For those of you who don’t know, I’m a citizen of Canada. This means that my world consists of a frozen hellscape for a chunk of the year. I actually like wintertime activities, but I don’t particularly appreciate filling magazines when it’s -40 out (that works in both Freedomheit and Celsius). As it turns out, bare hands hurt when you touch metal for any extended period of time, and gloves just make the process a bit of a mess. But being an avid shooter, I just can’t wait for warmer weather. Enter the magazine loader in its various forms that I currently have. If it’s cold, you have a hand injury, diminished capacity in your hands, or you have a Santa sack of magazines to load, read on further.
Maglula – V10-LULA .22 LR Loader
This loader actually comes in a two-pack with the V10-LULA and X10-LULA. Both work well at filling single-stack magazines with a side button like the Ruger Mark series of pistols. I gave the X10-LULA to a friend when he bought a pistol from me, but I kept the V10-LULA because I liked the way it operated. The V10 is a spring-loaded magazine loader that you squeeze together the top and bottom and then slot over the top of your magazine.
You then press it down to the bottom of the magazine and let go. The V10 springs open, trapping the follower at the bottom of the magazine, allowing you to drop those pesky little .22 LR rounds into the magazine. I got this loader around six years ago, and to date, it has filled hundreds of magazines with zero issues. It’s compact, easy to use, and just plain works.
Maglula – UpLula 9mm – .45ACP Loader
My mother-in-law picked up an UpLula for me as a Christmas gift 12 years ago when I started dating the lovely lady I now call my wife. Not only does this make filling a pistol magazine quick once you get the rhythm down, but it’s also useful for those magazines that are very tight for the final round or two. Pistol magazines are limited to 10 rounds in Canada, and if a standard capacity magazine is pinned to 10 rounds exactly, the last round can be a bit of a pain.
This is why we pin our magazines up here to 10.5 rounds. The loader has a lock to make it slightly more compact when both halves are pushed together. When you want to use the UpLula, all you need to do is pop it on top of a magazine, squeeze the halves together, pull down, insert your round, release the halves, and repeat. I have successfully used this loader to fill numerous Glock 17, Browning Hi-Power, Sig P320, and CZ 75B magazines.
MDT – AICS Short Action Magazine Loader
I was grabbing a few other items for a rifle build from the MDT website and noticed they had a banner for a new magazine loader. For the grand total of $15, I figure I have wasted more money on sillier things for shooting sports, so why not give it a shot? At the time, they only had black, but I would likely have grabbed the MDT Green one just in case I dropped it. This thing is pretty useful for its tiny size.
I currently have a multitude of different 5.56 AICS magazines, 308 Win MDT polymer magazines, and even a couple of magazines that I custom-made the internals of so they would reliably feed 7.62x39mm. This loader has worked without any hitches on all of my magazines. To operate it, you put it on the rear of the magazine and push it down, insert the round, and it will collapse a little spring-loaded flap in the back that’s used to push the rounds down. Just lift it up and repeat. It works similarly to the UpLula but with one less step.
Considering all the money you are spending on long-range guns, why not spend a couple of dollars so you can spend more time shooting and less time loading?
CroMag Industries Corp – MagRipper AR-15 Loader
Pretty much every combat arms person in the Canadian Forces has what we Northerners call a “mag charger” in their kit somewhere. Every ammo can we’re issued comes with one of these little plastic wonders stuffed into it. This allows you to load up 10 rounds on a stripper clip and push it into an AR-15 magazine. These aren’t built overly strong, and I’ve snapped a few in my time, but boy, do they work. CroMag came up with the MagRipper so that everyone can get that functionality in a more robust package with some added functionality.
The MagRipper folds to save a bit of space and even includes a takedown pin punch on it. To use it, slide it on top of an AR-15 magazine of your choosing, grab 10 rounds on a stripper clip, and slide it into the loader. Then, press the side of your hand down on top of the rounds to load them into the magazine, flip the stripper clip out, and repeat until your magazine is full. These even work on my Cross Industries magazines, where a mag charger had issues, which was pretty awesome since that is my primary AR-15 magazine.
Danger Noodle Engineering – SL001 Lever Action Speed Loader Gen 4
If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you would know I have a bit of a thing for lever guns chambered in .357 Mag. However, lever-action rifles are likely my least favorite thing to load in the winter. They’re also one of the guns I like shooting the most in the winter because the big loop makes it easy to wear gloves. At around $80, the SL001 loader is the most expensive on the list, but as I said, winter is a thing here, so I was good with that.
This magazine loader is an 8-round loader, but if you don’t mind the last round sticking out of the tube, it will hold 9. The adjustable cartridge retainer works really well, allowing you to get the exact level of retention for the rounds in the loader. A bit of peace of mind if the loader is full and strapped to the side of your pack.
Conclusion
In this list, we have covered magazine loaders from Israel (Maglula), Canada (MDT, Cromag Industries Corp), and Australia (Danger Noodle Engineering). Are there any other magazine loaders you would like to see us buy and try out? If I get any more in the future, I’ll try to come back and update this article.
