4. Training with your reloading devices. Make educated assessments of what method works best for you.
Revolver wise if a shooter opts for speedloaders there are a few different methods of reloading vary a bit in the details.
1) The FBI reload is the oldest. With this reload you press the cylinder latch with the thumb on your right hand, and then hold the revolver with your left hand and press the cylinder out of the frame with your middle and ring fingers. You then hold the revolver vertically and press the ejector rod with your thumb to eject the cases. Then without changing your hold on the revolver, point it muzzle down and use your right hand to get the speed loader out of its pouch and drop the rounds in the cylinder.
It's the fastest method and it works well with a .38 Special revolver with a full length ejector rod.
It doesn't work as well with snub nose revolvers with a short ejector rod as it won't push the cases all the away out of the cylinder, and the amount of thumb movement available doesn't impart much inertia.
The FBI reload also results in your left hand being almost in a wrist lock when holding the revolver muzzle down to insert the rounds in the cylinder.
It can also be problematic with .357 magnum and other magnum loads for two reasons:
First, magnum loads develop a lot of heat and while a forcing cone won't be hot after 5-6 rounds of .38 Special it can get very hot after 5-7 rounds of .357 Magnum loads. It wasn't unheard of for an officer or agent to actually react and drop the revolver when the hot forcing cone came in contact with the side of his middle finger.
Second, full power .357 magnum loads can be a bit sticky on ejection with the result that a thumb on the ejector rod might not be enough.
2) The Universal reload was developed to address the weak ejection issues with the FBI reload. It starts out the same way and ends the same way as the FBI reload. The difference is that rather than using your thumb to eject the cartridges, you use your left hand to hold the revolver muzzle up and then slap the ejector rod down with the palm of your right hand. That provides a lot more ejection force.
It solves the weak ejection issue, but it is slightly slower. It also limits the effective length of the ejector rod as your thumb along side the rod reduces the travel slightly. Slapping the ejector rod with the palm of your right hand also creates the potential to hit the ejector rod from an angle slightly to the side. That's the number 1 way ejector rods get bent. You need to be careful bring your palm straight down on the ejector rod.
3) The Stress Fire reload addresses the additional problems of the previous methods.
In the Stress Fire reload, you use your right thumb to operate the cylinder latch while using your middle and ring fingers on the left hand top push the cylinder out of the frame. However at this point you move your right thumb farther forward between cylinder and frame to hold the cylinder open. Then you hold the revolver muzzle up and use your left palm to slap down on the ejector rod, so that the barrel passes between your thumb and index finger. That helps you get a more vertical strike on the ejector rod.
More importantly, your fingers are never supporting the forcing cone and won't get burned by a hot forcing cone and drop the revolver.
At this point you grasp the revolver in front of the cylinder with your thumb across the front of the cylinder and the tip against the crane recess in the frame. The ejector rod is between thumb and index finger and you use the bottom of your index finger to pinch the frame against your thumb to hold the revolver. When you turn the revolver muzzle down, you will not be wrist locked and you can keep your head up and eyes on target, while you load the revolver with your right hand.
It is the most reliable method, but the downside is that it is also the slowest method, although with practice it's still a very rapid evolution.