Single- and double-action revolvers

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what is a single-action pistol and what there's a double-action pistol you may have come across these terms and been a bit confused by them well I have here a single-action pistol it said what I would call a revolver but I would also call it a pistol because I'm British and anything like this is a pistol be it a revolver or an automatic anyway this is a single-action Colt army it's actually a replica it's the the classic if you like cowboy gun and it is importantly a single-action pistol unlike these two other pistols this one for instance is an Enfield number 2 the sort of standard-issue World War 2 British Army pistol that tank crewmen and officers might be given it wasn't actually the most commonly used in action but it was the the standard-issue and this a more modern Smith & Wesson which I can tell you straight away is quite a bit heavier than the other two right so this is a single action pistol so if an enemy suddenly surprises me and I I do a quick draw and a cowboy fashion and my point about him and I go ha I pull the trigger and nothing happens it doesn't go bang it doesn't go bang because I haven't cocked it see this is a single action pistol the trigger does one thing it releases the hammer so if I haven't cocked it already like this then nothing will happen now that it is cocked if I pull the trigger it goes click and have her baby in the bullet in it it would have gone bang and don't worry all of these guns though they are real have been cleared by a third party they are quite definitely not loaded right so if I pull the trigger again now again nothing happens so you've probably seen in the movies guys doing something like this it's sometimes called Fanning what they're doing is they're catching this lever on the back of the hammer and pulling it back like that and if you have your finger down on the trigger all the time this will allow you to do that over again you can fire off all your cartridges pretty quickly and you'll see that every time I pull back the lever it turns the cylinder in the middle presenting a new bullet to the firing pin and bang so that's what they're doing when they're doing that in the movies they're Fanning and that would have enabled you to fire very inaccurately very quickly so would you ever see someone fan double-action pistol no you wouldn't a double-action pistol the trigger does two things upon being pulled it pulls the lever back and then release it releases it and as the hammer goes back the the cylinder in the center turns as well so now if I draw I've got a loaded pistol I just have to pull the trigger and it goes bang again there is no reason to fan this but even if I did because I'm such a show-off want to fan a pistol like this it wouldn't work so I pulled the trigger I then try to fat which is actually quite awkward because the sights are a little bit too tall and they're above the the back of the cocking lever yes the lever goes back and forward that's great but the the cylinder isn't turning so no new bullet is being presented to the firing pin so there's no chance of this ever going bang so not only is it unnecessary it doesn't work and the same could be said of this more modern Smith & Wesson and you can see that the sights on this are very much higher than the the cocking lever at the back so it's extremely difficult to find this and again exactly the same thing exactly same problem the cylinder doesn't turn so it's completely pointless so there are double action pistols and single action pistols and the old-fashioned ones a single action and this became superseded once double-action had become popular they never went back this is a slower weapon to use not just because it's single action but also the cylinder doesn't come out whereas this one the Enfield this one breaks forwards like that and as as the the barrel breaks forwards there's a star in the middle of the cylinder which ejects all of the cartridges at once so I can start reloading it straight away and this swings out to the side but the same sort of thing applies there's a rod here and if I knock that a star pushes out all the bullets at once and I can start reloading so though I have to load one bullet at a time there are speed loader tip things which make things faster though actually in World War two the troops weren't issued with them so they'd be reloading one bullet at a time with this things are much slower there is a gate at the side and if this is half cocked back to about there then I can turn the cylinder freely and open this gate and then I can hope that the bullet the one bullet that can be the drop through that gate might fall out but if it didn't and they very often got fouled because of their old black powder cartridges I'd have to push that to knock it out and then I'd have to turn and I have to push again turn so you'd unload this one bullet at a time laborious ly and then you would get your bullet out load one bullet at a time so once you find your six it's gonna be a long time before you get to fire another six with these old-fashioned pistols so though this pistol and this pistol look extremely similar that this one is actually a much more practical fast firing design [Music] the man [Music]

Info

Channel: Lindybeige

Views: 509,425

Rating: 4.9589114 out of 5

Keywords: revolver, gun, firearm, pistol, handgun, hand, fire, trigger, single, action, double, cowboy, enfield, colt, smith, wesson, cock, lever, shoot, repeater, load, bullet, bullets, fanning, fan

Id: dggcZeGbVvo

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017

Reddit Comments

One aspect that he didn't cover:

Double action pistols can still be cocked, by pulling the hammer back before firing. The round will still fire normally when you pull the trigger, however now the distance you have to pull the trigger is much shorter.

Why does this matter? When you apply pressure to the trigger with your finger, you have a tendency to 'squeze' the gun, which can move your aim. When aiming, especially out past 25 yards with a handgun, any slight movement of the barrel will drastically effect shot placement. Cocking the double action gives you the ability to shoot one bullet (per cocking) with a very small trigger imput.

👍︎︎ 56 👤︎︎ u/Vanhandle 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

What a fanstastically beige sweater

👍︎︎ 32 👤︎︎ u/SomewhatRealTheFirst 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

The only thing that needs clearing up is that they still make single action revolvers. Some are replicas of old revolvers but some are single action to make them cheaper. A good double action revolver can be like $800 even in cheap calibers like .22. A single action .22 is like $150. You generally don't want to go too cheap on revolvers because the timing can fuck up and fire a round into the frame of the gun more than the barrel (if it fires at all) but it's an option.

Edit: almost forgot, sometimes single action is actually a safety feature. It requires 2 actions to fire the gun much like a safety and allows you to make a reletively safe gun with a wonky looking trigger like this.

👍︎︎ 21 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

What a shiny man.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/InsertGenericNameLol 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

In general, don't really listen to Lindybeige regarding firearms. He knows just enough to be dangerous and often wrong. See: the infamous "Spandau" video.

👍︎︎ 26 👤︎︎ u/RedAero 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

I strongly dislike LindyBeige

👍︎︎ 13 👤︎︎ u/DingusDoo 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

I would've loved the triple action revolver! But then I readbit put in the milk first facepalm

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/TheUnknownFactor97 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies

I know there probably isn't a camera man and I'm not going to get shot by a youtube video, but the way he kept barrel sweeping me made me anxious.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/coprolite_hobbyist 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2018 🗫︎ replies