Technical Tuesday: How To Load A Magazine

Today’s Technical Tuesday is focused on something that may sound boring and mundane but is very practical! Let’s talk about how to load magazines. Today, we will be sharing firearm basics for making it easier to load mags, how to load magazines for maximum reliability, and how to maintain your magazines for longterm reliability. Since magazines can be one of the most common failure points in a firearm, we feel like this discussion could be helpful to everyone.

Firearm Basics

We’re using brand new Magpul magazines, which some folks think can be a bit difficult to load, especially as you’re loading higher round counts into the mag. We like Magpul magazines for two specific reasons: 1. Magpul magazines are easy to disassemble and clean. 2. They have a really nice gripping surface for emergency magazine removal.

First tip, how to easily load a magazine. Once you get about 10 rounds loaded, you will find that the magazine will start to feel a bit stiffer. Take your thumb and push down on the top round in the magazine, then hit the bottom of the magazine against the palm of your other hand. Doing this will cause the 10 rounds you’ve already loaded to act as a giant hammer, compressing the spring all the way to the bottom of the magazine, allowing the next rounds to go into the mag much more easily. It’s such a simple trick that can make loading higher round counts much easier.

The second tip when you’re loading a magazine, after you load a magazine, take it and tap the back of the magazine against the palm of your hand. What this does is to seat all of the round to the very back of the magazine, so that the rounds are all positioned in the same way as they are engaged by the slide and pushed into the chamber. This can help with reliability.

How to take care of your magazine

Finally, let’s talk about how to take care of your magazines to ensure they’re going to run when you need them. Maintenance is so important for mags–if you have to choose whether to clean your gun or clean your mag, always choose to clean your mag. The guns will normally run fine if they’re a bit dirty, it’s the magazine that is going to be the weak link. The reason cleaning your mags is so important is because, as the spring compresses, the spring gets twisted into a tight little ball, so dirt or mud inside of the magazine can really cause a problem. Again, why we like the Magpul mags is how easy they are to take apart to clean–depress the detent, and out comes the spring and follower. Get yourself a cloth (Microfiber is great; some guys in the competition world will choose to use a rod and reel cloth that does have a bit of silicon on it). Use a pencil to push the cloth into the magazine and pull it through. This will quickly take out any dirt or debris that has gotten inside your mag. Then take the cloth and wipe along the entire length of the spring, getting every coil. Finally, ensure the follower and detent are seated properly on the spring and reassemble.

Hopefully, you find this helpful! If you have any more questions on how to load a magazine into your gun, give us a call at (469) 458-6808. And please leave a comment with any other firearm basics you’d like us to cover on a future Technical Tuesday!