From your diagram, Torvald, my crew tends to draw from the bottom of column 1 and work their way up from there. Although, I had noticed some randomness from time to time. I don't use Auto-Reload either, finally turned it off. I'd rather dictate what we keep in our tubes ("misbehaving" recruits, for example).
Cheers!
krashkart - Iron-Fisted Tyrant of the Seas