fastest revolver reloads

E

e'ville

New member
I have two detail questions which may make or break a match.

First, when emptying a revolver I hold it muzzle up in my weak hand and punch the ejector rod with the palm of my hand briskly. Should I eject the cases with the thumb of my weak hand instead? That may be faster IF all the cases pop out with the lesser force available with that thumb.

Second, when inserting moon clips or using a speed loader, should I line up the rounds before the bullets hit the cylinder or not bother, letting the bullets hit first then rotating the clip until they pop in. I admit this is subtle, but I'm trying to develop good habits. Today I noticed that I don't orient the rounds before trying to insert them and wondered what the true speed masters do.

I can always use help and appreciate the advice.

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Mark
NRA member
 
As a Master Class PPC shooter, I got to the point where I could reload very quickly and smoothly. The key words are quick and smooth. When you put them together you get fast.

I always use the weak hand thumb to eject spent rounds. My strong hand has a hold of the speedloader and it is on the way to the revolver before the spent rounds are halfway to the ground. As for lining up the rounds, I look at the chambers that are at ten and twelve o'clock and the rounds just go right on in. I rotate and align in one smooth motion not two.

You don't mention how your speeds are. With competition speedloaders I take about 3.2 seconds from the last round of the first string to the first round of the second string and that isn't too shabby.
 
There is an alternate method of reloading where the shooter maintains the strong hand grip, uses the strong thumb to release the cylinder, the weak hand or strong hand fingers to push cylinder clear and the weak hand to dump empties and insert new rounds. Works best with a moonclip, I would imagine.

I drop the noses of the bullets on the face of the cylinder and rotate until they fall in.

I am on the learning curve, find the weak hand reload does not slow me down. I think it has the potential for increasing speed as there is no hand to hand juggling.

For what it is worth, I believe Mr. Revolver, Jerry Miculek, uses the older style where the revolver is held in the weak hand and relaoded with the strong hand.

He says it is all dependent on what you are accustomed to doing.
 
My interest in speedloading is for defensive shooting, not for matches, so take the following for what it is worth (if anything).

I prefer to transfer the gun to the non-shooting hand, point the muzzle upwards, and smack the ejector rod briskly with the palm of the shooting hand a couple of times. I have seen too many cases stick to feel doing anything less in a situation where I _need_ to do a speed reload. This is especially so with magnum cases, and even more so with short ejector rods on snubbies.

Speed is good, but I am not as much interested in speed over positive extraction.

As for loading, I roughly eyeball the bullets' alignment with the cylinders, then rotate and/or jiggle until the cases enter the cylinders. Looking for perfect alignment is no good when you should have your eyes up and scanning for threats.

I have also found that bullets with a smaller meplat (front portion) tend to align themselves quicker than wider-nosed bullets.
 
After many years of using the 'traditional' method of opening the cylinder, transferring the weapon to weak hand, and using weak hand thumb to eject empties while strong hand went for the reload, I changed. I had to retrain myself, but when I 'popped' empties out with the palm of my strong hand I never had any ejection problems again--ever. All the debris goes straight down as do the empties, and with short extractor guns it's the only sure way. Once learned the 'pop' method is 100% certain and very fast. Reloading is just a matter of being smooth, with speed a secondary consideration. (All of which is a strong case for 100% hits with the first cylinder full so you don't have to rely on fine motor skills!)

BTW, I trained numerous LEOs in this technique which came along--as far as I know--in the early 80s. It worked for us.

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Looks like I learned something new. My technique works just dandy for a regular length ejector rod and .38 spl. cases. I have never (and thats many thousands of rounds) had a problem. Still, with something like a Smith 36 or 2 1/2 19 I suppose a guy could get a case under the "star".
 
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