Cammenga EasyLoader review

[flintoid]

I just experienced loading a bunch of my magazines with a Cammenga Easyloader for the first time. The experience needs to be forgetten ASAP so bud light will be prescribed shortly. Before that, I figured I'd share the product's failures with you guys and gals.

First off, here's a picture of the prodcuts:

I purchased the 10 round loader, as I'll be primarily loading 10 round magazines. I figured if I was to load my 30 round mags, I could just load the mag 3 times, in theory. Little did I know that the thing would fail to load anything at all

Here's the main reason why that the product does not perform as advertised:

Right at the 'base' of the loading unit, there is an edge where the cartidges travel. You can see it shining right around where my finger tips are located. It's quite unbelievable that they'd leave a 'ledge' for the butts of the cartidges to get caught up on when you push it in to load!

Here's my masterful Paint version of what is happening:

Basically the cartridges 'bind' on that little ledge like this:

They then enter the magazine at an awkward angle that doesn't allow them to be loaded.

So, instead of letting gravity pull the butts of the cartridges (the cap sides of them) against this wall with the ledge, I figured "why not flip the loader over and load the cartridges with their bullets facing the ground?" Excellent idea... so that I can avoid this stupid ledge!

Wrong. The loader is deep enough to allow the bullet tips run into the edge of the magazine, which leaves copper residue from the jackeet on the magazine edge. And it takes a hurculean strength in order to push the cartridges into the magazine this way. A force that contorts the loader and bends it's plastic, which then allows the bullets to bind in the loader, so it really doesn't work at all.

So I'm at the point of throwing my hands up in the air and shouting 'WTF' when I go to feed one of the magazines (c-products) into the rifle to see if it'll still feed the rifle. Sidenote: my fs2000 is a picky eater... I've found that some magazines it doesn't like and some it does. Some ammo feeds better (brass) and some doesn't (steel). Granted, I'm using steel cased rounds, and they have fed fine through the rifle after I hand loaded them into my magazines. But the pressure and unequal forces that this loader that has been applied to my cheap c-products magazine has totally f'd it up, and now the magazine won't feed it as reliably anymore!

so, in general:

Cammenga Easyloader:

pros:

• $25.
• Seems simple in operation

cons:

• it won't easily load my magazines (FNH stock magazine, Bushmaster 10 rounder mag, 10 c-products magazines)
• When it does manage to load, it blasts the tips off of the bullets taking almost the whole thickness of the jacket
• $25 ruins your magazines

what a pile of crap. Time to drink.

I'm going to try to do some sanding to see if I can smooth it out. If this doesn't work, I'll bring this piece of shit to a shoot sometime so that you guys can try it out and see if it works for you. I imagine that it won't mangle your mags if it loads them easily.

I'm going to now get wasted and play modern warfare 2.

 

[97serpent]

It won't work if you close the cover, and push the rounds in with the bullet end facing the floor?

 

[Gammon]

I just experienced loading a bunch of my magazines with a Cammenga Easyloader for the first time. The experience needs to be forgetten ASAP so bud light will be prescribed shortly. Before that, I figured I'd share the product's failures with you guys and gals.

First off, here's a picture of the prodcuts:

I purchased the 10 round loader, as I'll be primarily loading 10 round magazines. I figured if I was to load my 30 round mags, I could just load the mag 3 times, in theory. Little did I know that the thing would fail to load anything at all

Here's the main reason why that the product does not perform as advertised:

Right at the 'base' of the loading unit, there is an edge where the cartidges travel. You can see it shining right around where my finger tips are located. It's quite unbelievable that they'd leave a 'ledge' for the butts of the cartidges to get caught up on when you push it in to load!

Here's my masterful Paint version of what is happening:

Basically the cartridges 'bind' on that little ledge like this:

They then enter the magazine at an awkward angle that doesn't allow them to be loaded.

So, instead of letting gravity pull the butts of the cartridges (the cap sides of them) against this wall with the ledge, I figured "why not flip the loader over and load the cartridges with their bullets facing the ground?" Excellent idea... so that I can avoid this stupid ledge!

Wrong. The loader is deep enough to allow the bullet tips run into the edge of the magazine, which leaves copper residue from the jackeet on the magazine edge. And it takes a hurculean strength in order to push the cartridges into the magazine this way. A force that contorts the loader and bends it's plastic, which then allows the bullets to bind in the loader, so it really doesn't work at all.

So I'm at the point of throwing my hands up in the air and shouting 'WTF' when I go to feed one of the magazines (c-products) into the rifle to see if it'll still feed the rifle. Sidenote: my fs2000 is a picky eater... I've found that some magazines it doesn't like and some it does. Some ammo feeds better (brass) and some doesn't (steel). Granted, I'm using steel cased rounds, and they have fed fine through the rifle after I hand loaded them into my magazines. But the pressure and unequal forces that this loader that has been applied to my cheap c-products magazine has totally f'd it up, and now the magazine won't feed it as reliably anymore!

so, in general:

Cammenga Easyloader:

pros:

• $25.
• Seems simple in operation

cons:

• it won't easily load my magazines (FNH stock magazine, Bushmaster 10 rounder mag, 10 c-products magazines)
• When it does manage to load, it blasts the tips off of the bullets taking almost the whole thickness of the jacket
• $25 ruins your magazines

what a pile of crap. Time to drink.

I'm going to try to do some sanding to see if I can smooth it out. If this doesn't work, I'll bring this piece of shit to a shoot sometime so that you guys can try it out and see if it works for you. I imagine that it won't mangle your mags if it loads them easily.

