Benefits of Hammerless?

I see one other big advantage to having at least a little bit of hammer exposed. That is you can ride the hammer with your thumb when you holster the gun. If during the holstering process something contacts the trigger, you will at least have a clue if you use this method. I quit carrying my Glock 27 and Kahr CM9 because of "no hammer". I am sure most feel this thinking is illogical.
 
white cloud said:
I see one other big advantage to having at least a little bit of hammer exposed. That is you can ride the hammer with your thumb when you holster the gun. If during the holstering process something contacts the trigger, you will at least have a clue if you use this method. I quit carrying my Glock 27 and Kahr CM9 because of "no hammer". I am sure most feel this thinking is illogical.
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I totally get that. But for me the long DA pull makes up for that situation. But yeah, a hammer or bobbed one gives you that extra safety feature when holstering. Can't hurt. Unless it snags when you're drawing. :)
 
I thought about concealed vs. exposed hammer before I made my purchase for a S&W snubby which I would carry. I decided on the M638...it's the best of both worlds for me.
 
jimmyj said:
Most revolver qualifications are "Double Action" only, so why have a hammer spur ?
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I can't ever remember firing a revolver single action back in the day when I'd qualify on the job with a model 15, 19 or 36.
 
Benefits are...one trigger pull. Most shooters don't understand the concept of maintaining a sight picture during the trigger press and that is why the double action is less favored. A lot of shooters are lazy and want to have a quick trigger pull so that their flash sight picture has a prayer of hitting the target. I use the term steering the sights on target. Shooters understand this easily. It has long range results with various platforms with men and women. I don't even consider the single action unless it's the only way or if it's a big mass cylinder like an X frame.
 
jimmyj said:
In a l o n g ago time when qualifications included 50 yard prone shooting, single action mode was allowed.
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That's the difference, Jimmy. Our quals with revolvers at the NYPD police range at Rodman's Neck in NYC or the various ranges we used in South FL were always limited to 25 yards. (Barrier left, barrier right and kneeling or prone at 25 yds.) This was from the early 80's on.

Glad I never had to try to show my stuff from 50 yards. :p
 
Naphtali said:
Since bobbing the hammer has been mentioned in this thread, who are gunsmiths who "bob" revolver hammers? I have an SP101 3-inch barrel that I believe would become more efficient were hammer bobbed while leaving enough spur (or snag resistant spur-like portion??) to effect a single action mode, using a small amount of trigger pressure to raise bobbed hammer enough for purchase to cock. I remember viewing a photograph of such a hammer and nodding as I thought how useful the bobbed hammer was.

But, of course, I do not have the photograph, nor do I know gunsmiths who do such work on SP101s.
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I just don't see the practical benefits of keeping single action nor do I see any tangible advantage of having a spurless hammer over an enclosed one. Keeping single action capability is not simply a matter of "it doesn't hurt to have it just in case", but rather one of trading away several more useful attributes in exchange for one that isn't likely to be of any use or benefit.
 
I kept the single action on my bobbed hammer. I use it for stupid things like hundred yard plinking. Dumb idea for SD because once you cock it, you have to shoot it. Yes I am aware that isn't exactly true, but anyone that thinks this is a solid idea doesn't know how to do that.
 
I shot John Farnam's Defensive Handgun course with a Chief's Special drawn from the pocket. Probably shot about a hundred rounds. I did put my thumb under the hammer when drawing and didn't seem to really have a problem in terms of speed and accuracy. I shot pretty much everything except for maybe 20 shots from 50 feet away single action but everything else was double action.

The second day I had the pachmayr compac grips which were actually too big for my hand on my airweight 638. I shot that about 100 rounds for the second day mostly from 25 ft and closer.

I did the qualification test at about 25 feet at an 8 inch by 6 inch reactive target and made it to the student or second level pin. It did take me about 10 attempts though. I think I would have done better with the Chiefs Special or even my 3 inch 36 - 1. Again however during the test at least I didn't have the time to cock the 638 into single action. However I think the heavier pull with the too big grips under time constraints with a reactive target did affect my accuracy.

Speaking of the cocking John did a demonstration for us using my Chiefs Special of how the revolver was designed from 100 years ago with with a safety feature that would not allow the firing pin to strike the primer if there wasn't pressure on the trigger. Later on I tried this test with my 638 and to my dismay when I tried to decock it while releasing the trigger and dropping the hammer the gun did go off. And yes it was at the range and I had it pointed down range in a safe direction. It may be that the first gunsmith who did the action job took too much off. I'll have to get that checked out. There is a method for safely decocking with an exposed hammer but as John pointed out is harder to do with the shrouded hammer which is why he recommended never cocking the hammer on the 638. Makes sense to a point but anyway I'm going to get the 638 checked out.

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Okay examined the decocking on my 36 and 638 the other night. Did about 30 repetitions with each. Mechanically they both decock fine. However with the shrouded hammer 638 is much easier to hang up the hammer part way and then force the firing pin to engage when you try to correct the error. Or at the range under a bit of stress trying to use fine motor skills to pull the trigger whole riding the hammer nub down.

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I was working an old clothes assignment as a young cop carrying my Colt Cobra under a tee shirt. Grabbed the gun while arresting a street robber/mugger and the hammer got snagged in my shirt. Fumbled and got it out, but had the range guys bobb the hammer after that. Still have that little Colt.
 
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