Magazine loading made easy by Maglula Ltd.

 

Loading magazines made much easier with Maglula Ltd

Every once and a while you come across a tool that makes your life more enjoyable and when you combine it with shooting your prized AR, rifle or pistol it’s a bonus. Well, I have come across such a tool, which makes loading and unloading magazines a joy. In 2001, a father and son team, Guy and Ran both born in Israel, established Maglula Ltd. The name Maglula stands for magazine loaders and unloader’s accessories. Maglula Ltd. is a privately held company which was started to design and produce a magazine loader/unloader that would stand up to the use it would see in the service of the military. They currently have 5 models available, the LULA, a rifle magazine loader, the UpLULA, a universal pistol magazine loader, the StripLULA a loader for 10 rd. military stripper clips and loose rounds, the BabyUpLULA a loader for small bore pistols from .22 to .380 and the BenchLoader a heavy duty single stroke magazine loader. Within each category, for example the LULA, there is a loader for 7 different types of magazines, just check the loader you want to see if it loads your magazines.

Loading 10 rounds in any AR mag takes seconds with StripLULA

Let’s start with the StripLULA. Since everyone in Israel is required to serve a tour in the military, you find out what works and what doesn’t real fast and I am really sure they found loading magazines a major pain like we have. Now those of you, who have served in the Military within the combat arms, know all to well the pain associated with loading the infamous USGI 30 rd. magazine from a stripper clip. We all tried using our hands and fingers and found it to be a memorably bad experience, and most of the time, conditions permitting, used the table edge at the range, or some other hard, fixed surface worked. For those of you who did not serve or haven’t served yet, you probably still know what I’m talking about because of the many AR platforms on the market and you own one or know someone who does. This useful tool will prevent those sore fingers and hands.

 Throw away that metal loader, it's time is done

With this fantastic little device you can load a 30 rd. magazine in under 5 seconds, no sweat and no busted up hands or table tops. And if that’s not the best news you have ever heard, it gets better, because it loads loose rounds just as easy, no stripper clips needed.  It also has a device on the end that strips the rounds from the magazine to help unload them after your done shooting. It also centers the rounds going into the magazine so they do not contact the feed lips, helping reduce wear and tear on this important area. It is very simple to use as well, just slip it onto the back of your magazine (the rim side) and place the stripper or loose rounds into the channel guide, move the pushing device in position and with two fingers push the ammunition into the magazine. Just repeat the process till the magazine is fully loaded.

 The StripLULA and MagLULA will take up very little space

The second loader I own is called the UpLULA. It loads and unloads any single or double stack magazine, because it adjusts to the magazine body when you squeeze it. When you insert the magazine body into the loader you squeeze the loader and the beak, which is made of metal and is very sturdy, inserts itself into the magazine and pushes the follower down.  The beak is what compresses the follower and loaded rounds so the next round can be loaded. To unload, just squeeze and slide the beak under the first round and push down, dump the round out and repeat. It also has a small tab on the side to lock the loader in the closed position for ease of storage.

 Push down, tilt forward and your round drops out

Your probably asking your self where can I get these loaders, well they are carried by Butler Creek and they are available in many of the frequently found shooting accessory catalogs or shooting supply stores. I have used the StripLULA for about a year, and have had no issues with it. I am very happy with the quality of this product. The UpLULA I received from Ran himself at the 2010 Shot Show, and it works as advertised both loading and unloading my 9, .40 and .45 magazines. If you use high capacity magazines and shoot a lot of ammo this will save your thumb. I cannot wait for the .22 magazine version to come out, because if it’s as good as the ones I own so far, it will be a welcome addition to my collection.

 Place the steel beak on top of the round and push down

The Maglula Ltd. table was one of the last booths I visited on the fourth day of the Shot Show and Ran made me feel like a valued customer, immediately going into his product demonstration after I sung his praises about my StripLULA.  I told him I was in the process of getting a UpLULA and LULA for my FN-FAL and he showed me how they worked and he said, “I will sell you one for 20 dollars,” I looked in my wallet and had 5 bucks to my name, I told him I would have to buy one later from the catalog I ordered my StripLULA from. He looked at me and said, “Wait a minute,” he moved to the back table and gathered a few loaders and gave me a new StripLULA and an UpLULA. I told him thank you, and that I would give him and his company great PR whenever someone saw me using my loaders and asked, “What is that you’re using to load your mags?” Make sure you visit their site at www.maglula.com to see them in action.

 Now you're ready to load another round into your magazine

Thanks Guy and Ran for a great product, I hope to see more loaders in the future.

