How do you set the trigger and safety combination on your lever gun when on the stand?

I've been hunting with my Marlin 30-30 a lot this season and was wondering how you guys set your trigger and safety combination when on the stand? The type of safety will likely help determine this, but the idea is to have a gun that's safe and yet can be quickly and quietly readied to fire. For example, with the trigger in the halfcock position, isn't the gun just as safe from an accidental discharge as having the safety on? Do you leave the safety off when the trigger is set to halfcock? Or perhaps you leave the trigger fully cocked with the safety on. And what about those who use a lever gun like the Winchester Model 94 that doesn't have a safety on the receiver but can only be fired with the lever pressed against the neck of the stock? Do you consider the lever safety sufficicient with the trigger fully cocked?

There should be no safety on a lever gun.

As such, I keep a round chambered and the hammer half-cocked.

My Glenfield 30A has one in the chamber, and the hammer down when I’m in the stand. I usually hunt with a T/C Encore muzzleloader and centerfire, so cocking the hammer is second nature.

This.
Close thread.

So if your lever gun has a safety, you just might as well leave it off and only use the trigger's halfcock position to protect against accidental discharge. Correct?

Of course, this assumes that in the height of a relapse into Buck Fever, you don't forget to pull the trigger back to its fully cocked position.

Otherwise, when sitting on the stand, leave the safety on and the trigger fully cocked as would be the case with most of your deer rifles.

My dad's old Winchester 32 spc.has no safety except for the position of the hammer, the New Winchester 357, I just acquired has a safety on it. I would have either safety off and half [censored] or safety on and full [censored]. Safety is first.

No safety and no scope?

Mine have a safety-it’s called the half cocked position.

If a lever gun has a safety, you remove it.

Didn't say anything about optics. There is zero need for a single action, manually operated firearm to have a mechanical safety.

I don’t use the safety on a lever gun. I’d rather it didn’t have one.

My model 94 has a safety. It's called half-cocked.

The rest of my rifles have safeties also. They're called the guy behind the trigger.

X2 Half cocked is safety.

I suspected my post would generate some lively discussion, and that it has.

As with any topic, it's easy to find someone who addresses it will some level of authority.

"I recently got an email from Ed Harris which touched on this very subject. Talking about the Marlin pistol-caliber lever actions, he says:

“The crossbolt safety of modern Marlins is wonderful and permits safe carry with the chamber loaded. This is safer than carrying with the hammer down and safety off, because in that manner the gun could fire if the hammer were struck or the rifle dropped.

When I worked at NRA I was aware of accidental discharges when the hammer jarred off the half-[censored] notch. The hammer being heavy enough, and pistol primers sensitive enough, the gun would fire even with the reduced hammer fall from the half-[censored]. We set this up in the lab and reproduced it with .38 Special loads regularly. Less often with harder primers in .357 and .44 Magnum, but it could still occur."

It appears the excitement that comes with pulling back and fully locking the trigger when you first see that huge buck is something at least several of you enjoy with your lever guns. I like that plan as well, so long as I don't forget that I'm hunting with a lever gun and forget to do it during all the excitement.

Marlin 336 and BLR circa 1971 that I use have no crossbolt safety. Half [censored] over a loaded chamber has never presented a problem for me on any of my old lever actions.

After some additional reading on the subject, it appears halfcock failures is not the issue. The greater risk is created by the trigger being left fully cocked each time the action is fully cycled in order to place a cartridge into the chamber. This places the gun in a ready to fire condition with no mechanism to block an accidental release of the hammer. After loading each and every cartridge, the gun must be manually placed in the halfcock or safe trigger position.

Say what you want, but a firearm that is always placed in the ready to fire condition each and every time a cartridge is loaded carries greater risk. I'll even go further and say that based on what I know now, I would never give a high-powered lever gun to a kid if it doesn't include a later design safety mechanism.

