A shaft assembly of an apparatus for applying surgical clips to body tissue includes a pair of jaws movable between a spaced-apart position and an approximated position, an elongated spindle, a shaft, a slidable member, and a pusher bar fixed to the slidable member. The slidable member is movable through longitudinally-extending channels of the spindle and the shaft. The pusher bar is configured to load a distal-most surgical clip into the pair of jaws during distal movement of the slidable member, via distal movement of the spindle, and remain in a distally advanced position during approximation of the pair of jaws.