Three Basic Handgun Types

single action double action automatic yes the three basic types of handguns for the most part I should really do more basic information videos on firearms I know because I get a lot of questions about things that many of us take for granted but quite a number of people are just now getting into firearms or interested in firearms and I guess I'm partly responsible for that I have to take some responsibility for I guess encouraging people to to enjoy firearms you know safely hopefully anyway three of the main types of firearms that we encounter in handguns speaking of handguns there are single shots and there always other you know unusual or less common actions let's say but let's look and explore just briefly the three most common types of actions of handguns first of all the single action this is an old Colt Single Action Army and you'll see this single action in some modern replicas of these guns and the Ruger's and any gun that looks like this it's probably single action unnecessarily the most of them are what the single action mean okay I've had that question it means it will really fire one way you have to [ __ ] the hammer in order to fire it you cannot just pick it up and pull the trigger unless it's already cocked you notice the trigger is very short travel left on it and it's a single action I have to pull the hammer back and [ __ ] it okay I'm going right back down do that again and of course these guns we've checked them three times before we started our little video here are fully unloaded there's such a thing as being fully unloaded this is a single action I must [ __ ] that hammer in order to fire it I can pull that trigger all day long and it's going to do nothing I must [ __ ] the hammer all the way back that turns the cylinder brings another round under the hammer okay it is a colt so it turns counter or clockwise rather notice the cylinder so it's going to bring the next round under the hammer and I pull the trigger it will fire single action it will fire one way single double-action this is a fairly common type of revolver old police revolver the other was used for decades and decades it is a double action meaning I can fire by cocking it and pulling the trigger or I can actually pull the trigger and it [ __ ] the hammer it's a more complex action but it will fire those two ways pull the trigger see it turns the cylinder [ __ ] a hammer drops the hammer do not need to touch the hammer actually and in fact people use these as defensive guns are advised not to [ __ ] it okay makes it a longer trigger pull and it's more difficult for shooting along range but if you want really precision shooting you tend to want to [ __ ] them you know and aim them then you have a lighter trigger pull once this hammer is cocked it's more like this gun it tastes like a single action it becomes a single action once you [ __ ] it very light trigger like this one very light doesn't take much to pull it okay so double action usually they have a Swing Out cylinder and you can [ __ ] it that way or this way double hmm as in - right okay those are the two most common types of maybe the only types of revolvers I'm aware of okay and then we have the automatic the semi-automatic more specifically a lot of people do call them automatics you know because not many people are walking around with a really little sprinkling here how many people are walking around with a fully automatic 1911 you know so we we tend to say the easier word automatic I guess but it is semi-automatic meaning this one does have a loaded magazine in meaning that it will continue firing once it's loaded until it runs out of ammunition as long as you keep pulling the trigger okay most of you are quite aware that so I put a loaded magazine in we know there's nothing in the chamber because we just looked at it okay so I put a magazine in loaded magazine I don't have to [ __ ] it but I do have manually at least Iraq a round in the chamber see how that works the slide picks up a puts it in the chamber it's ready to fire you have your safety on the old 1911's right there thumb safety but it is ready to fire right now and of course if I were not on there my range right now I would not be actually putting it into battery like that if I were my bedroom doing a bedroom review or something obviously I wouldn't do that but I'm pointing downrange I can pull the trigger now if I wanted so it's the luxury we have here so this gun is ready to fire if I pop the safety off and pulled it started pulling the trigger as you know it would just continue firing as often as I pulled the trigger until I fired seven or eight times then the slide would lock back and that would be the end of that now the big danger with these if you're not very very safe and very focused is that you get a round in the chamber think the guns unloaded okay just because the magazine is out this gun is not safe in fact there are quite a few accidents on record of people who have thought a semi-automatic firearm was unloaded because the magazine was out and it wasn't you know maybe someone who was irresponsible and let a young person get a hold of it and they didn't know much about it so who was daddy's gun uh he's not home let's check it out let's unload it first well it's not unloaded is it okay so there's around in that chamber and that's the one that gets so that's the thing about the semi-automatic you want to always be careful of I don't mean to turn this into a safety video I'm trying to just give you an overview of the types of actions primarily single double and then semi-automatic so that's kind of the basics of it and of course also you realize there was no single action until there was a double action right because everything was a single action and we didn't follow that well at least my forefathers didn't call it that it's kind of like black powder did they call gun powder black powder back in the 1800s probably not until modern powders came along so anyway single action double action semi-automatic the three basic types of firearms that we encounter the old actions on the single actions you have to have [ __ ] them to check them to turn the cylinder on some of the newer single actions you just open the loading gate and the cylinder will turn this depends on what you have an old action or a new modern action like Ruger uses okay single action got a [ __ ] it fortifier double action even in one's got raindrops on it you can open up the cylinder if you want to shoot it without cocking it that'll do it or if you want to [ __ ] it and get a finer trigger pull that will do it okay and then the semi-automatic one of the most common popular types of firearms today all right there that's the basics of the three most common types of actions of handguns and if you're new to guns hopefully that helped you out a little bit appreciate you coming by life's good

Channel: hickok45

Views: 2,556,508

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Keywords: Colt, SAA., .45, Smith, Wesson, Model, 629, S&W, double, action, 1911, Series, '80, 1991, firearms, safety, single, semi-automatic, semiautomatic, automatic

Id: Eb5WLYItSTA

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 21 2010