A speedloader is a device

Tool

A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...

 used for loading a firearm

Firearm

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

 or firearm magazine that will run out of ammunition very quickly. Generally, speedloaders are used for loading all chambers of a revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

 simultaneously, although speedloaders (of different designs) are also used for the loading of fixed tubular magazines of shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

s and rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

s, or (with other designs) the loading of box or drum magazines. Revolver speedloaders are used for revolvers having either swing-out cylinders or top-break cylinders. Non-top-break cylinder revolvers having fixed cylinders must be unloaded and loaded one chamber at a time.

Revolver speedloaders

The modern revolver speedloader holds a full cylinder complement of cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

s in a secure fashion, spaced in a circular configuration so as to allow the cartridges to drop simultaneously into the cylinder easily. A mechanism is provided that allows the cartridges to be released from the speedloader when loaded, so that when it is removed, the cartridges remain in the cylinder. The most common type of speedloader uses a rotating latch;such as the HKS brand speedloaders another type slides the cartridges out an open side; and a third type has a latch that releases when pressed such as the Safariland brand speedloaders .

Revolver speedloaders make the process of reloading an appropriately matched revolver much faster than reloading one round at a time. Swing-out and top-break revolvers are designed to eject all cartridges with one movement, and speed loaders allow loading with but a single additional step. Speedloaders also provide a convenient way to carry ammunition for a revolver. Speedloaders do not allow revolvers to be reloaded as fast as semiautomatic

Semi-automatic firearm

A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...

 handguns, at least, not without considerably more practice.

Prior to the introduction of speedloaders for revolvers, reloading of revolvers was typically accomplished by manually loading each cartridge into each chamber from dump pouches, cartridge pouches, and other cartridge holders.

Prior to the introduction of cartridges, circa 1861–1873, older black powder cap and ball revolvers often were used with multiple replaceable cylinders functioning as speedloaders. As the reloading process for a cap and ball revolver was rather lengthy and time-consuming, carrying already-loaded cylinders with percussion cap

Percussion cap

The percussion cap, introduced around 1830, was the crucial invention that enabled muzzleloading firearms to fire reliably in any weather.Before this development, firearms used flintlock ignition systems which produced flint-on-steel sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the...

s placed on cylinder nipples was a considerable savings of time for reloading one's revolver. This practice was primarily done on Remington revolver

Remington Model 1858

The Remington New Model, was a percussion revolver manufactured by Eliphalet Remington & Sons in .36- or .44- caliber revolver used during the American Civil War. Known as it was used primarily by Union soldiers, and widely favored over the standard issue Colt Army Model 1860...

s, as their cylinders were easily removable and were held by a cylinder pin, unlike the early Colt revolver

Colt 1851 Navy Revolver

The Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber , later known as the Colt 1851 Navy or Navy Revolver, is a cap and ball revolver. It was designed by Samuel Colt between 1847 and 1850. It remained in production until 1873, when revolvers using fixed metallic cartridges came into widespread use...

s which were held together by a wedge that went through the cylinder pin.

Speed strips

Another variation of the speedloader for revolvers is the Speed Strip introduced by Bianchi International

Bianchi International

Bianchi International of Temecula, California is a worldwide producer of leather and nylon goods for the law enforcement industry. Since the 1970s they have produced items from gun holsters to duty belts and everything related in between...

. Intended as an alternative to loose rounds in a pocket or dump pouch, it holds six cartridges in a re-usable Neoprene

Neoprene

Neoprene or polychloroprene is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Neoprene in general has good chemical stability, and maintains flexibility over a wide temperature range...

 plastic strip. The strip operates by placing the cartridges one or two at a time into their respective chambers, and "breaking" the rounds off the strip into the chamber.

Shotgun and rifle quickloaders

While much less common than revolver speedloaders, speedloaders for tubular magazines, called quickloaders, have been around for many years and offer many of the same quick reloading ability benefits. The simplest quickloader of this type is the one used for rimfire rifles with front loading tubular magazines. In this case, the quickloader is simply a tube that that contains a magazine-capacity number of cartridges, with a seal at one end and a gate at the other. To load the magazine, the follower is removed, the rifle is pointed upwards, the tube is placed over the end of the magazine, and the gate is opened. Gravity then pulls the cartridges from the quickloader into the magazine, the quickloader is set aside, and the follower is replaced. Any length of tubing or pipe of the right diameter can be used in this way, with a simple pin through the middle serving as a gate. Commercial rimfire quickloaders often have multiple tubes joined together in parallel, with a single rotating gate. This allows multiple reloads to be carried, with reloading accomplished by simply rotating the gate in line with the next full tube of ammunition.

Shotgun speedloaders are slightly more complex, since shotgun magazines load from the breech. Shotgun speedloaders generally require a special bracket be mounted near the magazine loading port of the gun; many models mount by replacing existing pins that hold the trigger group in the receiver, and so can be installed easily without permanent modification of the gun. This bracket serves to hold the end of the speedloader tube in the correct position to feed the rounds out of the speedloader and into the magazine. The speedloaders themselves consist of a plastic tube containing a slot cut in it, and a plunger that rides in the slot and that forces the rounds into the magazine. Capacity is usually four or five rounds of 2-inch (70 mm) length shells

Shotgun shell

A shotgun shell is a self-contained cartridge loaded with lead shot or shotgun slug designed to be fired from a shotgun....