My time at the 2010 Shot Show

Time at the range with the Winchester Model 70 Stealth  

Well like all things in life and to coin an old Vulcan proverb, “for everything there is a first time.” This was my first time to the 2010 Shot Show at the Sands Expo & Convention Center right off the strip in Las Vegas. It is connected to the Venetian and you pass through the building to get to the exhibit halls. As far as firearms are concerned, I cut my teeth on those when I was just a mere boy of eight, but until I moved to Arizona I never had the opportunity to go to a show. I remember when I was a younger man, reading an ad for the first Shot Show in 1979 and wanting to go. It only took me 31 years, but there I was, deep in the heart of the greatest gathering of like minded people in the world. Last year I had a great opportunity to attend the 2009 NRA Convention here in Phoenix, and you could say this show prepared me as to what to expect when it was time to go to the Shot Show. However that wasn’t the case, because as anyone who has ever been to a Shot Show will tell you, “It’s huge!”

New in the Taurus lineup, the Public Defender

When my good friend and mentor Bob Shell emailed me and asked if I wanted to go, I resounded with a, “hell yea!” Since we work closely together on so many projects I am basically an employee of his company, Shell Reloading. Being a writer in training and working for a writer, it would give me a chance to put my experiences in words for all the people who haven’t had a chance to see this grand event. As a member of the press, our day started on Monday with the coveted, “Media Day at the Range.” Members of the press in the shooting and outdoor sports industry get a chance to shoot some of the newest guns from the biggest names in firearms. Now if you enjoy shooting, and you’re not a limp noodle, this day is heaven on earth. Where else can you shoot a .22 rifle on up through a 375 H&H magnum that no one has touched or seen yet, being they are new models of a familiar cartridge. Now imagine you have an unlimited ammunition supply, targets to shoot, multiple ranges and there is no cleaning them after your done. Would you define this as a little slice of heaven? I sure would and did!

Beretta has a new scattergun, the Tx4 Storm semi automatic shotgun in 12 Gauge

Now that I have you drooling, it gets better. After endless hours of burning powder with Browning and Winchester, who also provided the ammunition and Bushnell Optics, who provided all the scopes on the rifles, we had a second range to go to on the other side of Vegas in Boulder City. This range was host to many other big names in the industry like Glock, Steyr, and Berretta. We walked down the firing line sampling everything that is great about the shooting sport and loving very minute of it, and if that was not good enough, they brought in caterers. We ate very well at both ranges. Now if this is not the Greatest Country in the world then you just needed to ask some of our foreign visitors. Of all the people I spoke to from another country, they said they wanted to live here and told us how incredibly lucky we truly are to have the freedom we have, and I agreed whole heartedly with them.

Better wear your walking shoes, the booth numbers say it all.

Now this was only Monday and the Shot Show hadn’t even begun yet. But I was busy wondering what to expect and what I would see and do when I got there. Well, first things first, I had to get my Shot Show credentials and for that I had and email with a bar code because we registered on line prior to the show and it was fairly painless once I knew where to go. There were many helpful guides along the way, so navigation was easy, just crowded. There was a suggested 58,000 people there this year and I believe half of those were in the hallways. Since my boss is with the media, I carried a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D with a 4 Gig card, so running out of memory wasn’t a concern. Although it should be noted that if you do not carry press credentials you will be asked to leave, since there is no photo taking at the show. When we got our bearings on where the venders were we wanted to see, we entered the exhibit hall. Your first thought is, “Wow,” it seems like it goes on a far as the eye can see, and I does from the aspect of the size of vendor displays. There are full size buildings and trucks with trailers as well as company vehicles parked through out. It was truly a sight to behold. Walking the pathways was slow, since your busy looking at displays and at the same time dodging other attendees. It always seemed to thin out towards the end of the day, but the first two seemed hectic as people rushed around tending to their business. You have four days to take as much in as you can and from my point of view that’s a task in its self. It has been said if you visit every vendor, you can only spend 30 seconds at each booth and I believe that to be true. It would be impossible to list everyone who’s there, but it’s safe to say if they shoot or support shooting, they were at the Shot Show. By the third day it was thinning out and you could move a little better and the fourth day it was a breeze to walk around.

If you going to be comfortable, bring your own house to the show

Some advice I would give, if you love Vegas and you enjoy being on the strip, that’s great, but if you want to save a buck or two get a hotel off the strip close to normal businesses and restaurants. A lot of them provide basics for the price of a room and give you free internet access. We stayed at the Imperial Palace and while it served as a room to sleep, lacked any other small creature comforts like a coffee pot, in room safe, fridge, or internet. Everything else cost an arm and a leg, so having a cell and lap top with a USB connect or air card will serve you well. Eat a hearty breakfast before you go to the show as lunch at the show will bankrupt you with $9 hamburgers. We went to dinner at Buca di Beppo, Outback, Lone Star and others and paid normal prices and had a good meal every night. If you can, get a room with a kitchenette and shop at Wal-Mart and you will have snacks, drinks and microwavable foods on hand for less than it would cost to eat out. If you an expert navigator, great, if not a GPS with current maps, is a Godsend, we never got lost, I mean disoriented. We split gas, and paid every other meal and didn’t spend much on extras and spent $300.00 in a week, not including the room. Start saving for it now and I’ll see you in Vegas for the 2011 Shot Show.