Nobody played Firearms mod for Half Life? You can reload your weapon without cocking it if you have one bullet in the chamber, and also, itīs not like Counter-Strike that you keep all your ammo and you can reload all the time, in this game you have 2 or 4 mags for your rifle, and, if you left ammo in an almost-empty one, you can merge the magazines to save space.
Also, rifles arenīt left handed: