Are your thumbs sore? Does it take you too long to load your magazines for a trip to the range…or reload the empties once you get home? We first noticed MagPump at SHOT in 2017 when they rolled out their then-new AR magazine loader. They’ve since come out with a version for AK magazines, too.
In 2018 the big news was a MagPump for 9mm magazines, the most popular concealed carry and home defense caliber. We’ve had their 9mm Luger Magazine Loader for a couple of months now and can report that our thumbs are thanking us for it.
The American-made, polycarbonate MagPump comes in three easily assembled pieces that are securely held together with retaining pins. If it takes you more than 10 minutes to put it together and screw it onto your workbench or a more portable piece of plywood for transport, you’re doing it wrong.
The 9mm MagPump will work with magazines for six different gun makers.
The MagPump comes with six “retainers” or collars that are used to hold your brand of magazine in the loader. All of the included retainers accommodate double stack magazines, but MagPump has now begun to produce single stack retainers. The first one available is for the GLOCK 43. More single stack retainers are in the works.
MagPump’s site aslo lists retainers for Beretta, HK, Hudson, Canik, and Walther are on the way.
MagPump includes a bright orange insert letting you know that you’ll want to use the CZ retainer for your SIG P224, P226, P228 and P229 magazines.
The process is simple. Slip the appropriate retainer into the mag pump, slip in a magazine and you’re ready to roll.
As you can see, you don’t have to worry about the direction of the rounds in the hopper. Just dump them in and the MagPump handles them, no matter which way they’re oriented.
The MagPump’s hopper holds about 60 or so rounds easily. We tried the loader with magazines from each supported gun maker including a 33-round GLOCK happy stick. That includes the new GLOCK 43 retainer. Using the MagPump for a little six-round magazine like the G43 may seem like overkill, but that depends on your hand strength and how much you value your manicure.
In short, the MagPump handled them all, including JHP ammo. As I mentioned in the video, the hopper self-feeds the great majority of the time. You’ll occasionally have to manually shuffle the rounds to keep it feeding, but much more often than not, the MagPump handles them without any intervention needed.
Specifications: MagPump 9mm Luger Magazine Loader
Caliber: 9mm
Construction: Polycarbonate
Made In: USA
Capacity: Listed as 50 rounds, but we got more in there
Additional Retainers: G43 single stack available now, more single and double stack on the way ($19.99 each)
MSRP: $149.99 (available at Amazon for $124.99).
Ratings (out of five stars):
Build Quality: * * * *
The three-piece unit is made of sturdy polycarbonate, is cleanly molded and assembles easily. It’s lightweight enough to transport easily (you’ll probably want to screw it down onto a pice of plywood for stability if you’ll be taking it to the range). If you need something MUCH more sturdy, MagPump also makes an aluminum version (the 9mm Luger Elite model) for about $770.
Ease of Use: * * * * *
Dump rounds in the hopper, insert the right retainer, slip in a magazine and go. Easy peasy. This isn’t rocket surgery.
Overall: * * * * 1/2
If you load a lot of magazines a MagPump makes all kinds of sense. It’s reasonably affordable and will pay for itself in time saved and wear on your thumbs. The best part is it works as advertised (with just a little help from time to time).
What?! Geez, people have too much money on their hands if they buy this for a 9. Plus, Glock 17, 17L and 34 all carry the same 17 round mag. I could see getting this if you have 100 mags sitting around and you want to load them all but come on?! Am I missing something here?
No kidding. It seems contradictory to cater to enthusiasts who WOULD have the 100 magazines for this when said enthusiasts would be knowledgable enough to not buy a glawk in the first place. I guess the diehard glawk fanboys are an exception, although this isn’t tactical enough to attach to the glawk rail so it fails on that demographic too.
On the plus side, this kind of thing would send the libs into a tizzy stepping over themselves to ban it because it loads magazines faster.
“glawk” LOL
Actually, I could see one scenario where this could be really handy. If you live somewhere that gets cold and you’re shooting in the winter with gloves on, it really sucks to have to take them off and fumble your ammo into your mags with half frozen fingers. So, I could see this being good for winter outdoor range trips
Plastic gets brittle in the cold. May break your loader.
