Potentially very silly question: How do I load BBs into my GBBR magazine

[RostokMcSpoons]

I've just bought an Umarex HK416 GBBR.  My first gas rifle, but I've had a couple of gas pistols already.

I've worked out how to load the pistol mags pretty quickly, but the rifle mag is.... harder.

 

I've got a cheapo M4 mag speed loader that's pretty rubbish... pressing the big button rarely outputs a BB.  Might as well go in the bin.
So, that leaves me with a couple of little pistol speed loaders.   And one adapter.

It's all a bit like herding cats

Not using the adapter means trying to use finger tips to help funnel the BBs in one at a time against decent spring pressure and through the resistant rubber lips.

 

Using the adapter, I found I can do it a little easier by tilting the loader at an angle.  



Obviously I have it pushed firmly onto the lips ('yub yub'), I left a gap in the photo so you can see 'em.

With this approach quite a few of the BBs will go in, but there will inevitably be some more that manage to escape and ping off into the four corners of the room, or get jammed up without going in ('hurrr hurrrr'), or the adapter gets forced off (will superglue it on, if this is the best approach). 

:Sigh:

Is there a trick to it, or an adapter I can buy?   I've seen people use Odin speedloaders and I'm aware there are adapters for those, but Odin's seem to be hard to source... and it's a bit 'overkill' when I have this 1 (one, count it) magazine that I need to fill    (That's "at the moment".  Assuming I enjoy skirmishing with it then I'll buy at least a couple more)

Or do I just have to accept they're fiddly little bastards, and loading mid-battle just ain't going to work?

Any thoughts, as always, much appreciated!

 

Edited January 26, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[Nick G]

That's pretty much it, i find that using my thumb on the hand holding the mag to press the adapter down does the job.

Needs to be angled at about 45 degrees, but this works well for me . I find that 8 pumps of the loader is 28 BB's which is what I load my mags too rather than ram them full. I take 5 mags and the speedloader out for a game and refill empty mags during any lull. My WE based L119's get a good 2 BB loads for 1 gas fill .

Edited January 26, 2023 by Nick G

[RostokMcSpoons]

Ok, thanks Nick, I guess a bit of practice and I'll be good.  I'll superglue the adapter on and get another of those speedloaders for my belt pouch.

[concretesnail]

I stopped using the little adapter when loading my mp9. The follower can be locked to the bottom of the channel and then just pop the feedlip of loader to the front face of the magazines lip. Admittedly if the follower cant be locked back in your mags that's going to make things a lot harder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick G]

34 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Ok, thanks Nick, I guess a bit of practice and I'll be good.  I'll superglue the adapter on and get another of those speedloaders for my belt pouch.

My adapter is also superglued on !

[RostokMcSpoons]

29 minutes ago, concretesnail said:

I stopped using the little adapter when loading my mp9. The follower can be locked to the bottom of the channel and then just pop the feedlip of loader to the front face of the magazines lip. Admittedly if the follower cant be locked back in your mags that's going to make things a lot harder.

Yeah, that's the case with these VFC 416 mags, the feed lips are the only way in or out.

My TM Hi Capa mags are a breeze to load up in comparison.

 

Still, I'm sure once that adapter is glued on and I've repeated the process a few times, it'll get easier too.

[C-Diddy]

Not a daft question at all. Loading GBBR mags can be something of a dark art. Using a pistol loader with adapter is good. The TM M4 mag-style loader has the adapter attached, and is what I used for my MWS for a while. With either of these options, as you've discovered, the angle you hold the speedloader is key. 

 

Now I use an Airtac adapter for my Odin and it's a gamechanger. Literally three turns and the mag's full. I know Odin's aren't cheap but it's definitely up there as the best £50 I've spent for airsoft. 

 

Looking at the Airtac site, they do an adapter for VFC M4 GBBR mags too, so one to maybe bear in mind?

 

https://www.airtac.me/shop/p/vfc-m4 

[RostokMcSpoons]

... that's a not insignificant £77 outlay, and no-one seems to have them in stock in the UK anyway.

 

I'll wait until I'm sure I like the GBBR gameplay experience before committing to that 🥴

[C-Diddy]

Yes, absolutely. Like I said, pistol loaders with an adapter work, so stick with what you have.

 

Incidentally, Fire Support have just had a restock of Odins, and everyone's favourite airsoft retailer 🤥 Patrol Base list them for £30-ish...but they're not in stock. Shocker.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I had a hankering a while ago to ditch all my high cap tactical maracas for a full set of mid caps, and therefore looked at the Odins.  One suggestion I gleaned from that investigation was that I could buy a cheap copy off eBay/AliExpress/Amazon and then buy the official Odin 'upgrade / maintenance kit' to replace all the Chinesium bits that would break in the cheap copy.   And I'd therefore end up with something as good for only £25-30.  
Is that still a thing people do? 
I see that Fire Support do have an upgrade kit on their pages, but it is, naturally enough, sold out at the moment.

 

I ditched the mid-cap idea in favour of
(1) moving more slowly with mags which are absolutely brimmed, which keeps the noise down   
(2) realising the sound didn't actually carry that far anyway
(3) buying four Lonax flash mags ... I've not used them in combat yet, but they seem great as winding high caps definitely does suck

[Wavey_Gravey]

Pistol loaders are the way, always carry 2 with me on top of 4 mags, never ran out in a game even when feeling trigger happy or flicking the giggle switch.