Far be it from me to tell anyone how much they should charge for their product. Neither is it my business the level of quality they choose to engineer into it. I’ll let the free market determine those weighty issues every time. Take RF’s current carry piece, the Bill Wilson Carry Pistol, as an example. It appears to be an elegant 1911 made to extremely close tolerances. Something you probably have to shoot for yourself to fully appreciate. And if you appreciate it enough – and have the coin – you can lay out the three grand needed to bring one home. It’s your money, right? Then again…
you can also buy a Rock Island Armory 1911. It’s a little more, well, Spartan than the BWCP. Both guns are basically the same size and weight, and carry about the same. And both will put a pretty good-sized hole in whatever you point them at. It’s just that the RIA will do it for about $2,500 less.
I get the picture. It’s all a matter of what you need, what you value and what you can afford. Just another version of the old ‘-ex’ comparison. Timex vs. Rolex.
But here’s a picture that’s a little more out of focus. To me, anyway. Would someone – anyone, really – pay $510 for a magazine loader? Anyone other than maybe the federal government, that is. Check out the Maglula Benchloader in the vid, above. It certainly looks like a quality piece of kit, as they say. Solidly built, nicely designed. Here’s what Brownells has to say:
Heavy-duty, polymer loader makes it easy for you to load a 10-, 20- or 30-round magazine in less than 30 seconds. Load hundreds of magazines a day without the pain, pinched fingers, or bruises of hand-loading—perfect for military/law enforcement armorers, shooting ranges, and any high-volume AR-15 shooter. Standard model accepts USGI-type AR-15/M16 (NATO STANAG 4179) magazines; Universal also accepts other AR-style magazines, including HK 416, SAR-80, Beretta AR-70/90, plus Magpul PMAG, Thermold, Orlite, and SIG Sauer polymer mags. Foolproof design, with only one moving part, makes it impossible to load magazines incorrectly and requires no maintenance. Feeds rounds into the magazine without contacting the feed lips, so it prolongs magazine life. Rounds are held securely in the tray and won’t fly out when the slider is moved. Numbered indicators show the number of rounds in the tray, so no more guessing how many rounds have been loaded. Convenient carrying handle makes it easy to take to the range; includes heavy duty padded ballistic nylon carrying case.
And it has a convenient carry handle, too! Which is all very nice. But there are any number of other options out there to make the drudgery of loading your AR mags less drudgerous. All for $50 or less. Most for around $25.
For the princely sum of $510 the Benchloader should damned well zero your scope and clean your gun for you, too. Has Maglula gone just a little overboard here? Can they really sell these things? How much is too much?