Loading Magazines Can Be A Pain In the Thumb

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Tips

So, you carefully selected that perfect for you pistol.  It fits your hand just right and you can reach the trigger with the right spot on you trigger finger.  Let’s go to the range and shoot.  

The spring on a new pistol magazine can be very stiff.  Pressing the follower down to load that first round can be uncomfortable to say the least.  As the spring compresses with each round loaded into the magazine, the hand strength needed increases.  Loading a magazine to capacity can be a challenge for even experienced shooters with strong hands.  For a shooter that has smaller weaker hands or perhaps arthritic hands, loading a magazine to capacity can be impossible.

Several years ago, I attended a shooting school where we shot almost 500 rounds in two days.  Before I went, on advice from a colleague, I purchased a magazine loader.  It was awesome!   The product was the Maglula® Universal Pistol Mag Loader  https://www.maglula.com/product/uplula-9mm-to-45acp  .   It fits over the magazine and allows you to use leverage to compress the magazine follower spring.  

There are other products out there but this is the one I have used and I know works.  Here is a short video of it being used on our kitchen counter top.  Barbaree was able to load a SIG Sauer® P-320 9-mm magazine to capacity with ease.  

Maglula is available in the $30 range at most of the big box sporting goods stores and from online shooting supply websites.