[10 Ringer']

Obviously, if someone wants a ton of extra mechanical safety features, an auto is the way to go, but, what about modern revolvers? Are there any particular makes and models in either single or double action that seem intrinsicly more safe? What features make them safer and what problems to those safety measures help prevent? Thanks.

[Majic]

The safest has to be the single action with a transfer bar. Until you cock the hammer back fully then pull the trigger there's no way to fire the revolver.

[P95Carry]

Majik's point is very valid ...... instance Ruger .. tho even early S&W's with firing pin on hammer, in fact IIRC have a protective mechanism.

Overall - at least with ''quality'' revo's .. I don't think there are any that I'd call intrinsically unsafe .... a revo has to be badly abused IMO to make it an unsafe tool .... compared with perhaps some semi's. Much is to do with the handler!:p

[C.R.Sam]

Yeah...Smiths, and others, have hammer block.

Primary safety is the mind of the handler. Applies to all machinery.

Sam

[4v50 Gary]

S&W has a hammer block. In addition, it has the rebound slide that prevents the hammer from moving all the way forward. Note that on the S&W the hammer at its position of rest is retracted from the firing pin hole. That's because the rebound slide doesn't allow the hammer forward. The older Taurus had this feature, but they eliminated it. Make mine S&W over Taurus anyday.

Colt Pythons and modern Colt Revolvers (Trooper III actions & Anacondas) have the newer hammer block. In addition, the Trooper III/Vs also have a frame mounted firing pin (if I'm not mistaken).

Ruger incorporates the transfer bar design. The bar must be in a raised position before the hammer can transfer energy to the bar and from the bar to the frame mounted spring loaded firing pin.

All the above is for naught if what CR Sam mentions is in the NBA mode (no brain activity).

[Jim March]

Any post-WW2 S&W DA, Colt of the same era or perhaps a bit before, or any DA Ruger will be VERY safe. The best statistics we have come from police AD reports, and NYPD stats and many others made it very clear that the guys with DA wheelguns were the safest.

Now, cops don't use SAs, so we can't tell that way if Ruger SAs are safer than modern DAs.

The problem with the transfer-bar Ruger SA is that once cocked, decocking is a wee bit tricky. Not too bad, but care is required and it's a bit hairball if you've just been through an adrenalin-producing mess. With a DA wheelgun, if you "smell trouble coming" you don't HAVE to cock it, therefore there's no decock to deal with post-stress.

Then again, with the SA you can't get a "trigger snag" AD on holstering with a piece of your shirt tail or even stray finger in the triggerguard cranking one off. Unless you're nutso enough to holster it cocked :scrutiny:. And such "holstering ADs" are among the most common type. (But seldom all that serious - fortunately, the big arteries in the leg run down the INSIDE so any "outside edge of leg grazing wounds" are painful but with modern medicine not THAT big a deal :D.)

So...hmmm. I wouldn't sweat the difference much. Any decent DA wheelgun that passes "the checkout" will be safer than the vast majority of slideguns.

(Sidenote: dunno 'bout y'all, but I decock wheelguns by running my thumb up in FRONT OF the hammer, on any transfer bar gun. Then I pull the trigger, bring finger off trigger, and ease the hammer down by slipping my thumb out. I don't use the actual thumbrest. Even if this isn't your normal technique, keep it in mind in case you ever end up with a cocked gun that's had the hammer bobbed but the SA cock-notch left in.)

[JPM70535]

Ditto Jim March on the proper way to decock a DA revolver . This method will never fail. My own personnal operating procedure is to use a DA revolver as just that, a DA revolver. Unless you are using the handgun for hunting game at long range (IMO for a handgun 50+ yds) a double action trigger stroke will yield sufficient accuracy, with no possibility of ending up with a cocked revolver in your hand when the smoke clears

[SnWnMe]

I think all modern SA or DA revolvers made by any of the major players (Ruger, Smith, Taurus, Colt) are equally safe as long as user common sense is plentiful. Of course, a revolver is also as idiot proof as one can get this side of a compound bow.

Interestingly, I have read somewhere that certain Tauri like to self activate their lawyer locks while being fired so it would be safe (pun intended) to say that some wheelguns are (proactively) safer than others!