Tips & Techniques: A Speedloader For .22s

Rimfire shooters of several types of popular rifles and revolvers have long struggled with a convenient way to take spare ammunition into the field. The typical 50-round box is “almost” pocket-friendly, but trying to manage the box and the firearm to reload a magazine tube or cylinder becomes a three-hand affair—and the waxy lubricant found on many rounds picks up all manner of dirt and lint if carried loose in a pocket.

A convenient solution I have found is the magazine for an M1911-style .22 Long Rifle pistol. The slim magazine can be conveniently carried in a pouch or pocket, with the rounds protected, and individual cartridges can be thumbed into a single-shot chamber, the magazine tube of a rifle or the loading gate of a single-action rimfire revolver. I stumbled onto this helpful tip a few years ago.

A friend gifted me an old Savage Anschütz single-shot match .22, and I will occasionally wind up a range day looped into a shooting sling and ringing a small steel spinner at 50 yards. Trying to pluck individual .22 LR rounds out of the flimsy paper box while keeping from spilling the contents into the dirt was causing frustration to seep into my otherwise serene plinking. At that point, I remembered the .22 conversion pistol I had been shooting earlier and the solution was apparent. Now I keep an extra magazine handy for various rimfire applications.

Many popular rimfire pistol magazines do not lend themselves to easily thumbing the top round out into a tube or cylinder, but I have found the M1911 conversion magazines to be ideal. Better yet, the ProMag units are relatively inexpensive and hold 14 rounds. M1911 magazine pouches are widely available and work perfectly with the conversion magazines.