This page is dedicated to loading and unloading a variety of firearms. To start I'm going to provide a step-by-step picture tutorial to load and unload two common variants of rifles. Not everyone here on the ZSDW is an expert with weapons, so I thought it might be a good idea to give people who have never done something like this a basic idea to both increase their chances of survival in an emergency situation and also to increase their knowledge on basic firearm techniques to ensure safety when handling a firearm.

Feel free to message me if you are interested in providing a picture tutorial for any other type of firearm's loading and unloading process.

To start were going to load my semi-automatic Ruger 10/22 rifle with a standard 10-shot rotary magazine.

This is the rifle. It's not too different than other semi-automatics in it's caliber, which makes it a good place to start.

This is the standard 10 shot rotary mag for the Ruger 10/22. Next to it are 10 .22 LR hollow point bullets.

Circled in white is the clip release button, located in front of the trigger. The white line, labeled "A", points to where on the rifle the mag will be located/where you will place a loaded mag. To unload the rifle, keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction and press the clip release button firmly, the clip should fall out on it's own. To load a magazine place it into the empty port that line "A" is pointing to, making sure the tips of the bullets are facing the down the barrel.

To load the magazine, take a bullet and place it as pictured on the left. The bullet should be slightly elevated and the flat striking surface (primer) should be dipping downward into the magazine if the bullet is in the right position. Using your thumb push down on the bullet, gently sliding it down and backwards until it clicks into place, as pictured in the right magazine above.

After you've charged the magazine with bullets and then inserted the magazine into the gun, you have to chamber a round or you can't fire. To chamber a round, look at the ejection port - the location where the empty bullet casing will eject when fired. There should be a small handle like piece of metal sticking out. Pulling this charging handle back, and when released, it will push a bullet from the magazine into the chamber. In the picture below you can see the ejection port held open, showing a cartridge ready to be chambered. To unload the rifle fully, eject the magazine and pull the charging handle back until no more bullets remain.

Congratulations! You've just loaded and unloaded your first gun. Not really, but if you had no idea how to do so, you do now!

Now we will focus on a different type of rifle.

Above is a .22 caliber Marlin Lever-Action rifle.This is the next rifle we will be learning to load. What makes this rifle so different from the semi-automatic Ruger above is not only being a lever-action, meaning you have to work the lever of the rifle between each cartridge fired to chamber a new round, but also the fact that it doesn't use an external magazine. Let's take a closer look at the barrel of this rifle.

See the tube that runs underneath the barrel of the rifle? This is where bullets are loaded into the rifle itself. Take notice of the small, ridged endcap near the end of the rifle, as well as the copper rod sticking out on the tube below the barrel. A quick twist and a pull will remove a long, thin rod from the tube. No, the gun is not broken, it's supposed to do this.

Now it's time to actually load the rifle. The best way to do this to avoid jams or accidents is to keep the barrel pointed up and away from yourself. Do NOT point the end of the barrel towards yourself or anyone else during this process. Place bullets facing tip up and primer down into the small hole, usually cut in the shape of a bullet. Keep doing this until the last bullet you place has it's tip just peaking out of this hole. Now take the rod and slide it back into the tube so that it looked just like it did before you remove it.

Now it's time to get that bullet into the barrel and ready to fire. This is where the lever comes into place, called working the lever. Slip your middle, ring, and pinky finger into the loop of the lever, using the back of these fingers to push the lever outwards, you'll hear some clicks. When the lever doesn't move any farther forward use your fingers to bring it back towards the rifle and into the position it was resting in previously. You'll notice the hammer at the top of the gun is held back now. Be extremely careful, you now have a loaded gun and pulling the trigger will now cause a round to discharge. As stated before, after each discharge you have to work the lever to eject the previously spent shell, loading another when you bring the lever back.

In the above position, the hammer is in the ready to fire position. In other words, the safety is OFF. If the rifle was loaded, a round chambered, and you were to pull the trigger the rifle would fire. Never fear, there is a way to make the rifle safe again without discharging a round or ejecting all of the bullets manually. Hold down the hammer firmly with your thumb and slowly apply pressure on the trigger. Whilst keeping that pressure on the trigger, slowly and very gently let off of the hammer, keeping your thumb on it the whole time. When the hammer doesn't raise any further, it is in the safety position, as pictured below. It is a very good idea to try this without any bullets in the rifle first as it's very easy to slip up and accidentally fire a round.

And now you know how to fully load, unload, and activate the safety on a standard lever-action rifle.

If you'd like to make an additional tutorial for loading and unloading a type of firearm not covered, send me a message and we'll work out the details.