. Gravity is not suitable for operating these, as the rounds must be forced into the magazine against the pressure of the magazine spring. Shotgun speedloaders are most commonly encountered in action shooting

Action shooting

Action shooting is a term that encompasses target shooting events where the shooter's score is based on both the accuracy and elapsed time. Disciplines covered by the term include:*United States Practical Shooting Association...

 sports like International Practical Shooting Confederation

International Practical Shooting Confederation

The International Practical Shooting Confederation is a shooting sport based on the concept of practical shooting. Accuracy, power and speed are all required to achieve a maximum score.-Founding and organization:...

 (IPSC) shotgun competitions.

Magazine loaders

Loading a firearm magazine, particularly one with a large capacity and a corresponding high spring pressure pushing the rounds to the top of the magazine, can be quite difficult. A number of devices are available to make this task simpler, which are sometimes called speedloaders but are more commonly known as magazine loaders, stripper clips, spoons, or stripper clip guides. The simplest are inexpensive devices that depress the top round in the magazine, allowing the next round to be partially inserted with no pressure on it. These are also called "thumb savers", and address ease of loading more than speed of loading. There are also devices available for certain popular firearms, such as the Ruger 10/22

Ruger 10/22

The Ruger 10/22 is a semi-automatic rimfire rifle chambered in .22 Long Rifle. It has a removable 10-round rotary magazine which allows the magazine to fit flush with the bottom of the stock. Higher capacity magazines are also available...

, that accept loose ammunition and will load a round into the magazine with a simple push of a button or turn of a crank. These are more complex and expensive (US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

25 to US$50), but are more truly a speedloader since they do greatly reduce the time required to load a magazine.

Moon clips and half-moon clips

Moon clip

Moon clip

A moon clip is a ring-shaped or star-shaped piece of metal designed to hold multiple cartridges together as a unit, for simultaneous insertion and extraction from a revolver cylinder...

s and half-moon clips are special speedloaders for use with revolvers that chamber rimless cartridges, such as 9×19mm or .45 ACP

.45 ACP

The .45 ACP , also known as the .45 Auto by C.I.P., is a cartridge designed by John Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic .45 pistol and eventually the M1911 pistol adopted by the United States Army in 1911.-Design and history:The U.S...

. Double action revolvers are designed to use rimmed cartridges, and the extractors are incapable of removing rimless cartridges. Because of this fact, a different method of extraction must be used. Moon clips are a full circle, and hold a full cylinder of cartridges, while half-moon clips are semicircles that hold half a cylinder full of cartridges.

Stripper clips

A stripper clip is a device that holds a number of rounds, usually from 5 to 10 rounds, and allows them to be inserted into a magazine (fixed or detachable) by attaching the clip to a special bracket and pressing the rounds into place. Military ammunition is often packaged in stripper clips, which, in older bolt action rifles, could be loaded directly into the rifle's fixed magazine using a bracket machined into the rifle's action, or in modern rifles by the use of an adapter or guide that attaches the stripper clip to a detachable magazine.

Airgun, paintball and airsoft speedloaders

Most repeating airguns are revolver type mechanisms (even though they may be modeled to look like a semi-automatic firearm

Semi-automatic firearm

A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...

), and the most common "speedloader" is a removable cylinder. Since the pressure in an airgun is low enough that an injection molded plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

 cylinder is all that is needed to hold the pellets, these removable cylinders are inexpensive enough for the shooter to purchase several, and simply replace the empty cylinder with a full one. Other airguns use a clip that is cammed through, which operates like a linearized revolver cylinder, and as these clips are also removable and inexpensive they serve as speedloaders.

Paintball marker

Paintball marker

A paintball marker, also known as a paintball gun, is the main piece of equipment in the sport of paintball. Markers use an expanding gas, such as carbon dioxide or compressed air, to propel paintballs through the barrel. Some paintball players refer to the piece of equipment as a "marker" rather...

s are generally gravity fed, and so a hopper is used to hold the paintballs. A paintball marker speedloader usually consists of a large container with a wide mouth called a pod, designed to refill the hopper as quickly as possible.

Other types of paintball markers, referred to as "Stock Class" markers are fed by a horizontal feed tube, holding between 10 and 15 rounds. These markers are usually fed through a special feed gate by "ten round tubes" that are similar to plastic cigar tubes.

Airsoft

Airsoft

Airsoft is a sport in which participants shoot round non-metallic pellets launched via replica firearms.Gameplay varies in style and composition but often range from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, military simulations, historical reenactments, to competition target shooting events...

guns may be magazine- or hopper-fed. Speedloaders for hopper-fed airsoft guns resemble paintball speedloaders, while those for magazine-fed airsoft guns generally accept bulk ammo and, upon the repeat pressing of a plunger attached to a ratchet, force the ammo into the spring-fed magazine.