Which Maglula loader do you actually need?
Six different LULA loaders, and they are not interchangeable. What the UpLULA fits, what it explicitly does not, and which one is right for your .22, your AR or your carry gun.
In this article
Everyone who has loaded the last three rounds into a double-stack magazine with a bare thumb understands why these tools sell. What trips people up is that Maglula does not make one loader. It makes a family of them, they are not interchangeable, and the box on the peg that says LULA may be the wrong one for your gun.
Here is which is which.
UpLULA — the one most people want
The universal pistol loader. Maglula lists it for 9mm Luger, .357 SIG, 10mm, .40 and .45 ACP, plus most .380 ACP single- and double-stack magazines and 1911 magazines. It self-adjusts between single and double stack, and it unloads as well as loads — which is the half of the job people forget they need.
Maglula is unusually honest about what it will not do, and the exclusions are worth reading before you buy:
Any round longer than 33mm, which is why .357 Magnum and .45 Colt are out
That last pair is the one that catches people. The UpLULA is a pistol-magazine tool. Long revolver cartridges loaded into lever guns and single-stack carbines are a different problem.
.22 rimfire is its own world
Rimfire magazines are thin, the rims stack awkwardly, and one tool does not cover them. There are two.
22UpLULA is for widebody .22LR pistol magazines over half an inch — 1911 .22 conversion magazines and similar. With the optional 1911 aligner insert it handles single stacks up to 14.5mm wide: Advantage Arms, GSG-1911, Kimber, SIG 220 and P938-22, Tactical Solutions 2211, Wilson Combat. It explicitly will not load Glock 44 or Kel-Tec P17 magazines, and it does not touch .380 through .45.
X12-LULA and T12-LULA are for the other kind of .22 magazine — single-stack, with a projecting side button. That covers Ruger SR22, Walther P22, G22 and PPQ .22, S&W M&P .22 and M&P .22 Compact, Beretta M9-22 and Colt 1911 .22. The T12 also handles the Walther PPK/S .22; the X12 needs a small tab filed off for a few of them, which Maglula describes as about five minutes of work. If you would rather not file anything, buy the T12.
Ruger 10/22
Sold as a two-piece set: a loader and a separate unloader. It fits the Ruger factory magazines — BX-1, the 5- and 10-round rotaries, BX-15 and BX-25 — plus TandemKross Double Kross and the S&W T/CR22 10-round, which runs tight. It will not work with left-side magazines or with magazines coupled together with TriMag or DuoMag hardware.
If you have a 10/22 and a brick of .22, this is the single best twenty-five dollars you will spend on the rifle.
The rule that saves you a return trip
Fitment is decided by the magazine, not by the gun. Two pistols in the same caliber can take magazines with different feed-lip geometry, and that is the dimension the loader cares about. Aftermarket and conversion magazines are the usual surprise.
So bring the magazine. Not the gun — the magazine. We will fit it at the counter in about ten seconds, and you will leave with the right one.
Questions on a magazine we have not listed here? Call the shop or stop in. Long Island Gun Source, Medford, NY.Any round longer than 33mm — which is why .357 Magnum and .45 Colt are outAny round longer than 33mm — which is why .357 Magnum and .45 Colt are out
