MAGAZINE

UKPSANEWSOf course, there is a lot of chest puffing here – thereare any number of You Tube videos showing selectedclips of people loading 8 shells in less than 5 seconds!God knows how many attempts it took them to getthat perfect reload. Of course, world-class shooterscan reload like that consistently.All I want to do is be able to strip and load 8 rounds inless than 8 seconds without fumbling – most noviceswould be happy with that in a competition.The method outlined below is the result of watchingMaster and A-grade shooters at competitions andcopying them. I keep what works for me and dumpwhat doesn’t. I take no credit for inventing thismethod – all I have done is watched and analysedexperienced shooters.It’s helped me and my advice, based on it, has helpedthose who have asked me. I offer it to you in the samespirit. Use this article as a foundation but, go out thereand watch elite shooters, experiment with and tweaktheir techniques and see what works for you. Aboveall, watch and copy – there is no shame in that.Starting off.If you want to reload consistently and quickly get adecent belt and some caddies. There is a great articleby Tony Saunders in the April 2011 Target Shooterlooking at the pros and cons of different ammunitionbelts. Some very fast shooters on the circuit strip offpairs of rounds from a wide belt and run them into anupside-down gun. I can’t do that. I have seen othershooters strip rounds from clips with their strong handand reload like lightning. I can’t do that either. Themethod I am extolling is week-hand loading from acaddy – it works for me - but there are other methodsthat may work better for you.There are several suppliers for stripper clips – I useCalifornia Competition Works because they arerelatively easy to get hold of. Most caddies work inthe same basic way. They have a spacer which youwill need to fit into the caddy so that your shells arenot jammed in but are loose enough to strip outeasily without falling out. If you are right-handedand are stripping rounds with your left hand (which Iam – consequently this article is for righties – southpaws need to reverse these instructions), then put thespacer down the left-hand side of the caddy.The shells go in with the primer to the left. This meansthat when you strip the shells from the caddy they aresitting relatively high up in your hand (we will comeback to this later). You need to attach your caddies to astout, stiff belt that doesn’t flex as you try and strip theshells from the caddy. I recommend 4 shot caddies -the sixes are OK for loading at the firing point but youcan’t get more than 4 shells in your hand at a timeduring a speed reload.I ‘hold’ the caddies in place on the belt with cable ties(see the photo below) – this stops them moving tooclose together during a competition. You will see whythis is important shortly. When you are starting out -or if you have small hands - load 3 shells into the caddy– its easier to practice stripping and loading.The other thing worth buying is four aluminium 12gdummy shells. They are expensive but last a long timeand mean you can practice reloading at home. Theyfeel more-or-less right in terms of weight (the plasticones don’t) but their main disadvantage is that theygo into the mag much easier than real shells. NEVERpractice with live rounds at home. EVER!So now you have your belt and caddies, your dummyshells and your gun we can start practicing.Starting off with an empty gun in ‘aim’ position.Release your weak hand, lower the gun with yourstrong hand (finger out of the trigger guard – OK itsan empty gun and you are using dummy rounds, BUTmake safe technique an aim of your drills too) andtuck the butt into the crook of your strong arm. Inthis position the barrel weight pulls the front of thegun down, your strong hand acts as a fulcrum andyour armpit locks everything in place. It’s a naturaland comfortable position and provides a very stableposition for reloading.With the gun in this position the reloading process canbegin – it should happen in three distinct stages:Stage 1 – Strip the caddyStage 2 – Index your hand under the gun’s carrierStage 3 – Thumb the rounds into the magazine78