What is a speed loader? A speed loader is a special tool that helps you load BBs into your mid-capacity magazines. Mid cap, low cap, and shotgun shell-looking magazines function similarly. The BB is pushed by a follower and spring inside the magazine and requires no winding, unlike a high cap magazine.
This little tool is what you need to get your mid caps to work - they can come in different shapes and sizes
A high cap magazine has more going on inside. You fill the magazine with BBs through the trap door to the top. Then you have to manually wind the magazine by turning a wheel on the underside of the magazine which builds tension in the spring that will feed the BBs to your gun. Without winding it the magazine will not feed.
This is NOT how you load a high cap mag!
So what kind of magazine do you pick and what do you have to do to make them work?
You will most likely get a high cap to start with on your AEG and these are fine to use no matter how you cut it. They carry more ammo and that means you can have more BBs on you with fewer magazines. The downside is the noise that they make when BBs are bouncing about inside a magazine body and that can be a deal breaker to the players who value stealth. To get it to work, fill the magazine with BBs through the trap door typically located at the top of the magazine. Once filled to the top, shut and secure the trap door (usually it clicks or snaps into a closed position). Once the magazine is filled, the high cap is not yet ready to use. Inserting it into your gun and trying to fire will be met with no ammo being fed. You see, inside the high capacity magazine is a clock spring bound to a gear and feeding mechanism. The magazine tension from the spring to feed BBs into your gun, so you will have to manually wind the winding wheel located at the bottom of the magazine to create that tension. When you begin winding you'll see BBs begin to move up in the magazine through the hole that they will come out of. Most people who are new to airsoft will think a few winds will be enough, insert the magazine, and shoot off a couple of rounds only to shoot nothing after those first few shots and then assume the gun is not working. No, that is not the case! You have to wind the magazine. A lot. For an M4-style magazine which holds about 300 rounds, usually you're winding it 30-50 times. Just keep turning the wheel and you should hear some clicks as the magazine is being wound. As you approach the maximum tension that it can store, the wheel becomes harder and harder to turn. The magazine has a built in "slip" so that you do not overwind the magazine. When you reach the maximum tension that the spring can store, the clicks should change audibly and sound different. That means your magazine is fully wound. A fully wound magazine should be able to feed 1/4 to 1/3 of the magazin'es full capacity before you have to wind it again. You can wind the magazine while it is in your gun or even as you are shooting it to keep it prepared to fire at any time. As you expend more of the ammunition, the hollow magazine body makes itself more apparent by the sound of your BBs bouncing around inside the magazine as you move. Some players don't like it and hence, prefer midcaps but that will be a fact of life. To store your magazines when not in use, make sure there is no tension so they last longer. You can empty the magazine
This is how you load a mid cap magazine (90-round generic speed loader pictured)
How you load a speed loader is typically the same as how you load a high cap
A mid capacity magazine does not require anything to make it work however they require you to manually load them using a tool. The tool is known as a "speed loader" and transfers BBs from the tool into the magazine. A mid capacity or low capacity magazine like those found in airsoft sniper rifles work just about like how a real magazine does. Rounds are stacked on top of each other and pushed upward using a spring and a follower. The follower is the part that the BBs sit on and is what is pushed by the spring. At the top of the magazine, there is a part that retains the BBs so they don't come out once you put rounds inside the magazine. When the magazine is loaded into the airsoft gun, the retainer gets deactivated and BBs start entering your gun from the magazine into your gun's hop up chamber. Mid caps are preferred by players who do not like high cap rattle or prefer to enhance their immersion both by having to carry more magazines and forcing more reloads. For maintenance and longevity, mid caps should be lubricated to ensure smooth and jam-free feeding. They say springs lose their tension over time attributed to the number of compression and decompression cycles it goes through. The spring is the heart of a mid capacity magazine and once they sag or wear out, you'll start getting feeding/misfeeding issues so don't expect these to last indefinitely, however they do last a very very long time. From my personal experience, I feel like the tiny coil springs used inside mid capacity magazines do not hold tension the way a normal heat treated thicker coil spring does so I prefer to store my magazines unloaded when I put everything away.
BB loaders tend to come in shapes that allow them to fit inside magazine pouches so you don't lose them! Or you can carry them with you to recharge your magazines in the field.
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