[tbgsub]

Interesting, is the safety foreward (open) when you load it? or is it in safety?
I have been loading it both ways and didnt notice the trigger issue you mention.

I used to load in safety religiously, but to save time when by myself I dont bother.
perhaps load spear with safety open (tab foreward), they flip the safety (tab toward the handle) for loading the bands, that is usually how I do it. I also notice that the tab sits in a mid position both up or down while loaded, and you have to pull the trigger to make it open once, then pull the trigger once to fire, not sure why it is like this, as it seems prone to missfire or cause user negligence thinking it is on semi safety when it actually isnt.

you should be able to load it just after firing it.

The bands look longer, but if you measure the length of stretch, it is much longer.
almost every fisherman I know of modifies the bands shorter of every gun they get regardless of brand, however you may have bands getting weaker when pulled over their maximum distance for long periods of time, which is probably why the longer bands, to keep the power the same over a long period of repeated use, which is preferable to constantly changing out high load bands for fresh power form short bands.

best of luck.