Tuesday, April 09, 2013

It says "ultimate" right on the package!

Over the years, I have used all manner of loading assist devices for rimfire magazines, ranging from little plastic collars for depressing the follower button on pistol magazines to elaborate gizmos with knobs and windlasses and transfer cases for filling large-capacity aftermarket 10/22 magazines.

While they all did, in fact, assist in getting rounds into the magazine with varying degrees of success, my satisfaction with them tended to be inversely proportional to the advertising claims. It would not be an understatement to say that most of the more elaborate 10/22 loaders left me feeling like a kid who ordered Sea Monkeys and discovered that she did not, in fact, get little mer-people who would build elaborate undersea Disney castles in her goldfish bowl. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Several people had recommended the "Ultimate Cliploader" for my Ruger pistol magazines and so, with a jaded sigh, I added it to my Amazon wish list, intending to purchase it myself for range use this summer. One Anonymous Reader beat me to the punch and sent it to me, and so the other morning when I had to run down to MCF&G to drop off my annual dues anyway, I dropped fifty rounds of deuce-deuce (the advertised capacity of the Cliploader) into a little ziploc and headed for the range.

Behold:
Fifty rounds, five ten-round mags, a pistol, a gizmo, and destructions. The latter are extremely important to me, for I am ten-thumbed.

The first step was easy: Open gizmo and dump rounds in. Okay, I can do that. Then you just jiggle the whole thing around some until a bunch of the rimmed cartridges drop nose down into the little trough...

Insert a magazine. The opening is not wide enough to accommodate the button on the side, so the follower is automagically depressed. Tip the whole assembly vertical and the rounds drop into the mag. You may have to 'pump' the magazine in and out a time or two to seat the last couple rounds.

On two magazines the tenth round didn't seat and dropped out of the gizmo when the mag was withdrawn, so I just picked it up and popped it in manually.

Et voila! The loading, she is finished! Literally in about as much time as it would have taken me to load maybe a mag-and-a-half, and far less time than it took to compose this blog post, I had loaded all five magazines. This was a new sensation for me: Satisfaction with a rimfire loading aid.

Thank you, Anonymous Reader! I would like to give you a great big internet hug! This thing really is Ultimate! How had I lived without it this long?

My only worry is that I'm going to get all addicted to the ease of using it and then break it, leaving myself feeling all lost and bereft at the range. I am going to order a second one, just in case, and set it aside. (And think what great stocking stuffers these will make come Christmas!)

28 comments:

Alien said...

I discovered this thing a while back, and since I go through a lot of 22LR with students (well, I used to, before the drought) I gambled and bought one.

You've discovered one of its shortcomings: It's terrific at loading 9 rounds, less so on 10. If one can accept 9 rounds/mag, and with students I can, it's a blessing from the gods.

The other thing it doesn't do well is manage different magazines. I have a few of both Buckmarks and Rugers, and while the adjustment screw can be fiddled to accommodate both, the magazines are just different enough I wound up buying a second one and labeling them. Haven't tried it with anything but those two, so YMMV on other brands.

The thing works well enough I'm buying a third just as a spare in case either of mine get dropped/broken/etc.

staghounds said...

How about Woodsman and PP magazines?

Tam said...

staghounds,

They make three different ones; There are specific models for the Beretta Neos and the S&W 22A, and then the Ruger one is claimed to be adjustable for Woodsman, High Standard, and newer Buckmark mags.

dave said...

Nice to see they didn't leave those of us with Buckmarks out in the cold. So many others do.

og said...

I could have used one of those Saturday. I have intended to buy one but now that someone I know personally has put their seal of approval on it I will order one.

perlhaqr said...

Dang, I was kinda hoping your post would end with "and this thing was really terrible", so I'd have incentive to invent one that actually worked, and market it as "The Sucktastic Mag Loader".

Ah well. I didn't really need another project anyway. ;)

Jennifer said...

Shiny!
It has now been added to my wish list. I've launched too many of the little thumb thingies into the unknown. At least I can see this thing if it lands in the tall grass.

Windy Wilson said...

Hmm. This is encouraging news. I guess I have to get one to see if it will work on Buckmark mags from 15-20 years ago.

Craig said...

Tam,
What are those magazine floor plate extension thingys? What do they do and where do you get em?

