any harm in.......

hi, i have a ruger single six and i was wondering if it would hurt it to fan it ,you know hold the trigger while pulling the hammer back with my thumb i know it's a lot faster than pulling the trigger each shot.
thanks for any info:)

yes it can hurt it doing that will damage most single actions

STOP! DON'T DO IT~

Cuz faning the Ruger would be like driving your car on the rims without tires!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

Everybody tries it at least once :D but yes, it WILL screw up the gun. Royally and quickly.

Hammer-slipping is different...fire it once, keep holding the trigger back, repeatedly cock and "sideslip" the hammer with your thumb. Sort of a way to "shoot an SA DA". Done in a controlled enough fashion, accuracy is decent and it doesn't beat the gun up.

...hold the trigger while pulling the hammer back with my thumb... That's not fanning.
Fanning involves the heel of the hand slapping the hammer and is VERY hard on most SA revolvers.

Slip firing is not usually hard on the gun because it's the excess force of the hand against the cylinder ratchet as well as the locking bolt peening the edges of the cylibder cuts that causes timing problems. Slip firing usually doesn't exert those excess forces.

Haven't noticed the warning in my Single-Six manual, but the book from my Vaquero plainly states DO NOT "FAN", and gives a basic description of "fanning".

The descriptions about "fanning" & "slip-firing" are correct. Even as close to indestructable as Ruger handguns are, if you "fan" your Single-Six, YOU WILL BREAK IT. Slip-firing is a different thing.

Everybody tries it at least once

Yep. That was the last time I invited that guy to go shooting with me.:mad:

Just say no to fanning.

thanks for the warning, i got a little confused i hold the gun in my right hand with the trigger pulled in and i use my left thumb to pull the hammer back and let it go......... so i think that's slip shooting will it hurt:confused:

There are two variants on hammer-slipping.

The "classic" technique uses the same thumb as on the hand that's holding back the trigger, and can be done one-handed or with the off-hand doing support.

There's another variant of SA firing where you use two hands, working the hammer with your weak-hand thumb and firing with your strong-hand trigger finger. I'm personally not a fan of this but it works for some. It's possible to hammer-slip this variant too...both are "proper hammer slipping" and don't beat the gun up when done gently enough for accurate fire. Both variants are legal for CAS/SASS competition where fanning is completely banned as unsafe (on top of beating the hell out of the gun).

Again: you can tell when you're slipping correctly when accuracy is at least combat-decent.