Disclosed is a method for receiving and discharging bars. Adjacent parallel rotating drums receive bars in longitudinal advancement and discharge them by dropping them onto an underlying cooling bed in a rolling mill plant. Each drum is provided with four opposite channels rotating in unison. At first two bars are fed in logic succession into two adjacent channels of a drum and, then at least two bars are fed in logic succession into at least two adjacent channels of the adjacent drum, and while a drum receives its two bars, the other one rotates for discharging its received bars. The discharging occurs in two progressive steps. First, rotation of the drum through a certain angle for allowing the discharge of a first bar and then, further rotation of the drum to allow the discharge of the second bar.