Having attended dozens of high round count carbine schools over the years keeping magazines loaded can be a complete pain. During a recent Advanced Carbine class at Gunsite Academy I loaded up a dozen 30 round magazines prior to the class, then reloaded them each night. Sure, you can keep stuffing them during the class, but it is so much easier to have a “box of mags” and only mess with it when drills require downloading. Given it was over 100 degrees each day it made things quite a bit more pleasant loading in the cool evenings. Several loaders out there save your thumbs but are not really any faster. Enter the Trijent “Universal Mech Loader”.
What Is The Trijent Loader?
Trijent’s loader is not just another plastic tray or thumb saver, it is a reloader on an almost industrial scale. The idea came from a training day in the National Guard where loading magazines with 10 round stripper clips was tiring and slow. The Mech Loader was born from that and after some collaboration amongst the family drawings were made. Yep, this is 100% born from ingenuity amongst the family solving a problem, built in the garage. Trijent continues to improve on the design making them in small numbers using more advanced tooling in their garage They are strong, well built, reliable, and capable of loading a number of magazines quickly and efficiently.
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Mech Loader Phase 1
Given the genesis of the problem, the first loader was designed to quickly load GI magazines 10 rounds at a time using stripper clips. Tests found them to be fast easy and capable of hundreds of magazines with no fatigue. Simply insert the clip, pull the handle and they slide right in. No real effort needed and it saved a ton of time. Concept proven Trijent went about building it to last, and the engineering that has gone into these is pretty impressive. Magazine is held into place using its standard magazine release / stop so pretty much any caliber can be loaded. Ammo tray is also designed around caliber and in my test loader you can single load them.
While we used stripper clips at the PD much of the rest of the shooting world orders ammunition without. Takes a tad longer to load the tray, but it works just fine. Insert magazine, load ten rounds, pull handle, repeat until fully loaded. Comparing it to my single loader there was just no comparison, using some of the tray types it was about the same. Compared to loading direct into the magazine with a stripper clip it’s faster, easier, smoother, and far less frustrating. Materials are all steel, aluminum, and precision built. Size allows it to drop into a 40mm ammo can, kind of nice if you travel. You can also just bolt it to a bench if you are loading in the same place all the time.
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Considerations
All of my testing was completed either on the tables in the shacks at Gunsite or using the tailgate of my truck. In general, most anything I am loading either teaching or training occurs there. My truck is purposely built and equipped for remote teaching, testing or training with pretty much any firearm or related equipment. Setting it on the bed worked fine and took far less time than my usual single loading of a dozen magazines.
It takes a smooth but firm pull (or push) and they drive right in. After using it a few times I would consider adding a non-slick service like a mat as it can slide around a bit. Another thought was to bolt it to a large piece of plywood like I do with my precision rifle reloads in the field setup. Another solid platform is a winch mounted vice. Basically, the more solidly it’s mounted the smoother it goes.
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Let the mechanism do the work, my tendency was to pull too hard. Maybe it is a guy thing, but there was simply no need to “ram” the ammunition home. Trijent built this well using appropriate leverage. Smooth and continuous is the trick, once that was figured out things were smoother and faster.
Bottom Line On The Trijent Loader
My testing loader is a Phase 1, they are already working on making improvements (phase 2) based on input from testers and evaluators using these in the field. Currently they are only available on the site in 5.56mm, the most common bulk loader and where it seems to make the biggest difference. I am currently testing one setup for Desert Techs 53 round OMAG magazines for the Quatro-15. Loading 53 rounds by hand is a royal pain, and this looks to make a significant difference. They are also working on pistol calibers as well, this setup would work with just about anything.
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Is this for everyone, probably not, especially given a retail of $279. If you can count how many 30 round magazines you load on one hand per year it’s a novelty. But, if you are the type that likes to keep a pallet of loaded magazines “just in case” this is an excellent choice. Police departments, other agencies, as well as media or manufacturing types. Touring the Sig Sauer Facility years ago the people test firing new projects had a hundred or more magazine loaded at any time. Media events where you are feeding 30 trigger happy writers and influencers. Given that need, get a couple of them, it will save you several hours of loading and many finger tips!
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