5 Star Speed Loaders and Range Block
Lewis Creek Shooting School 03.25.13
As an outdoor writer and reviewer, I receive a lot of products for testing. Some are good, some are great, and many, I simply decline because I can see they’re not something I would recommend, so why bother? This week, I received a set of 5 Star speed loaders from Clinton Hartford, in Zion, Illinois. We needed a fumble-free system for my wife, Cherie, to load her Smith & Wesson M&P R8, the gun she plans to use this year in the Bianchi Cup.
When I opened the box, I was amazed at the quality and downright beauty of these loaders and the loading block that allows fast loading. They are machined out of 6061 billet aircraft aluminum. Internally, they have a durable O-ring to ensure a smooth twist of the key every time. The assembly hardware is made from high quality stainless steel pins, wire springs, and precision ground bearings. Assembled and hand tested to ensure quality with all the main components manufactured in house using over twenty state-of-the-art CNC machines, 5 Star speed loaders even have a small amount of lubrication captured between the O rings.
The range block is also billet machined to hold 48 rounds of .38/.357 and bears the same quality of machining and finish as the loaders. We ordered a range block, which comes with two loaders, and two extra loaders to allow Cherie to have enough loaders ready to run through the Bianchi course without needing to load another loader. In reality, the range block works so well she could have shot the match with only one loader, though for most action pistol matches this wouldn’t work because you have to move. In the Bianchi, the shooter stands in one location for each stage and you can bring your range bag with you.
To use the system, you fill the holes in the block with rounds and simply place the speed loader on top. You rotate the knob to the right to lock the rounds in. When you load the gun, you start the rounds in the cylinders and turn the knob to the left, a much more sensible approach than most loaders which operate in the opposite direction. This has never made sense to me since I learned “righty tighty, lefty loosey” when I was a small boy. Fortunately, Cherie has never used those backwards loaders, so she won’t have to unlearn anything.
Dick Jones is an award winning outdoor writer and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Board of Directors. He writes for four North Carolina Newspapers as well as regional and national magazines. He’s hunted and fished most of his life but shooting has been his passion. He’s a former High Master, Distinguished Rifleman, and AAA class pistol shooter. He holds four Dogs of War Medals for Team Marksmanship as shooter, captain and coach. He ran the North Carolina High Power Rifle Team for six years and the junior team two years after that. Within the last year, he’s competed in shotgun, rifle and pistol events including the National Defense Match and the Bianchi Cup. He’ll be shooting the Bianchi, the NDM, the National High Power Rifle Championship, The Rock Castle AR15.com Three Gun Championship and an undetermined sniper match this shooting season.
He lives in High Point, North Carolina with his wife Cherie who’s also an outdoor writer and the 2006 and 2011 Northeast Side by Side Women’s Shotgun Champion. Both Dick and Cherie are NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructors and own Lewis Creek Shooting School.
