Speedloaders

[Milleman]

I found an old thread that I can no longer reply to....so I am starting a new one.

I started in police work in 1970, as a city cop in the SF Bay Area.
Everyone had to use either a Colt or S&W double action revolver....Dept. Rules.
There were two types of speedloader available at that time...Dade(which was hard plastic and brownish in color), and the Safriland/Kel-Lite... which was soft rubber. I choose the rubber ones, because they were slightly smaller....and cheaper....and in those days we didn't make a lot of money, and it was all out of pocket until the department reimbursed us.
My initial layout for uniform, gun, leather, shoes and ammo was $600....the department allowed $300 reimbursement the first year and $150 every year after that. So for most of us, we were in hog heaven after three years...and could keep buying stuff. I digress.
So, I opted for the rubber ones, in which the ammo would hang up and not easily extricate itself ....so I was told by some of the old salts to smear a tiny bit of gun oil in each hole, and the cartridges would come loose easily.
Well, one day I got out of my unit, and chased a burglar through a school, as I was running, the pouch with the speedloaders popped open, the speedloaders dropped on the pavement and all the ammo scattered around the area....in the dark. I had a decision to make, chase the guy with only 6 rounds in my gun, or stop and find the ammo with my Kel-Lite....I let the burglar go.
I started PPC Competition in '72...by '78 I was doing very well and had purchased Safariland Comp I speedloaders. These and the Comp II, and Comp III, IMO, are the best and fastest speedloaders made. I like them much better than the HKS. They are a one motion loader...the HKS is a two motion loader.
The current record, as far as I know for shooting 12 rounds, including reload, is under 3 seconds.

 

[rcmodel]

Jerry Miculek holds the current world record for 6, reload, and 6.
2.99 Seconds.

But it was done with a S&W 625 .45 ACP revolver and ammo in moon clips, not speed loaders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLk1v5bSFPw

I don't know what the speed-loader record is, but it is more then that I betcha.

rc

 

[Sam1911]

The Safariland Comp I speedloaders are horrid.

The Comp III are genius!

Never used the Comp IIs ... what's halfway between horrid and genius? They must be about like that.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Almost all the officers at SFPD also used the Safriland/Kel-Lite speedloader for the same reason (cost). The oil trick was to keep the brass from developing adhesion with the rubber body through condensation build-up. The technique of inserting the rounds in the cylinder and peeling the loader off sideways was often either misunderstood or incorrectly applied.

The Dade speedloader was more expensive, because it was really designed for PPC competition. With the rims of the rounds being retained by the spring wrapped around the body, a simple push on the top knob released all the round quickly...good for competition, not so much for the street. The HKS Six-Second (what a horrible marketing name) speed loader's claim to fame was that you could toss one to a partner and have a reasonable expectation that all the rounds would still be in the body when it arrived.

I've used the Safariland Comp I and II in PPC and liked them both...the Comp I is a bit harder to grab as the knob is smaller (it was designed to be grabbed by the body) and is harder to index (having a round body) in the dark, but it is what I used on my duty rig with my Python...it just required a different technique.

The main difference, I've seen, between using the Comp III and moon clips in competition is the technique used by the shooter. At the same skill level, the moon clips work better if you don't switch the gun between hands during the reload, the Comp III is better if you do.

 

[Sam1911]

My problem with the Is was with reliability. I tried them for a couple of seasons of match use and have tried to make light of the experience a coupe of times here...

I shoot .44 Spc/Mag almost exclusively in wheelguns and Safariland only makes the very regrettable "Comp I" version to fit a .44. While the Comp IIs are decent and the Comp IIIs are like teleporting ammo from your belt directly into the cylinder, the Comp Is are so worthless as to be slightly less advantageous than .... well, take three rounds and epoxy them into the speedloader permanently, then take two rounds, throw one into the bushes and drop another into your shoe, then take the last round and wedge it into one cylinder half-sideways. But really, it's not that good.

So yes, I use HKSs exclusively.

