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Safety of single action handguns?
Clarentavious
Member Posts: 800 ✭✭✭✭
There is something I wanted to know
Almost all modern DA/SA or DAO handguns come with a firing pin block or some other kind of drop safety.
I've heard about people carrying guns like 1911's cocked and locked. Is it really safe to do this? Even with a manual safety engaged, that hammer is waiting to fall - and in my mind I can't see how anything is going to prevent that gun from going off it is dropped or banged around.
Is there any hard physical evidence that proves a cocked gun is mechanically sound and won't go off after sustaining impact?
Almost all modern DA/SA or DAO handguns come with a firing pin block or some other kind of drop safety.
I've heard about people carrying guns like 1911's cocked and locked. Is it really safe to do this? Even with a manual safety engaged, that hammer is waiting to fall - and in my mind I can't see how anything is going to prevent that gun from going off it is dropped or banged around.
Is there any hard physical evidence that proves a cocked gun is mechanically sound and won't go off after sustaining impact?
Comments
They are safe to carry cocked and locked. If you carry this type of pistol for protection or police work you have to carry it cocked and locked. If carried hammer down, it would be too slow getting into action.
Joe
"Never let school interfere with your education"
A 1911 has the manual safety and also the grip safety, and if you have a new 1911 it does come with a firing pin block.
Safe gun handling is 99% shooter, 1% gun.
As to your concern over the 1911 COLT,rest easy,it has a floating firing pin the must be hit very hard to drive the pin into the primer to set it off.Even when dropped on concret and the hammer in down position it will not light the fire in the cartridge.
BILL
KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY.BUT NOT HOT.....single action S&Ws are keepers
Is there any way to decock them without the dangerous procedure of dropping the hammer?
There is also something else I heard. If you leave a gun cocked for a very long period of time, it wears down the spring from being left that position so long - and the hammer kind of loses its driving force because the tension is not as strong. Any truth to this?
Are you talking about semi-auto pistols, or single action revolvers?
1. 1911 type semi-auto pistols are safest carrying cocked&locked when they're loaded.
A. No, the hammer spring won't be damaged leaving it like this for a long time. Any other type firearm, pump shotgun, bolt action rifle, etc, CAN have the spring weakened by leaving it cocked.
B. On 'decocking' there's no absolute safe itaintgonnagooff way except by dropping the magazine and racking the slide back to remove the round in the chamber. Anothe way to decock a 1911 is to put your finger under the hammer and pull the trigger, then hold the hammer and slide your finger out.
2. Single action revolvers are completely different. You should never carry them around cocked.
A. Modern made SA revolvers have a hammer block safety and can be carried fully loaded.
B. OLD SA revolvers had no such block, and it's only safe to carry with an empty chamber under the hammer.
"The Greatest Battle Implement Ever Devised!"
-- Gen. George S. Patton
referring to the M1 Garand
Modoc, I never heard of an 1868 SAA Colt. to my knowledge there was 1860 & 1861 and which were black powder and wouldn't matter unless the percussion caps were on them! Later there were conversions and then the 1873 P.
Is there any way to decock them without the dangerous procedure of dropping the hammer?
Drop the magazine and rack the slide. Empty the gun, then let the hammer down. Disengaging the safety and trying to let the hammer down slowly on a hot chamber can be done but one must be very careful. One slip could be your last.[:(]
OldGuns55@yahoo.com
There is something I wanted to know
I've heard about people carrying guns like 1911's cocked and locked. Is it really safe to do this? Even with a manual safety engaged, that hammer is waiting to fall - and in my mind I can't see how anything is going to prevent that gun from going off it is dropped or banged around.
Its plenty safe, because a "cocked and locked" 1911 has three separate safeties that prevent the gun from going off: The manual safety, the grip safety, and (in modern ones) the firing pin safety. Dropping the gun onto its hammer won't set it off. Neither should dropping the gun onto the muzzle set it off from inertia of the firing pin because of the firing pin safety. This kind of thing has been well-tested.
On the other hand, **ABSOLUTELY NOTHING** will prevent this sort of gun from going off if the gun is gripped, the trigger is pulled and the manual safety is disengaged. . .that's what's supposed to happen!
quote:
Is there any hard physical evidence that proves a cocked gun is mechanically sound and won't go off after sustaining impact?
Indeed there is. "Drop testing" unfortunately is one of the tests gun manufacturers must subject their guns to if they want to get safety approval for sale in MA. So many guns are routinely tested this way.
There is emprical evidence too. The 1911 has been around a long, long, long time (ie since 1911). If this gun had conspicuous safety failures, they would be well-known and the gun would not enjoy nearly the popularity it does.