ELi5: In a wild west movie or game, when a gunslinger puts their revolver into their holster it often makes a “click”. (for example in Red Dead Redemption 2). Would this happen in real life, and if so, what is it caused by?
In: 19
It’s a best practice safety thing. Some revolvers called single action require you to pull back the hammer with your thumb and the trigger only releases the hammer. Pulling back the hammer locks it, this is called cocking the gun. A double action revolver allows the trigger to pull back the hammer and release it when you pull it all the way back. But most double action revolvers can also lock the hammer manually because squeezing the trigger fully can affect your aim. There are hammerless revolvers which are always double action, where it’s an internal mechanism and squeezing the trigger hard is the only way to fire. Jostling the revolver while cocked could also accidentally fire it. So when you holster the weapon you’d want to deliberately uncock the hammer or check that’s it’s uncocked if you were not sure how you left the hammer.
When you see a gunslinger use their off hand to swipe the back of a gun while quickly firing that’s usually a single action. When Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood movie character) pulls out his enormous 44 magnum and locks the hammer, he’s actually just getting his double action pistol ready for a clean shot.
Latest Answers