Double-Action Mechanism
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Spent some time going through the history on the double-action mechanism this week and a few things stood out worth talking through.
I had one of your largest sized Revolver Pistols at the bloody battle of Inkermann, and by some chance got surrounded by the Russians... had I to cock before each shot I should have lost my life.
— J.G. Crosse, 88th Regiment of FootThat's not a marketing claim — that's a guy who survived because his trigger did more work than the other guy's. Every time someone on a forum says the DA pull is a liability, I think about what a single-action revolver asks you to do with your thumb when someone is already inside your personal space. The answer to "which trigger is better" has always depended on the fight you're expecting.
The resulting Beaumont-Adams revolver retained the double-action trigger mechanism of the original Adams but added a spur on the hammer — meaning the shooter could thumb-cock it for a lighter single-action pull when the situation allowed, or fire rapidly double-action when it didn't.
This is the same argument we're still having at the range — DAO carry guns versus DA/SA. The Beaumont-Adams figured out in 1856 that you might want both options depending on whether you have half a second or half a minute. My K-frame lives on the nightstand cocked for exactly this reason. My carry piece is DAO because a snag during a draw is a different problem than a slow first shot.
The double-action revolver's key advantage: draw and fire using only the trigger, with no external safety to disengage and no manual cocking step to complete under stress.
This is the whole argument for wheelguns as defensive tools in one sentence. Nothing to disengage, nothing to rack, nothing to remember under an adrenaline spike. The tradeoff is that 10-12 pound pull — which is real, and which you either train through or you don't.
What's your carry or home defense setup right now — DA/SA, DAO, or something else entirely — and has your thinking on that changed after putting rounds through it?
Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team
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