For one, I don’t own any compatible guns, and for two, I only have three mags each for the ones I do have. Hard pass.
Interesting. I can see this being handy in certain niches – for really large cap mags, folks who might have physical difficulty otherwise loading a magazine, etc. For me, though…I honestly think I could load up my mags just as easily and quickly with my good old Uplula.
Just MHO, of course.
“Good old Uplula?” Real men use their fingers.
L, I don’t know about you, but loading 40 of 50 mags of 18 rounds gets a little boring to me. The UPLULA makes it much quicker.
I also have electric starters on my vehicle…
I just put on some Youtube after I get home from the range. Time goes by fast while reloading all my mags.
“Real Men” aren’t the only people who own firearms.
Be a good thing to mount on the back wall of the outdoor range shelter?
Heck, after reading the title, I was all hot to buy this to load the two or three mags for the actual Luger that I shoot about once every five years. But no! It doesn’t even load Luger mags!? So disappointed……
Maglula / Uplula, whichever it is, $25 or so on Amazon. Loads 9mm, .40, .45. Fast and easy. $150 for a loader? I don’t think so …
This would be a nice addition to a range. For a single shooter, not so much. My Uplula works fine for my double stack 9 mm mags. I’ve found that the old fashioned way works better for single stack.
You’re right. I could see this coming in handy for a range but since it’s not universal, there would be problems. Maybe a police department or the military but for my own use, my fingers or the uplula works just fine.
Totally agreed. The price point and the fact that it’s at least semi-permanently mounted makes me think that was the intention.
I’ve got a lot of pistol mags but nowhere near enough to justify having one of these things. If it loaded AR mags I might put it on the wish list though. 🙂
It looks like it was originally for AR’s and AK’s so it would be useful but unless it’s universal or cheaper, I don’t see the need for home use with 9s.
Good grief, I blipped over the mention of their AR loader in the first freakin paragraph of this review…
I guess my eyes are going, or something. I read thru this twice, and I still can’t find what you do with it. Just toss a bunch of ammo in, stick a mag in, and “go”. WTF does that mean? Come back in a month, pull out the mag and load it with the bullets in the hopper? “Go” WHERE? Is it electric? Hydraulic? How do the bullets get into the mags? Does it DO anything? Pretty dumb excuse for a review.
It’s called a pump and there’s a handle so I assume you pump that handle? Agreed that it should have been more clear though.
I see two things might be handles, one might be a trigger, too. So, you figure you see a handle, if I pull the handle, how many rounds go into the mag? How far do I have to pull it, how difficult is it to pull, my god, why was this even written?
Watch the video.
It’s a Facebook video, so I refuse to watch it.
That’s sarcasm,by the way.
I don’t understand why someone would make such a comment after not reading the whole article, and watching the video embedded in it.
And I notice the edit/delete function in the comments is gone.
I guess when you can’t get the comments section to work right (“Notify me of follow-up comments by email” still doesn’t work for my system, with no indication of why not), removing some parts of it is considered a “solution.”
what no beretta mags?
+1 on UpLula. I have quite a few mags, but not enough to justify $150 for a gizmo that only loads selected brands. So far, the UpLula has loaded every 9mm mag I have thrown at it.
Pass.
+2 on uplula
35 bucks and it works with everything. Very little to break and it fits in the pocket.
I have the pistol one and one for the AR. The AR is more reliable by a long shot but it does a decent job. I had taken it out when a group of us are getting together and was made fun of for spending the money on it. After reloading my 30 round Glock mags and shooting and reloading again before they loaded once they started changing their mind and I was nice enough to charge each of them $5 to use it that day as penalty. When we go out now they remind me to throw it in. Company says one for the CZ scorpion is supposed to be out spring 2019.
Fortunately it doesn’t do walther so I don’t need to buy it
Maybe when they have an adapter for Uzi mags… Or I could 3D print an adapter. Full auto eats lots of ammo.
