I have four 32-rd Sten mags with the welded-on mag well fillers from Olympic for my CAR-97. These are the standard 32-rd Sten mags that have been refinished and have had a steel mag filler welded on the rear of the mag by Olympic. They are a bitch to load by hand past 15-to-20 rds, due to the extreme spring force and mag design. Because the mag well block is located at the back of the Sten mag near the top, the usual mag loaders don't work because they can't slip over the top of the mag, due to this obstruction. Does anyone out in AR15 Land have any similar experiences and/or positive ideas?

If you have a mag without the block welded on, you can take your springs one at a time using a dowel (or equivilent) to "work" the spring, 2000 compressions were the first noticable increase in ease of loading during an experiment with some new ones that a friend received last Friday.

Perhaps one of the sections of the spring could be removed?

I got your response, thanks. Unfortunately, the block is welded onto these mags. The upside is that they fit and function well, with no jams. The downside is that you can't use any of the conventional sten mag loaders, since they won't fit over the top of the mag with the block there.

Olympic claimed to have had a workable mag loader for these, but was out of stock. I tried loading 20-rounds in these and keeping them like this for a few weeks to compress the springs somewhat and it worked a little bit. Still hard to load the mag by hand past 20 without crushing the tip of your thumb in the process. Thanks again for your input.
phoenix27

Oly does have the loaders, they just seem to be out of stock forever. I think they just wait until they get enough orders to make a batch, instead of stocking them.

I got one at the SHOT show, last day of the show asked if they wanted to sell it. (display model)
:)

Yep, Oly was out of stock eight months ago also. I have since sold my rifle, but the best solution I could come up with was a Glock loader. I took a standard loader that come with every Glock, and dremeled out the back of the loader. I cut out to the side edges and right up to the top edge. Then just put it over the top of the magazine and use it as it was intended. Push one round down while putting the next one under the feed lips. It seems flimsy at first, but I have loaded probably a thousand rounds that way, without the loader breaking. If it does, it's a cheap piece.

Someone on this forum gave me a lead for someone that had them.  I wish I could remember where it was.  It works great.  I was not able to load more than about 15 without it.  You might try posting on the pistol caliber forum.

I found it!

http://www.triplebreakproducts.com/Olympic/pistol_mag_loader.htm