/22s. I like the feel of it much better, I like the stock a lot more (except for ugly grey color).
go search the remington forums on rimfirecentral.com and research the 597, theres a lot of good stuff there.