UpLULA vs Speed Beez: one loader for everything, or one for your 9mm

A magazine loader is the cheapest quality-of-life purchase in a range bag and the one new shooters are talked out of most often, usually by somebody who has never loaded fifteen rounds into a double-stack 9mm magazine with cold hands. Loading by thumb is fine for the first magazine and painful by the fourth, and painful means you shoot fewer rounds in a session.

Two tools dominate the conversation, and they are built on opposite philosophies. One is a universal tool. The other is a caliber-specific tool with a published list of the pistols it fits. Our best magazine loaders page ranks the whole category; this page is the head-to-head.

The verdict

What each one actually is

The UpLULA is a squeeze tool. It sits over the top of the magazine, a grip in the hand depresses the follower and the top round, and you drop a cartridge into the gap. Maglula also lists it as unloading as well as loading, which is the feature people forget they wanted until the first time they need to empty a magazine without thumbing fifteen rounds off a feed lip.

The Speed Beez Lever Loader works the lever rather than the grip, and Speed Beez lists it for 9mm only. Rather than claiming broad coverage, Speed Beez publishes the pistols it fits: Glock 17, 19, 26, 43, 43X and 48, SIG P226, P320, P365 and P2022, S&W M&P and Shield Plus, Ruger, CZ P10 and more on the maker's own list. It is also made in the USA, which Speed Beez states on the page.

Side by side

Published figures only, each value linked to the maker page it came from.

Breadth versus a named list

This is the real distinction and it is worth understanding as a difference in how each maker writes, not just in what each tool does.

Maglula claims breadth. Its UpLULA page says "virtually all 9mm Luger up to .45ACP single and double-stack magazines of all manufacturers" plus "most .380ACP single and double-stack mags and 1911's mags". Those hedges, "virtually all" and "most", are doing real work, and to Maglula's credit the company names its exceptions elsewhere rather than hiding them.

Speed Beez claims specificity. Its lever loader page lists models. That is more useful if your pistol is on the list and useless if it is not, which is the trade you are making.

Practical rule: if you can find your exact pistol in a maker's published list, the named list beats a broad claim every time. If you cannot, breadth with hedges beats a list that excludes you.

Read the exceptions before you buy

Every loader has magazines it does not fit, and the makers worth buying from publish them. This section is the single most useful thing on the page.

• ETS names them directly on its C.A.M. Loader page: STI 2011, Taurus PT709 and G3c, Walther CCP and SIG P938 magazines.
• Maglula publishes a long non-fitting list for the BabyUpLULA: Ruger MKI, MKII and MKIII, Glock 42 and 44, Ruger LC380 and Security .380, SIG P290 .380 and P365-380, S&W M&P .380 Shield EZ and Bodyguard 2.0 .380, Walther CCP .380, Beretta 81 Cheetah, Henry AR-7 and Colt ACE.
• Speed Beez publishes a fits list rather than an exceptions list, so the absence of your model is the warning.

Two names appear on more than one exception list, which tells you something: the Walther CCP and the Taurus G3c have magazine geometry that loaders struggle with. If you own either, check the specific maker's page before ordering anything.

Warranty

A loader is a plastic tool that gets squeezed hard thousands of times, so the warranty is not a footnote. Maglula publishes a limited one-year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. ETS publishes what it describes as a lifetime warranty on its C.A.M. Loader, and says the tool is made in the USA. Speed Beez does not state a warranty on the page we checked, which is worth knowing before you choose it on specificity alone.

If warranty is your tiebreaker and you shoot 9mm or .40, the ETS is the pick rather than either of the two in the headline. That is an honest answer to a two-way comparison and it is the one the published terms support.

If you shoot .22

Neither headline tool covers rimfire. Maglula lists the UpLULA for 9mm Luger through .45 ACP and most .380, not .22, and the Speed Beez is 9mm only. A .22 target pistol magazine is exactly the one that hurts most to load by thumb, because the spring is stiff relative to the tiny follower button.

The BabyUpLULA is the answer there: Maglula lists it for ".22LR, .25, .32 and .380ACP cal. pistol mags of all manufacturers", in single-stack and narrow-body form, and it weighs 40 grams. Read the non-fitting list above first, because it is long for .380 pocket pistols specifically. Our ear protection for a .22 page covers the other thing people get wrong about rimfire sessions.

Which to buy

• Two or more pistol calibers: Maglula UpLULA.
• One 9mm, on the published list: Speed Beez Lever Loader.
• 9mm or .40 and you want the longest warranty: ETS Group GEN II C.A.M. Loader.
• .22, .25, .32 or single-stack .380: Maglula BabyUpLULA, after checking the exception list.
• A 1911: UpLULA, which Maglula lists for most 1911 magazines.
• You want to unload as well as load: either Maglula tool; both are listed for both directions.

Whichever you buy, the loader belongs in the bag rather than at home. Our what to put in a range bag page has the full list, and what to bring to the shooting range covers the first trip. Loading happens on a bench with the muzzle pointed downrange and your finger off the trigger, as the NSSF's rules of firearm safety and the newcomer guidance at letsgoshooting.org both set out.