Safety question - how to empty chamber of lever rifle?

[Bill_Rights]

With a Winchester 94 or clone (I have a Rossi M92), how do I empty a cartridge (fired or unfired) out of the chamber without loading a new one and without emptying the magazine?

I am used to drop-box magazine-fed bolt and semi-auto rifles, and with those, of course, you detach the magazine and cycle the action once and you should be all clear ('course, look and see to be sure).

If I have a tubular magazine full of cartridges, of course, I can just cycle the action ~10 times to empty the mag, then I should be clear. But that's not too great...

I thought about maybe holding in the loading gate door pushed in while I cycle the action. The front lip of the door should catch the rim of the next cartridge that would be coming out of the mag and prevent it from feeding. Am I going to jam the action somehow if I try that? Also, will the action release the next-to-be-loaded cartridge in the mag and let it slide back, requiring me to push it back forward to latch it in the mag again? If so, that's a little bit of a bother. But since I'd already have a finger there, it's no big deal, and it is much better than cycling ten cartridges out onto the dirt/mud.

Any suggestions? Am I missing something?

Thanks, Bill

[Hillbilly]

Finger out of the trigger guard... business end pointed in a safe direction

Open the lever. if the first one is in the chamber let it flip out.

The tube?... close the lever.... open it up... let the cartridge roll into your hand.
You dont need to close it into the chamber.

Repeat until the magazine is empty and you double check the firearm to be unloaded.

[Malamute]

I think you're asking about clearing the chamber and leaving the magazine loaded. I've been doing this for years when small game and grouse hunting, loading and ejecting a small game load into or out of the chamber while leaving the magazine full of regular full power rounds. With the Winchester type actions, you can either open the action all the way, ejecting the chambered round, then use your little finger to push the lifter back down and close the action on the empty chamber. Or, you can just slowly open the action until the chambered round ejects, without raising the lifter, then close on an empty chamber.

Some 94's are a little sticky doing this, but most I have will do it without too much problem. The 92 actions I have seem to do this procedure easier than most 94's.

I don't think you want or need to do anything with the loading gate.

I believe this function ability is one of the main virtues of the Winchester type action over the other major maker, besides the compactness and reliabilty, and looks, and all the other good points,...... I understand that the Marlins can be made to function this way, but it isnt as easy to do as simply pushing the lifter back down and closing the action.

[Bill_Rights]

Thanks, Guys! Sheer genius! All three ways work with the Rossi M92. I got out some A-Zoom snap caps and started playing around...

1) Hillbilly said:

open [the lever] up, let the cartridge roll into your hand. You dont need to close it into the chamber.

Exactly, with the lever open and the lifter up, ready to load the next cartridge, I can just roll the rifle upside down and let the cartridge fall out. Or pick it out, if I had small fingers. Then close the lever and bolt on ther empty chamber. Magazine still has however many cartridges still in it.

2) Malamute said:

open the action all the way, ejecting the chambered round, then use your little finger to push the lifter back down and close the action on the empty chamber

Bingo! After pushing the lifter and cartridge that was about to be loaded back down (leaving the cartridge in there), I can close the lever and the bolt closes on an empty chamber. The lifter does not try to come back up. Again, magazine still has however many cartridges still in it.

3) Malamute said:

you can just slowly open the action until the chambered round ejects, without raising the lifter, then close on an empty chamber.

I'll be danged. That worked too! Again, magazine still has however many cartridges still in it. I guess I never throught to try that because somewhere along the line I picked up that you need to cycle the lever fully and with authority, to assure reliable loading. Well, duhhhh... This is why! But it is a good thing, having that two-step action on the lever-opening stroke: First eject chambered cartridge. Second lift new cartridge up to the bolt.

And, anyway, my idea to hold the load-gate door in while cycling the action doesn't work. There is some interlock that won't even let you open the lever while you're holding the door in. Interestingly, when the lever and bolt are open, the rear-most cartridge coming from the magazine is too far back - its rim and about 1/8" of its butt end is already behind the door front edge, so you can't push the door in. But when you close the lever, this cartridge goes forward again and gets out of the way of the door (so you can top off the magazine). It's an amazing mechanism!

Again, thanks guys. For a lot of kinds moving around in the field, I want the gun loaded, but I feel safer if there's not a round in the chamber. Great!

[Lastmohecken]

On a 92 or 94, I just push the lever all of the way down to the full open position, which will flip out either empty brass loaded round from chamber, then I slowly close the lever part way, watching the next round pop up, and as it is more or less turned loose, from the carrier, I open the bolt back up a little, and can usually roll the rifle over, with that shell falling into my hand, sometimes I might pick it out with my fingers.

Then I go ahead and close the lever, making sure that no other round got popped up into chamber. After I close the lever fully, I usually open it again just slightly to be double sure, the chamber is empty. Then I load however many more rounds I want back into the magazine. Individual guns, may require a slightly different manipulation, but it's pretty much the same.

[Chuck 100 yd]

With the Marlins I just open the bolt all the way catching the round being ejected. Then tip the rifle to the right side dumping the round that is on the carrier onto my hand. Closing the bolt will leave you with an empty chamber or you can hand feed another round at that point if loading a different kind of load is what you were trying to do in the first place. then just re fill the mag and you are ready to go.

It takes longer to tell than to do.

[Grizz]

a corollary you will want to learn is unloading the magazine thru the loading gate. yup, you can back 'em all out without cycling the lever. I start them by depressing the loading gate with a round so the cartridge backs out and onto the gate. Once they're started they just follow each other like trail poneys.

Grizz