I'm going to now get wasted and play modern warfare 2.

Thanks for the warning. I couldn't figure out how this loader would work and now I know; it doesn't. Have you tried the LULA? I swear by mine.

 

[flintoid]

It won't work if you close the cover, and push the rounds in with the bullet end facing the floor?

I would barely work. And by 'barely' I mean that I had to really rock the shit out of the loading handle in order to get rounds to feed. It'd feed a few, then bind up, because the great amount of force required to load the rounds would cause the loader to 'bow' (the two walls would bow out from eachother) and then the rounds would bind up next to eachother.

Something still caused the rounds to 'catch.' And I think it was the bullet tips hitting the side of the magazine.

I would hardly call it functional.

Thanks for the warning. I couldn't figure out how this loader would work and now I know; it doesn't. Have you tried the LULA? I swear by mine.

no problem. If anyone wants to give it a whirl, be sure to get a hold of me. I can bring it to a range/shoot/etc. and let you try it out on your magazines to see if it works.... if I still have it. I've been in contact with their customer support and they seem to want it back. I'm not sure if it's worth my time or money to mail it.

The LULA is next on my list of things to try. I wish I would have manned up and gotten one of those instead of this pile of crap.

 

[BossHarley]

I have one of the Uplula loaders, and it is great. It is designed to work with stripper clips - did you check to see if you put 10 rounds in a stripper clip would it work? The clip will offset the base of the rounds away from the 'edge', but it depends on the 'plunger' system as to whether a stripper clip can be used etc.

 

[flintoid]

I have one of the Uplula loaders, and it is great. It is designed to work with stripper clips - did you check to see if you put 10 rounds in a stripper clip would it work? The clip will offset the base of the rounds away from the 'edge', but it depends on the 'plunger' system as to whether a stripper clip can be used etc.

it appears it could possibly use a stripper clip. However... they don't advertise this and they don't include it in the instructions!

I might have to give that a try.

edit: no, it doesn't appear to be able to use one. d'oh.

 

[BossHarley]

This is the one I got and it is very nice. Especially if you buy the ammo already on the stripper clips....

http://www.uniquetek.com/site/696296/product/T1293

 

[flintoid]

Update

So I received more feedback from their customer support - I asked them if the plastic tolerances were out of spec and they replied affirming that question. Evidently they had a bad production run a while back that had parts that were out of spec. They're also asking me to send one of my magazines back so they can check it out themselves.

I think I'll pop it in the mail today if I get around to it.

 

[TJWFJR]

I just experienced loading a bunch of my magazines with a Cammenga Easyloader for the first time. The experience needs to be forgetten ASAP so bud light will be prescribed shortly. Before that, I figured I'd share the product's failures with you guys and gals.

First off, here's a picture of the prodcuts:

I purchased the 10 round loader, as I'll be primarily loading 10 round magazines. I figured if I was to load my 30 round mags, I could just load the mag 3 times, in theory. Little did I know that the thing would fail to load anything at all

Here's the main reason why that the product does not perform as advertised:

Right at the 'base' of the loading unit, there is an edge where the cartidges travel. You can see it shining right around where my finger tips are located. It's quite unbelievable that they'd leave a 'ledge' for the butts of the cartidges to get caught up on when you push it in to load!

Here's my masterful Paint version of what is happening:

Basically the cartridges 'bind' on that little ledge like this:

They then enter the magazine at an awkward angle that doesn't allow them to be loaded.

So, instead of letting gravity pull the butts of the cartridges (the cap sides of them) against this wall with the ledge, I figured "why not flip the loader over and load the cartridges with their bullets facing the ground?" Excellent idea... so that I can avoid this stupid ledge!

Wrong. The loader is deep enough to allow the bullet tips run into the edge of the magazine, which leaves copper residue from the jackeet on the magazine edge. And it takes a hurculean strength in order to push the cartridges into the magazine this way. A force that contorts the loader and bends it's plastic, which then allows the bullets to bind in the loader, so it really doesn't work at all.

So I'm at the point of throwing my hands up in the air and shouting 'WTF' when I go to feed one of the magazines (c-products) into the rifle to see if it'll still feed the rifle. Sidenote: my fs2000 is a picky eater... I've found that some magazines it doesn't like and some it does. Some ammo feeds better (brass) and some doesn't (steel). Granted, I'm using steel cased rounds, and they have fed fine through the rifle after I hand loaded them into my magazines. But the pressure and unequal forces that this loader that has been applied to my cheap c-products magazine has totally f'd it up, and now the magazine won't feed it as reliably anymore!

so, in general:

Cammenga Easyloader:

pros:

• $25.
• Seems simple in operation

cons:

• it won't easily load my magazines (FNH stock magazine, Bushmaster 10 rounder mag, 10 c-products magazines)
• When it does manage to load, it blasts the tips off of the bullets taking almost the whole thickness of the jacket
• $25 ruins your magazines

what a pile of crap. Time to drink.

I'm going to try to do some sanding to see if I can smooth it out. If this doesn't work, I'll bring this piece of shit to a shoot sometime so that you guys can try it out and see if it works for you. I imagine that it won't mangle your mags if it loads them easily.

I'm going to now get wasted and play modern warfare 2.

After reading your blog and looking at the pics & drawing, I took a small file to mine and got rid of that lip on the bottom and the protrusion on the side. It still doesn't hold the mag well, but it works . T.J.