Lever Action Rifles

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. This lever action carbine is exactly the type of rifle that a lot of firearms owners would have in their safe, or their closet, or their basement, maybe even carrying around in their truck. Maybe it's the kind they use during hunting season or something that they use for sport shooting. Quite often, these types of firearms are the first firearm that a lot of people learn how to shoot with, or they're hand-me-downs or gifts from other family members. The lever action rifle is very common.

And that's why we want to take a look at how it can be used for defensive application, either inside the home, or perhaps in another environment where you feel threatened. The reality is that when it comes to any type of long gun, it's not nearly as convenient to have it on your person or close to you. And it's certainly not as convenient to move through the house with. Understanding how to use the lever action is the first step in applying it to a defensive situation. Knowing how to properly and efficiently use a lever action firearm is important if you're planning on using it for self-defense, or if you even want to be able to use it for self-defense.

You know, a lot of people own firearms, and shoot them relatively well in an administrative setting, but having applied the thought process that gets them to a consistent and efficient way of acting with the firearm, so that they could use it during a defensive situation. There's a lot more stress involved if you're trying to protect yourself or family members than there is if you're at the local shooting club trying to shoot a tight group, or even in the field, trying to take that trophy animal. When the action is open on a lever action rifle you can look in and see that the chamber is clear. You can also see that there isn't anything coming into the chamber for when you close it, and then it would be loaded. What you want to make sure that you understand, is as soon as you close a lever-action carbine, the hammer is now cocked, and we're in a single-action mode.

Understanding that with the hammer back, this is a very light trigger. It's not going to take much to go off. While there are manual safeties on a lot of different types, whether they're cross-bolt or like this lever on the top of the rifle. One thing that you want to be sure of, is you understand when this hammer is back, this rifle is very easy to fire. It could go off at any second.

In a defensive situation, certainly in a storage situation, you want to understand that the option of the half-cock is a much better option. If you can put it into a half-cock situation with the safety on, do so. If you have an older rifle, you need to be very cautious, make sure that the rifle is pointed in a generally safe direction, where, if it goes off, no one is likely to get hurt. When you actually lower that hammer down into the half-cock position. If you have to lower it all the way against the action, what you need to make sure that you do then, is pull it back to that half-cock.

And of course, then, return it to firing mode. This is the preferred way to move through your house, or to prepare to enter what you perceive as a defensive situation, with a lever action rifle: loaded and in half-cock, with your hand down here on the lever, and your thumb up on the hammer. This would allow you to quickly bring the rifle up to your shoulder, and cock it, placing your finger on the trigger, and then pressing, if, indeed, you did need to shoot it during a situation. Again, lowering it down, and putting it back in that half-cock situation, is going to be the safest way to then, move forward. This rifle is set up as you see most lever-action rifles.

You notice that it doesn't have a sling. Lever-action rifles aren't often seen with slings, and that can be a real detriment to you, after the situation has developed. Once you're in the middle of a critical incident and you have to pick up a child, make a cell phone call, maybe give medical assistance to someone, you're gonna want to be able to do something with this rifle. If you don't have a sling and you need to put it down, the best thing to do is going to be to open that action, and just leave it on the shelf, on the floor, maybe on a higher shelf, if you have one, any option you have, but making sure that action is open, if you can't keep it on your person. This is the preferred way to actually hand the rifle to someone or to take it from someone.

And if someone were to hand you a closed rifle whether it were cocked, on safe, or in any other condition first thing you're going to want to do is check it yourself to see whether or not it's loaded. And then you'll know how to proceed safely with your lever action firearm. Let's take a look at loading. When we load a lever-action firearm, we're, again, going to be in a half-cock situation. We're going to take this bullet, now this happens to be a pistol caliber lever-action, which is a great option for home defense, and for sport shooting, for even some hunting applications.

When you take this pistol bullet, you're going to insert it in against this plate, which pushes in, and allows you to insert it into the magazine tube. Now, the capacity of your individual lever-action rifle is going to be different, of course, than any other one. You need to know how many rounds you can put into the tube, or simply keep inserting until they don't go in. It's important to remember, that while the rifle is now loaded, it is not chambered. And by opening the action, we see that there is a pistol bullet ready to go into the chamber, but there was not one in there.

As soon as we go back into, again, putting a manual safety on, if we have it, we're going to go back into the closed-action mode. This rifle is now loaded. We lower the hammer, go to half-cock, we're going to take our manual safety and put it back in the firing mode, so that now our rifle is ready to be used for defense as soon as we cock it. This is the preferred method, again, when you're moving through your home to escape a potential intruder, or to ensure the safety of your family somewhere else in the home. Again, if you were barricading and staying in your safe room, this would also be the preferred way to have the rifle ready.

Chambered, loaded, off safe, but the hammer and half-cock, with your thumb, ready to put it into action as soon as you recognize the need to address a threat. Check out more videos, just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.