One-handed cocking of Winchester lever-action??

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AirPower

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Not sure how to describe this but if you've seen enough old westerns you've seen it. Basically the cowboy swings the lever action around with the shooting hand, fires, and then swings it around again to eject case and reload. Is this doable in real life, and is it safe?
 
Snap-cocking or spin-cocking a lever action is doable. It's just plain not safe, at all.

Other than that, it does look cool. But it takes longer, wastes time, and you lose the sight picture. And you can shoot yourself.
 
John Wayne, in 'Stagecoach" and others. As mentioned, doable, but not very safe or smart. As I recall he generally used a M92 in most of his movies. I did learn to do it as an impressionable kid with a fairly smooth old M94 but it's a little rough on the machinery.

It sort of falls in the same category as flipping the cylinder open and closed on DA revolvers--impressive to the uninitiated but makes some of us cringe.
 
In my opinion, Chuck Connors portraying Lucas McCain in the television series "The Rifleman" did this best.
 
First you have too be riding a horse towards at least 6 charging bad guys, or 12 Indians shooting arrows at you, or chassing a train or stagecoach full of damsels in distress, and bad guys for this to look right. It helps if yoou have a patch over one eye as well. ;)

1. Hold your Horses reins in your mouth.

2. draw your six shooter with the other hand and commence firing.

3. Grab the Lever gun from the saddle scabbard turn it upside down grasping it by the lever the action will open twirl it 180 degrees on your index finger by the back of the lever, the weight of the gun will close the action and chamber a round. FIRE hitting 2 badguys with the same bullet. Repeat until all the bad guys or Injuns are down.



:neener: :D
 
USed to do something sorta like that with a Marlin .22 and a Win 94 30-30.

Holding the gun one handed with all 4 finger in the lever I'd release my grip and allow the barrel to drop. Letting the gun continue it's swing beside my leg it would continue to cock and eject the spent round. When it had reached the peak of it's arc, again using the lever for leverage make the gun reverse direction and come back to it's original position and it would chamber the next round. At no time was the muzzle ever covering any part of my body. Didn't look as cool as a full 360 degree spin but hey, I never could figure that one out anyway.

Notes. The Marlin 22 performed this trick perfectly everytime.

The '94 30-30 would spit the live round out on the ground 80% of the time.

Smoke - The Gunslinger
 
The Duke did it frequently with his '92, starting way back in "Stagecoach." His arms were very long, though. I did it with an *unloaded* '94 with a big loop lever, but it banged up the action pretty badly. It's most certainly not safe. Tip-cocking is slightly less dangerous but I'd only do it in dire extreme.

The Duke could also be seen with his finger pressing the trigger of his '92, thumb holding the hammer back. The John Wayne Carry was exceedingly dangerous, esp. when he used the '92 to point to people during conversations :D That said, it was probably realistic given the loose state of gun safety circa 1880.
 
yeah it was the Duke who did it the best. bad habit of point gun to people he's talking to. :D wont gain you many friends....but would lose you a few enemies. :D
 
Have tried it a few times w/various Marlins I have owned. Only thing I ever managed to accomplish was to smack myself in face with said guns.

:eek:
 
I read somewhere that Yakima Cannutt (sp.?) and John Wayne came up with this stunt as a way to make the intro of his character in Stagecoach more memorable. To do it with the ease John Wayne displayed, you need a large loop lever and a shortened barrel. Those were the mods applied to his rifle. BTW, it was his personal rifle and no matter in which movie you see him doing that little stunt, it is the same rifle. Likewise, he carried a personally owned revolver in many of his westerns.
 
If you have the large loop, a short gun and arm strength you should be able to get it done.....be prepared to slam the gun pretty hard though.....and to hurt yourself in the process.....maybe it would be better to build a virtual reality machine where you can pretend you are the duke and experience as if you were doing it.......(I must now go owrk on my new get rich quick idea....."Wanna be John Wayne?")
 
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