Loading Tokarev pistol magazines the old fashioned way gets old pretty quick – so I think a lot of Tokarev owners are going to really like my little discovery..
I use an “Up-Lula” loader for most all of my magazines and love the thing. It fits pretty much all my magazines but unfortunately the “tongue-piece” that presses the bullet downwards it too wide to fit Tokarev magazines. I stopped by the local Sportsman’s Whorehouse to look at the SKS magazine loaders. These loaders come blister-carded for display and the magazines they fit are listed on the back of the package. Alas – no love for the Tokarev. The good news is that it was raining like the dickens outside so the store was pretty much empty AND, there was one of each model of loader that had been already opened and out of the package. Since I was being left alone, I had the additional liberty of messing with the loaders and removing parts…
SKS makes a model 943 speed loader that is adjustable for height and has the proper width for .380 acp & 9mm single-stack magazines. The Tokarev magazine is too long (front to back) to slide into the loader, but I found that prying the legs apart and removing the plastic bit at the front of the loader permits the magazine to fit in.
The small piece of plastic (to the lower left) is the piece of plastic that I removed from the loader. Sorry about the poor photo quality but I had to screw with the brightness to get the all black loader and magazine to show up.
When you use the loader, you will have to wrap your fingers around the magazine and loader – but that’s how you’re supposed to hold it anyhow. You simply use your thumb to press the bullets down and drop the next one in the mag. When you let up, you push the bullet the rest of the way into the magazine as normal..
So there it is guys – the SKS model 943 speed loader ($10.99 or so) easily modified to work with the Tokarev. You can also slip the plastic bit back in to load magazines that it was intended for. My thumb loves me again.
