Suitable for Winchester 190, 290, and Sears Roebuck & Co. Ted Williams 3T/3T-A tube-fed .22 rifles, this speedloader makes loading them faster and easier. We’ll start the project with needed maintenance.

by Ed Nutter

One advantage of magazine-fed semiautomatic firearms is that you can spend a rainy day filling magazines before you go shooting so when you arrive at the range you can spend time shooting instead of loading. This gives rifles like the Ruger 10/22 an edge over rifles with a magazine tube.

There are other potential benefits to speedloaders besides simple convenience. I was in a gun shop that had a rifle with a magazine tube like the 190 that was suppressed. I was a bit confused by that given the need to pull out the inner magazine tube spring assembly. In order to do that on the suppressed rifle I saw, you would have to remove the suppressor first, load the rifle, screw it back on, and repeat every 15 shots. Using a magazine fed rifle lets you just change the magazine, instead of removing the suppressor every time. A speedloader helps a little there.

While it will never be as fast as changing a magazine, there is a way to reduce your reloading time with tube-fed guns. Before we build speedloaders, let’s conduct a good inspection and handle any needed maintenance or repairs.

Read more in the June 2019 issue.

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