Speed loaders and training courses
I was fortunate to attend a sniper competition a few years ago where I must have learned more about combat than every before. About 40 students were attending this training competition even and given the rules for attending the match. Everyone was told to arrive with unloaded firearms, but to keep all of their gear in the cars and attend a safety briefing. Well, one of the best events for this competition/training even occurred in the first 30 seconds after the safety briefing. Everyone was asked if they understood all of the safety rules and when everyone said yes, it began. The Instructor explained the first stage of the shooting event. Everyone was told to grab their gear from their car and immediately return to the firing line, unload the gear and engage the targets. The attendees gave us a big smile while the students/competitors did an “Oh, Shit!”
I sat and watched every student run back to their car which was about 15-30yds behind the firing line, I noticed varying types of rifle cases and rifle bags, some shooters showed up with loaded magazines and others had to manually load the guns, as soon as they were ready to shoot, they engaged the targets. I believe they had 6 minutes to take down all of the targets from 100-200yds. The variations in time to engage the enemy targets varied by several minutes. Anyone that had a M4 Carbine or 30rd magazine that didn’t have loaded gun magazines or didn’t have a speed loader, was the last to engage the targets. I saw only 2 people out of 40 engage the targets in the first 5 minutes. Maglula speed loaders are must for anyone serious about using a carbine for self defense, unless you have the military style loaders.