Maglula Loaders Skip the Busted Thumbs
Dr. John Woods 02.19.15
Life can dish out its share of annoying little injuries. I hate paper cuts, mashed fingers in doors, a slipped screwdriver into the hand, anything heavy dropped on my toes, and thumbs busted trying to push rounds into a pistol magazine. Well, those days are over, at least for the busted thumbs.
Loading brass cartridge ammo into single or double stack semi-auto pistol magazines can be a laborious, unpleasant chore. I don’t know any shooter that gets his or her jollies out of jamming ammo down into a magazine. We all knew or hoped there had to be a better way. Well, there is.
Thanks to some brilliant engineering and product design work by Ran and Guy Tal of Maglula, Ltd., home based in Israel, magazine loading shooters now have a full line of Maglula loaders. Maglula is the acronym name that stands for “magazine loaders and unloaders accessories.”
Their product line is extensive, so check out their web site to see everything they make in loaders for rifles and pistols. They established their company in 2001, marketing loader tools to military customers and now commercial-private use markets.
Here I am focusing on the Maglula UpLULA loader for pistols in 9mm, .357 SIG, 10mm, .40, and the .45ACP. UpLULA is the Maglula product family name for their pistol magazine loaders, a personal Universal Pistol (hence, the Up designation) magazine loader.
I first encountered the UpLULA at my own hunting club range when hunting friend and shooter Gary Starkey took one out of his range bag and demonstrated its use for me. He was using a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson at the time with a double stack magazine and was loading them up faster than I could thumb press 7 rounds into a Kimber 1911 mag.
Since I was using 10mm single stack magazines, he pulled out the alignment attachment accessory, snapping it on the bottom of the UpLULA loader to position the 1911 magazine perfectly for a quick charging of 7 rounds. It was so slick and easy, even I was impressed. I hardly wanted to give it back to him. As soon as I got back home to my computer, I ordered one for myself with the 1911 accessory piece.
The loader is just too simple to use. An empty magazine in any of the calibers listed above is inserted into the loader magazine channel box. The hand squeeze grip is pressed in, which engages an arm (they call it the “beak”) that presses down on the magazine’s follower.
When the follower is pressed down, a fresh loaded round is inserted into the magazine with the primer to the rear. Repeat the action until the magazine is loaded. It takes less time to fill a magazine than it does to describe it. I am certain, too, that there are YouTube videos online to guide you in the loading process as well if needed. One instructional video should do the trick. It really is that easy to do.
If you have straight body single stack magazines like the standard 1911s, then you snap on the accessory part on the bottom of the loader and proceed as above.
The Maglula UpLULA loader is made of a tough, heavy duty plastic product. The process of producing their loaders is highly detailed, including prototypes made by hand from metal, plastic, and wood, then precise 3D CAD models are created leading to injection molding processes to yield the final products. The loader is lightweight and easily fits into a range bag or even a shirt or coat pocket.
Quality control inspections are rigorous. This includes individually inspecting all products prior to packaging and shipment. Random samples are inspected and thoroughly tested as well. Just knowing their manufacturing processes can give the shooter a high level of confidence that they are buying a top notch product capable of complete reliability and long term functionality.
Maglula also makes a Baby UpLULA that is a smaller version of the one described here. The “baby” model functions in the same manner to reload pistol magazines for the .22LR through the .380 ACP. That includes the .32 ACP as well. Of course, they make an extended line of loaders for the.223 (5.56) and the .308 (7.62). Again, check out their web site for complete details and product descriptions.
So, there is no need to wear out your thumb and hand pressing down cartridges into a pistol mag one at a time. With the Maglula UpLULA, you can quickly reload empty magazines and get back to the fun part, shooting the pistol.
