Don't make the same mistake I did

I can honestly say I haven't made this same mistake twice in the five years since it happened.

It was the summer of 2014 and we were working with the NSSF to help benefit their First Shots program. Our role seemed easy! We were to supply two Scorpion pistols along with a couple people to help run a simple rimfire steel stage.

As I went through my checklist I thought I had everything I needed eyes, ears, cleaning supplies, tools - all good and ready to go - heck, I didn't even need to supply ammo. How hard could it be? I was good to go…or so I thought.

Don't ask how but I had forgotten to bring any sort of magazine loader. As a couple of our Team Volquartsen members ran shooter after shooter through the stage I was in charge of keeping loaded magazines ready to go. Not sure if I drew the short straw or how I ended up with that role but sure enough I did.

Forgetting a magazine loader may not seem like a huge deal, but when the shooters went through nearly 5,000 rounds of ammo in two days it became a big deal! My thumb, or should I say thumbs, were toast! As strange as it may seem I was almost looking for a malfunction to develop in one of our pistols to give me a short reprieve from loading magazines - as luck would have it though 5,000 rounds through the two pistols and not one malfunction to save the day.

I still haven't heard the end of this from those that were there.

You can bet anytime I load up a range bag the first thing that goes in there is several mag loaders to prevent a redo of five years earlier.

There are a lot of magazine loaders available but I recently came across one that I think is one of the best ones on the market. It is the Maglula Magazine Loader. This patent pending spring loaded magazine loader makes loading quick and easy - even when you have to load 500 magazines in two days! Package also includes a non-locking loader as well.

These loaders fit a variety of magazines including:

• Volquartsen Scorpion
• Volquartsen Black Mamba
• Ruger MK I, II, III, IV, and all 22/45 models
• S&W Victory
• Beretta U22 NEOS
• Browning Buck Mark
• COLT Woodsman/Cadet
• High-Standard .22

Make sure you are range ready this spring and order yours today!

Your thumbs will thank you.

Committed to Building it Better,