Wanna hear something dumb? Not even a sarcastic joke: If you have a loaded revolver with a cocked hammer, and you want to unload it, you must pull the trigger.
Reductive to say it that way, but basically the cylinder locks while the hammer is back, and most hammers won’t move once in position. Ultimately, the trigger’s job is specifically to release the hammer - just normally resulting in a violent impact with the bullet. If the hammer is being tightly held, or even blocked with one’s full hand, the weapon won’t go off.
I don’t own a gun, but I remember it because it’s the stupidest gun fact I’ve learned.
Yes, this is where the term ‘half-cocked’ comes from.
It varies with double action (DA) revolvers, but basically all single action (SA) revolvers work like:
You pull the hammer half way back, to half cocked, to revolve the cylinder.
You pull the hammer fully back, to fully cocked, for the trigger to be able to loose the hammer and thus fire the bullet.
So, if you are ‘walking around half cocked’, that means you are literally carrying around your weapon in a state where it is easier to fully cock and then fire it, (because you literally dont have to pull the hammer as far to get it to fully cocked), thus it implies you’re basically ready / looking for a fight.
To de cock a fully cocked SA revolver, you pull the hammer back even further than fully cocked, press lightly on the trigger, and then carefully lower the hammer to rest position.
This kind of action mechanism is also what allows ‘fanning’ to be possible:
You just pull the trigger slightly, (the trigger has multiple stages), and then fan the hammer / fully pull the trigger.
Each full ‘fan’ of the hammer will bring it to fully cocked, and because your finger is now fully pulling the trigger, the hammer will immediately fall and thus fire. The fanning also of course pulls the hammer past half cocked, so the cylinder is revolving one click each time as well.
(At least this is my understanding of how one does ‘fanning’, I may be slightly wrong in some way, I’ve never fanned a revolver myself as it is… basically just a kind of trick shooting that is very much not recommended for a typical shooter)
Now… with double action (DA) revolvers, this is different.
Because with a double action, a full pull of the trigger basically pulls the hammer back as well, instead of you having to do that with your thumb.
So as you are pulling the trigger, you get to half cocked, revolving the cylinder, then fully cocked, which also is the point where the hammer is let to fall and thus fire the weapon.
It can get even more complicated with SA/DA, where its kinda both at the same time… there are different variations with different specific procedures for de cocking different kinds and models of revolvers.
And, you can get even more complicated than that, with say the Chiappa Rhino, or the Mateba Semi Auto Revolver.
So basically, broadly, you’re not wrong / mostly generally right, but its even more complicated and depends on the specific kind of revolver you have.
It’s required for how revolver weapons operate. You cannot have the cylinder floating at all as even a few mm of difference can result in catastrophic failure. People saying revolvers are more “reliable” are full of fucking shit. The damn things are like clocks with their own set of springs and similar to operate.
It was true that early semi-autos were unreliable in keeping from going off suddenly with a round chamber and hammer back. That was early ones though, not today’s. While it’s not 100%, it’s still much safer than a revolver with the hammer back.
Wanna hear something dumb? Not even a sarcastic joke: If you have a loaded revolver with a cocked hammer, and you want to unload it, you must pull the trigger.
Reductive to say it that way, but basically the cylinder locks while the hammer is back, and most hammers won’t move once in position. Ultimately, the trigger’s job is specifically to release the hammer - just normally resulting in a violent impact with the bullet. If the hammer is being tightly held, or even blocked with one’s full hand, the weapon won’t go off.
I don’t own a gun, but I remember it because it’s the stupidest gun fact I’ve learned.
Yes, this is where the term ‘half-cocked’ comes from.
It varies with double action (DA) revolvers, but basically all single action (SA) revolvers work like:
You pull the hammer half way back, to half cocked, to revolve the cylinder.
You pull the hammer fully back, to fully cocked, for the trigger to be able to loose the hammer and thus fire the bullet.
So, if you are ‘walking around half cocked’, that means you are literally carrying around your weapon in a state where it is easier to fully cock and then fire it, (because you literally dont have to pull the hammer as far to get it to fully cocked), thus it implies you’re basically ready / looking for a fight.
To de cock a fully cocked SA revolver, you pull the hammer back even further than fully cocked, press lightly on the trigger, and then carefully lower the hammer to rest position.
This kind of action mechanism is also what allows ‘fanning’ to be possible:
You just pull the trigger slightly, (the trigger has multiple stages), and then fan the hammer / fully pull the trigger.
Each full ‘fan’ of the hammer will bring it to fully cocked, and because your finger is now fully pulling the trigger, the hammer will immediately fall and thus fire. The fanning also of course pulls the hammer past half cocked, so the cylinder is revolving one click each time as well.
(At least this is my understanding of how one does ‘fanning’, I may be slightly wrong in some way, I’ve never fanned a revolver myself as it is… basically just a kind of trick shooting that is very much not recommended for a typical shooter)
Now… with double action (DA) revolvers, this is different.
Because with a double action, a full pull of the trigger basically pulls the hammer back as well, instead of you having to do that with your thumb.
So as you are pulling the trigger, you get to half cocked, revolving the cylinder, then fully cocked, which also is the point where the hammer is let to fall and thus fire the weapon.
It can get even more complicated with SA/DA, where its kinda both at the same time… there are different variations with different specific procedures for de cocking different kinds and models of revolvers.
And, you can get even more complicated than that, with say the Chiappa Rhino, or the Mateba Semi Auto Revolver.
So basically, broadly, you’re not wrong / mostly generally right, but its even more complicated and depends on the specific kind of revolver you have.
You also can’t disassemble a Glock for cleaning without pulling the trigger.
it’s probably really cheap and reliable to build it that way? that’s what i always assume when i hear “dumb” design for some products
It’s required for how revolver weapons operate. You cannot have the cylinder floating at all as even a few mm of difference can result in catastrophic failure. People saying revolvers are more “reliable” are full of fucking shit. The damn things are like clocks with their own set of springs and similar to operate.
It was true that early semi-autos were unreliable in keeping from going off suddenly with a round chamber and hammer back. That was early ones though, not today’s. While it’s not 100%, it’s still much safer than a revolver with the hammer back.
Sig gang
Didn’t sig make a Turning Point USA edition of one of their guns not too long ago?
You’re not going to find an Obama Hope edition firearm out there.
Also I was making a joke about the p320 going off without a trigger pull
They all do lol
S&W does this?