Double Action question

[Nicodemus38]

reading the manual for modern smith and wesson revolvers, i believe they say that if you fire the revolver, keep the trigger depressed and then manually pull the hammer to its full rearmost position, the mechanism will let the hammer fall forward once the finger pulling it rearword lets go.

however ive read elsewhere that the mechanism is supposed to hold the hammer rearward until the trigger is released and then pulled.
what is the proper functioning on DA revolvers?

 

[VA27]

If I understand what you're saying correctly, that's right. The hammer doesn't move the cylinder, the trigger does. Holding the trigger back disconnects the hammer and you can move it rearward and let it go and it'll snap down. But it will fall on the empty case of the round that fired when you pulled the trigger.

 

[Steve C]

If you manually cock the hammer it will rotate the cylinder and remain in the fully cocked position. If the trigger is pulled the hammer drops and fires a round (if the gun is loaded) and the sear is disengaged from the hammer through a disconnect in the mechanism. This is firing the pistol in single action mode which means the trigger does one thing and that is to release the hammer. If the trigger is held in the release position (fully depressed) after firing, the hammer will not rotate the cylinder nor can it be cocked or made ready to fire another shot until the trigger has been released and the sear is allowed to reengage the hammer.

When you fire a revolver in double action mode, you simply full the trigger and it pulls back the hammer and rotates the cylinder for a live round. Once the cylinder rotates in place and the hammer reaches if rearward position the hammer is released and fires the round. Double action means the trigger is doing 2 things, cocking the hammer and releasing it all in a single pull.

In both cases, after the shot is fired, the trigger must be released and allowed enough forward travel to reengage the hammer before another shot can be fired.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Nicodemus38 - both statements you've read are correct, they just refer to different functions of the mechanism

 

[Nicodemus38]

the manual had me confused then. reading it as written in one section it would have the sear disconnector allowing the hammer to operate the cylinder while trigger was kept depressed, but not able to fire due to trigger not letting the transfer bar reset.
other section had it sounding like the hammer would reset to full cock even though the trigger was depressed.


how fast can a DA mechanism reset itself to fire again?

 

[9mmepiphany]

as fast as you can rotate the cylinder to bring the next chamber in line with the barrel and hammer

the speed at which a DA revolver can be fired isn't determined by the mechanism, but by the speed you can move your trigger finger

the speed at which a DA revolver can be fire accurately is determined by how fast you can bring your sights onto the target