I'll chime in on the Safarilands. All of my experience comes from (extensively) shooting a 629, mostly with .44 Specials, in IDPA competition. Safariland only makes the Comp I for a .44. I thought I was really smart to get a few of those instead of the HKSs, as I'd seen so many shooters ROCKET through their reloads with Comp IIIs.

What a let-down! The Comp Is are a truly horrible product (at least in .44). I've seen few products that worked as poorly, as consistently, that weren't recalled or discontinued. Hard to load, hard to release, BUT, they sure release fine, in ones or twos, while riding in a vest pocket! :banghead:

Perhaps I was using them too hard, or too much, but I abandoned them after only two or three months of solid use. Which was pretty agonizing as I watched all my K-frame shooting buddies have such success with their Comp IIIs!

Avoid the "Comp I" model like the plague. I've owned a number of them for my 629 because that's the only version Safariland makes for .44s for some ignorant reason.

They are hard to load.

They are hard to release. As in: you feel pretty dumb straining and pounding on the back of your loader and cylinder repeatedly while trying to get the catch to release. As you dance around grunting and cursing the thought dawns on you that you could have reloaded faster with six loose rounds. ...
[pound, grunt] ...
Six loose rounds in a pants pocket. ...
[strain, swear] ...
Someone ELSE's pants pocket! ...
[veins popping out, sweat starting to run] ...
Someone else -- in another STATE! ...
[ammo flung into tree line]

Imagine how utterly FLABBERGASTED you then feel when they automatically dump one to two rounds out -- completely spontaneously -- in your pocket! Oh, and when they've dropped a round or two into your vest pocket they're even closer to IMPOSSIBLE to get to release the other rounds.

Actually, only one of mine was all that bad from the start. But they all get worse with use. And that's like a few months of use, not decades. I have one left that I was using just for holding my "make ready" rounds, but as of last week's practice it is in the trash.

I guess you could say THEY SUCK.

Channeling Ed Zern here or Pat McManus... but, yeah, I'm not a fan.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Now I'm worried. Not so much about my Colt I-frame ones, because they worked on the street and in PPC for several years, but more so about the ones for my M-58.

Thinking back...a long way back...I wonder if my memories of the operation of the Comp I has been tinted by timing. After all, they were a great improvement over the loops/dump pouches or Kel-tec speedloaders that came before them.

Firearm qualifications had pretty generous time limits (lots of guys still using pouches) and PPC was never a speed event...so I've never used the Comp I under the speed pressure of IDPA.

I did change over to the Comp II, for guns they were available for, when they came on the market. They did give better tactile feedback (the scallops in the body) when your grabbed them from the carriers and they were easier to load (larger knob to twist)

 

[Sam1911]

Well, I'll be the first to admit that I'm baffled by why I had so much trouble. The Comp IIIs are terrific. Just about everyone loves them. The Comp Is shouldn't be so vastly different.

But my problems with them are fresher on my mind when I wrote those things. I could have been exaggerating a little.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I'll bet part of it was that they tried to keep them pretty small to compete with the HKS size loaders.

It was from feedback in the field that the enlarged the body, added the scallops and enlarged the operating knob. It made it easier for work hardened hands...so I've heard

 

[Sam1911]

LOL! Beautiful!

 

[JMACDONALD]

Comp I

Sam Im trying to read between the lines here but Um having a hard time...how do you feel about the comp Is?

 

[Teachu2]

The HKS Six-Second (what a horrible marketing name) speed loader's claim to fame was that you could toss one to a partner and have a reasonable expectation that all the rounds would still be in the body when it arrived.

The actual name was Second Six.

 

[9mmepiphany]

The actual name was Second Six.

I think if you check, you'll find that you are mistaken.

The Second Six Speedloaders were a completely different design where the fingers holding a moving ring drove the cartridges into the chambers. They were issued to the CHP and LASD in the 70s

 

[Teachu2]

You are correct - I was recalling the name from 1984 (the last time I carried a speedloader!) and confused the brand. I was issued those when I became a deputy sheriff, and carried them just long enough to get to the range and qualify with a 1911....