Now What?

[rWt]

Ok, I've cocked my Colt or clone, which was properly loaded with only 5 rounds following the load 1, skip one etc. loading method.

I decide not to fire.

If I lower the hammer fully, it rests on a loaded cylinder.

What should I do?

Thanks!

 

[Ed Ames]

Lower the hammer (carefully). Pull the hammer back slightly, rotate the cylinder to where you want it, and lower the hammer back down.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Point it in a safe direction and comply with Ed Ames. With thumb on the hammer pull back and then pull the trigger and lower the hammer [carefully] to fired position. Pull hammer back to half cock and rotate the cylinder to the empty chamber (or between two loaded chambers) and with thumb on hammer pull it back slightly, pull the trigger and lower the hammer.

 

[rmfnla]

Ok, I've cocked my Colt or clone, which was properly loaded with only 5 rounds following the load 1, skip one etc. loading method.

I decide not to fire.

If I lower the hammer fully, it rests on a loaded cylinder.

What should I do?

Thanks!

No offense, but if you do not know this you should not be shooting.

Maybe some range instruction would be a good idea.

 

[David E]

If I lower the hammer fully, it rests on a loaded cylinder.

No, it rests on a loaded CHAMBER. A Colt Single Action Army has ONE cylinder, bored with six CHAMBERS.

A cylinder is not a chamber. They are different.

 

[Ed Ames]

No offense, but if you do not know this you should not be shooting.

It was a good question... especially considering that posting on THR is not the same as going shooting. It was also one that, at a guess, relatively few on this forum could answer since most guns (outside of antiques, cap&ball, and a few of the more accurate reproductions) don't need to be treated this way. Why so harsh?

 

[rmfnla]

Sorry; I stand by my original statement.

I firmly believe one should not fire a gun unsupervised unless one is thoroughly familiar with said gun, and that includes being able to safely decock it.

Lack of experience is easily cured with simple instruction; shooting anyway is an invitation to disaster.

I can be very flexible on many issues, but gun safety is not one of them.

 

[Ed Ames]

So how, exactly, does posting on THR correlate with firing a gun?

Your position doesn't strike me as inflexible or safety oriented so much as...half cocked. It would be one thing to react if someone showed up in a gunshop with a cocked revolver asking how to decock it...it's another to ask online how, if you had such a gun, you would cycle it back so the hammer was down over an empty chamber. It isn't obvious how the various interlocks work (e.g. you cannot simply rotate the cylinder until the hammer has gone all the way down and been pulled back to approximately half-cock on many of these guns).

For all we know the OP doesn't even own a single action revolver.

Asking questions like this is exactly what we should be encouraging...seeking knowledge is a sign of responsibility and safety. To treat it as a safety violation makes you look daft.

 

[rmfnla]

You know, I've re-read my posts and I just can't find the part where I am discouraging asking questions.

You are right in that the posting could easily be a hypothetical so perhaps half-cocked is as apt as it is clever.

Nothing was said about the question being a safety violation, however.

 

[Ed Ames]

Umm... you can't find where you are discouraging asking questions?

Maybe the part where, instead of answering the question, you say the person should not be shooting.

I'll help:

No offense, but if you do not know this you should not be shooting.

Oh, and style guide: Any time you start a response with "no offense" you are admitting that your next statement is intended to offend. And, on a pro-RKBA forum, saying someone should not be shooting because they asked a question is pretty offensive.

As for "nothing was said about the question being a safety violation"...

I can be very flexible on many issues, but gun safety is not one of them.

In other words, if your response to the question was inflexible, it's because the questioner was being unsafe. How? All they did was ask a question.

 

[goodtime]

I agree, one should not shoot a firearm until he knows how to operate it. But this guy isn't standing in a range with a laptop and a cocked saa waiting for instruction on how to make safe. He's just waiting for instruction. The fact that he said "colt or clone" tips us to the fact that he's talking hypothetically. He just wants to know. He might be looking for pre-range instruction.

 

[General Geoff]

The only dumb question is the one that's never asked.

 

[rmfnla]

I agree with all of you; for some reason when I first read the post it sounded to me like he already owned and had shot the gun without knowing how to use it safely.

My bad for jumping the gun, and apologies for sidetracking the thread.

 

[kanook]

Good question

A Ruger 3 screw that has not been sent back; with hand or thumb on hammer and finger on trigger, pull (squeeze) trigger helping the hammer down to safety notch before firing pin, let go of trigger and pull hammer to loading notch and rotate cylinder to desired location to pull hammer back all the way to rest on empty cylinder.

New Model Ruger Blackhawk (2 pins); with hand or thumb on hammer and finger on trigger, pull (squeeze) trigger helping hammer down, as soon as the hammer disengages from the sear let go of TRIGGER not hammer and this will let the transfer bar drop out of the way making it safe if your hand or thunb should slip, open cylinder loading gate and rotate to desired chanber location and close gate.

