Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Single Action
The single action revolver set the standard for firearms in the West. The single action revolver must have its hammer cocked in order to fire, and then it only fires once. That is why it’s called “single action.” Modern revolvers are “double action,” meaning that you don’t have to cock the hammer to fire. You can just pull the trigger. This is safer than the single action because when the hammer is cocked it can accidentally go off. This happened many times in the “Wild West,” so it became common for gun carriers to leave an empty chamber in their gun, so if the hammer clicked, it would click on an empty chamber.
