Revolver Speedloaders: Proven Designs and New Innovations

During the past year, revolvers have gotten a lot of attention. The introduction of the Taurus AirLite six-shot revolver, basically a six-shot J frame, was interesting. Ruger introduced a seven-shot 357 Magnum version of the GP100. The revolver, it seems, continues to interest the self-defense shooter who wants his or her carry handgun to agree with the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) maxim. We have done reports on revolvers and on self-loading pistol magazines, but we’ve never tested revolver speedloaders. It seemed long overdue. We got together a team of revolver shooters, collected a number of revolvers, and ordered a range of revolver speedloaders. While the basic design of all speedloaders is similar, we discovered that there are important differences in the speedloaders that will be important to the user. Whether the speedloader is used for competition or defense, we think the reader who carries a revolver would be well advised to carry a speedloader, master the technique to deploy it, and choose the device well.