Scott J said...

I read about it on the Ruger forum a couple years ago and bought one for my brother that Christmas.

I have been meaning to get one for myself but just haven't gotten around to it.

Doesn't seem as pressing these days now that the replacement cost of .22 LR more or less matches that of cast lead reloads in .38 and .45.

sobriant74 said...

I love mine and it has held up well for about 4 years so don't be too worried about breaking it. I leave it in my range bag and no amount of jostling has hurt it yet. I had a couple of my 22/45 mags go bad and I never replaced them b/c the two working ones can be reloaded in a flash with this thing. I've adjusted the screw and I get all ten in a mag half the time with just a couple of pumps of the mag spring.
Enjoy your new find.

Robb Allen said...

Uh, HELLO???.

Mine has lasted since 2008 and yes, it loads 9 round like there's no tomorrow.

Still, much faster than loading them manually and less 'thumb owie' to boot.

fast richard said...

Looks pretty nifty. I put it on my wishlist. I may have to buy a Ruger 22/45 just so I can have something to use it with.

Tam said...

Robb,

Dude, I've slept once or twice since '08. ;)

Anonymous said...

The Ruger 22/45 mags are like that. Different grip, different mag catch, different mags. I'm not sure offhand how essential the extended floorplate is (can't think of any reason why Ruger couldn't use a slimmer floorplate if they wanted to), or if it was as much a bright idea to discriminate between standard Ruger mags and the 22/45 family.

Geodkyt

Craig said...
Tam,
What are those magazine floor plate extension thingys? What do they do and where do you get em?

12:16 PM, April 09, 2013

NotClauswitz said...

In the Land-o-Craptastic, it's nice to occasionally find something that mostly works!!

NotClauswitz said...

Do they make 'em for a Whitney Wolverine?

.45ACP+P said...

Might they work for slim rifle magazines like the Mossberg Plinkster 702 or the Marlin 795? Curious minds want to know.

Tam said...

.45ACP+P,

I don't think so; even discounting any differences in geometry, the loader functions by automatically retracting the follower via the external button.

Aesop said...

Spiffy.
I've happily depended on a simple plastic collar thus far.
But if someone has actually gone and built a better mousetrap, someday when I think it's appropriate (because .22LR is more numerous than passenger pigeons) I may have to get me one or two.

Butch_S. said...

Only gripe I've ever had with mine was the smell, not unlike that of a drawer full of Craftsman screwdrivers. ;-)

Rob said...

I have something similar for my 10/22 magazines. Only difference is instead of pumping the mag you turn a knob that forces the cartridge into the mag. It's not perfect, but it works good enough.

Anonymous said...

An old issue of American Rifleman
had directions for a simple device made from a key blank. I followed the directions and filed a slot in the key to fit the edge of the baseplate of the Ruger Mark Is most of us were
shooting at the time.

The hole in the key took the mag
button and the slot kept the mag
follower at the bottom of the
mag till the rounds were piled in.

Cheap, simple, and I could carry it
on my keychain. Lost it when I
wasn't shooting Bullseye. Wish I still had it.

Tam said...

Used ones like that. Much like the little collar-type slides, they just don't offer enough of an advantage over running the button with my thumb to make them worth the hassle.

The thing that makes this thing awesome is the way it swallows fifty rounds at a time.

Joat said...

I've had one since before I had my Ruger pistol, I ordered it the same day and it arrived before the gun. And they do make good gifts. Please no one buy one until the ammo rush is over it's far too easy to burn up a brick of .22 in an afternoon and then you'll be in the stores looking for more and there will be none left for me to buy.

AuricTech said...

.45ACP+P, the best thing I've found for loading my Mossberg 702 10-round magazines is the BabyUpLULA™ (I haven't yet taken my one 25-round 702 magazine out of its package to test the BabyUpLULA™ on it).

Mr Evilwrench said...

Destructions. Had a stepson that used that term inadvertently, so I still do (without attribution) to this day.

Anonymous said...

Nobody shoots Steel Challenge or anything else that requires frequent reloads?

Every match I've been to has these all over the place. My local club even does once or twice a year group orders for them to cut the cost down into the teens.

Great little tool. Not perfect, but saves the fingers and thumbs!


Bill