I’m not quite sure what you mean by, “start firing without manually putting one in the chamber first,” but I’d recommend the following procedure for the 1301:
With the bolt closed on an empty chamber, load the magazine tube to capacity. Then, push the carrier catch plunger (the little silver tab in front of the trigger housing) rearward. This will move one round from the mag tube to the lifter. From that condition, if you wanted to place the gun into action, all you would need to do is to pull the charging handle to chamber that shell “floating” on the lifter.
I prefer to have the trigger safety on “safe” throughout all of the above.
I’d also suggest you use dummy cartridges to get comfortable and familiar with the action,vs. going straight to live ammo.