I use two plastic loaders I got with guns I brought. One for nine and one for 45
Maglula (I think) had it for awhile i forgot the name, it’s known as “the good one” in our range bag. $20-$25 from my LGS and works just fine.
I won’t be buying one. You need one crank per round, which means that it really doesn’t save much effort over Maglula. And after using one of those for a bit, I found myself quite adept at, almost automatically, flipping the rounds around to insert, one handed. I use one had to push down, and the other to insert the rounds, and can probably almost keep up with someone using this device.
I bring this up, because I found a loader from ETS (Elite Tactical Systems) for maybe $25 that loads up typically 10 rounds at a time. You start with inserting the magazine into the loader. Then with a box of 50, organized 5×10, you can catch the rear end of a row of ten at one time. You then insert a piece over the last round one the bar containing the 10 rounds, and push. Seconds later, the ten rounds are loaded into the magazine. Or, I should say that is what happens with brass ammunition with Glock 17 magazines. You can take another half row or so to mostly fill the magazines – except that I tend to only fill 10 rounds into each magazine at the range. I have loaded 30 rounds into extended magazines with 3 operations of 10 rounds each. Steel cases stick, and I only average maybe 6 or 7 rounds per loading operation with XD Mod.2 (finishing with a Maglula loader) magazines. But I can consistently easily load up 50 rounds into 5 G17 magazines in well under 5 minutes.
This is a solution in search of a problem.
Wonder if I can convince the local range to pick one up?
for people with more money than sense.
I noticed nearly none of the reviews on here actually used this product. I also noticed that their are bunch of whiners on here who think they are all knowing. Cheap bastards is more like it. Armchair worriers. These folks are ruining the industry that introducing new technology. They would rather deal in the older “tried and true”. I mean why introduce new tech? Right? This product can be useful for any training instructor who load mags by the dozen. This would then allow them to spend less time loading and more time shooting. Those on here saying “have more money than sense” are idiots who likely shop for hours saving $1.00 then complain to get a discount on top of that. You want your gun industry to survive? start checking out tech created in the last 20 years. Oh if you have nothing nice to say….shut up. You can give a negative review or a positive based on your actual use, otherwise let the grown-ups talk. I’m buying two of these this just to piss you guys off.
@ Eric Larson, right on… i was thinking the same thing armchair warrior whine-athon.
no one wants to hear a bunch of whining about a product they can’t afford and have not tried yet. opinions are like a$$h*les everyone has one and they all stink.
I can see it for range use for every one to use, but way to much of an investment for home use.
Is it ambidextrous for the lefties out there? Those guys seem to get left out a lot.
OMG it don’t do Berretta…..and worst of all Taurus…….simple fact check it out…Taurus sells more guns to the public through your average everyday gun store. Plain and simple
When I attend the local, plain ole, gun range….walking down looking for curiosity’s sake only.
The semi auto pistols that I see the most are Taurus. Mostly the PT 92 . The Berretta copy. Or single stack 1911 clones. I guess you have to be a gun snob to be able to load your mags without jacking your pedicure. Sig, Glock, Smith, Ruger all start no less than $500.oo
I tried the improved version the MagPump 9mm Pro ( i do own the MP-AR15 works great on 5.56 & .300BO)
this loader not only jams all the time it damages hollow point bullets, it ruined about 7 out of 16 rounds I was trying to load into a factory Glock 17 mag , I made aprox 12 attempts at doing this and their is now way I was going to try it on expensive SIG P226 mags, this is clearly a manufacture design defect and MagPump should discontinue selling this product
A guy at a Steel Challenge match I went to had one and I thought it was pretty cool. He was also running our squad which made it harder for him to do his mag load without holding up the group. He could load a mag in 10 seconds or so. Grab a hand full of 9mm, throw it in the hopper and start pumping. I’m next to him using a mag-lula, picking up 1 or 2 rounds at time and the pump action of the mag-lula is extremely slow and much more work compared to this device.
There are obviously a lot of people on this site that can’t understand that is something doesn’t fit their need, doesn’t mean it fits no one’s need. I also wonder what percentage of the comments are from people that go to the range a handful of times a year, shoot 100 rounds and call it a day.
I want one!
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