Easier to do than to write. If and when you purchase a SA style firearm pratice this often with it's EMPTY and no ammo is within reach (no ammo in room is best). Go to a CAS match and watch how they do it, it happens fast when you're good. Be safe

 

[dmazur]

A suggestion that is slightly related to cocking/decocking -

I make up "dummy rounds" and use them to practice loading/unloading, check how the safety works, etc. with a new pistol or rifle. They are permanently marked to distinguish them from live rounds.

While snap caps sometimes work for this purpose, I've found that they aren't necessarily the correct size (slightly different COL, rim thickness, etc.) and can give misleading results.

If you don't reload, you might ask someone who does to make up a couple for you.

When equipped with dummies, you can safely practice any situation you might encounter when actually shooting.

+1 to leaving live ammo in a different room. As dummies can create safety issues of their own, they need to be verified each and every time before use, just like checking the action to make sure the gun is unloaded.

 

[Rexster]

If you know to load one chamber, skip one chamber, load four chambers, then pull to full cock, and then lower the hammer all the way, you already know, if you think about it. Think.

To be clear, you can find the safe position at any time by opening the loading gate, placing the weapon on half-cock, aligning the empty chamber with the loading gate, then advancing the cylinder four clicks, pulling the hammer to full cock, then lowering the hammer fully down, and it will be on the empty chamber.

Check yourself by looking SIDEWAYs through the frame window. No matter how sure I am of myself, I check myself.

 

[ArmedBear]

No, it rests on a loaded CHAMBER. A Colt Single Action Army has ONE cylinder, bored with six CHAMBERS.

The last time I typed "chamber" in a revolver thread, an anonymous moderator changed it to "charge hole."

 

[Rexster]

By the way, I NEVER lower the hammer by merely pulling it back a bit past half-cock. Parts can clash; cylinders can be ringed. Use the complete cycle of the hammer. If the hammer is pulled to half-cock, complete the cycle to full cock, then down fully.

 

[rWt]

Thanks for your responses.

The gun has not been fired and I am practicing with snap caps. The instruction manual that came with the gun says nothing about this situation.

Can the hammer go from full cock to half cock, or do you have to lower it completely then raise it to half cock?

 

[kanook]

It's best to lower all the way or a least to the safety notch. Which do you own?

 

[rWt]

USFA

 

[dmazur]

From the USFA owner's manual -

Safe Loading Procedure
If you are certain that your have the specific type of
ammunition for your firearm, you may begin the safe
loading procedure.
• Pick up the firearm with your left hand and point the
barrel downward. ALWAYS keep your fingers away from
the trigger guard and trigger when loading a firearm.
• Use your thumb to move the hammer into the 2nd Position
- Loading Notch. (Fig. 3, Page 13).
• Open the gate with your right hand.
• Insert the cartridges into the cylinder chambers with your
right hand and close the gate securely. DO NOT load
more than five cartridges into the cylinder.
• Spin the cylinder around to an empty chamber.
• Keep the firearm pointed downward and draw the hammer
back to index the cylinder.
• Keep your thumb on the hammer and slowly squeeze the
trigger and allow the hammer to move forward until it
rests on the empty chamber.
• Move the hammer to the 1st Position - Safety Notch.
(Fig. 2, Page 13).

As others have said, there is a clockwork mechanism you have to run in sequence. Parts can clash if you do it out of sequence.

So, from your hypothetical situation, down fully, then follow the above procedure again to "reindex" the cylinder so the empty chamber is under the hammer. (You can skip the "open the gate" part as all you want to do is index.)

 

[rWt]

Thanks, dmazur.

This is my first single action clone and I am not aware of the do's and don'ts regarding the trigger and hammer.

For instance, after I have "slowly squeezed the trigger to allow the hammer to move forward is it important when I release the hammer? If so, when?

 

[MichaelK]

Unfortunately, stuff happens in the real world. I had a similar experience with someone a few years back. Someone that had bought a revolver on impulse just after the Roddney King riots, but just left it in a draw forgotten for years.

About the time I came along this same guy wanted to come along for our shooting trip and he wanted to bring his own gun. I got a late night phone call about how he had cocked the hammer on his loaded gun and asked if it was OK to drive with it in the car like that because he didn't know how to uncock it!

After saying NO about as loud as I could, I described how you should put your thumb in front of the hammer before pulling the trigger to slowly drop the hammer. He kept on asking whether or not this would hurt his thumb, he refused to do it, and his wife finally called the police, and asked them to please come over to unload her husband's gun.

Don't let this happen to you men!

Sooner or later, you might have to deal with someone that has no clue what they are doing and it will be up to you to help them safely get out of the situation they have got themselves into.

 

[w_houle]

The last time I typed "chamber" in a revolver thread, an anonymous moderator changed it to "charge hole."

Their being "Mod" doesn't make them infallible. Being a revolver doesn't change some facts; chamber, head spacing, et c. all exist.
meh... it's a learning experience for us all