"Many lever-action rifles have external hammers with halfcock notches. For many years, this was considered an adequate safety position for the hammer when the rifle was in the carry mode. The problem is, when the rifle is loaded and a round chambered, the hammer is left in the cocked position. The only way to release it to the halfcock notch is to pull the trigger and ease the hammer forward with the thumb or finger. For those with minimal dexterity or just not paying attention, this creates a dangerous potential to release the hammer too quickly or too far forward. In either case, an unexpected discharge could occur. To eliminate the potential hazard, many recently manufactured lever-action rifles have a manual safety to block the hammer from contacting the firing pin."

I suppose greater levels of stupidity have developed in people in the last 40 years. The same safety device has been used on lever actions since the 1860 Henry, revolvers since 1836, and muzzleloaders for a good while before that.

We all know that legal accountability for stupidity has since been tranferred from the owners of products to the companies that manufactured them.

Still, we should offer credit to all efforts to make guns safer to use.

.

Chambered, half-cocked.

Marlin 45-70, safety removed ( after missing the biggest deer in my life because of the safety lol ) and replaced with a saddle ring. I keep a round chambered and half cocked.

I use the safety on my lever gun, just like the safety on a bolt action. (it’s a M99 )

Same thing happened to me on a doe. Fortunately, I got a do over.

I'll take a stab at answering my own question after reading all the comments and other sources on the topic.

The manual safety on a lever gun is an excellent and proven way to avoid accidental discharges when first clambering a round from the magazine to the chamber. After an initial round is chambered, the safety should be engaged (if not already set) BEFORE lowering the hammer and then setting it to the halfcock position. Once the trigger is set to halfcock, the safety can be set to fire. Also, the safety protects against accidental discharges during unloading, and adds an additional layer of protection against accidental discharges when the trigger is set to halfcock, even though some might see this as unnecessary.

It sure sounds like you want some support in justifying a safety on an exposed-hammer rifle.

Like's been said, I use it when lowering hammer
and a round is in the chamber. Also when cycling to unload.
It's there, may as well use it. It would be hard to believe
a thumb has never slipped and caused someone to leave a stain.

When hunting it's in fire position.

He starts threads with a question as a pretext for later answering his own question. It’s the Dan way.

Yup.
Do you own any revolvers Dan?

Throw out a question, review the responses, and then post a conclusion that's just as open for discussion.

I give credit to manufacturers for having good reason to add a safety and was just looking to see how other hunters use it while not setting themselves up to hear that dreaded "click" on a nice deer. I didn't take the discussion down the path that "no lever gun should ever have a safety." The question was directly clearly at those who use the safety on their lever gun.

But as is often the case, a discussion brings out those looking to make their own "chest thumping" point that brings no value, all while blaming the poster for being the jerk.

I'm assuming all this "cocked trigger" talk is referring to the hammer,
that being the part you pull back with your thumb.


JMHO- if a person doesn't have enough sense to properly and safely use a
firearm with an exposed hammer, that person probably shouldn't be handling
any type of firearm. bolt rifles are probably more dangerous than non-safety
lever action rifles. folks run around with those "cocked" all the time, and
completely depend on a tiny safety to keep them from an accidental discharge.
if i remember right, tens of thousands of Remington 700 bolt action rifles had
a problem with malfunctioning safety mechanisms. i don't ever remember any model
of lever action rifles with such a problem or a product recall for it. all my
muzzleloaders and revolver handguns and contenders have exposed hammers, and
don't have a safety. they depend on the operator to have enough common sense
to avoid any problems. none of the single shot rifles i've been using for hunting
for the last few decades have safeties, and the only problems i've had with those
were faulty scopes, and trying to work up suitable loads.

using your head is the best safety.
of course, there are many that shouldn't be using firearms, and should
most likely not stray too far from the big screen television

Good catch.

We are creatures of habit no doubt, with new habits becoming harder to learn and remember as we grow older. Because all but one of my other rifles have manual safeties, I'll follow the approach suggested earlier and use the safety on my Marlin in the same fashion. Doing so means not having to learn as many new habits.