Firearm Operation Questions and Verified Answers

Revolver - The firing pin is attached to the hammer and the hammer's forward movement sends the firing pin into the primer. Single action revolvers require the shooter to manually cock the hammer for each shot. Single Action - Through the cycle of operation, the hammer or striker is cocked and the cartridge is fed, chambered, and the firearm is locked and ready to be fired. With the safety disengaged (if present), pressing the trigger disengages the sear and the hammer or striker is released in one movement forward. In a hammer-fired weapon, the hammer strikes the firing pin and sends it forward into the primer. Single action firearms tend to require considerably less trigger pressure and travel than other firearms. Double Action - The cycle of operation does not cock the hammer/striker in a double action firearm. When the cycle of operation is complete and a cartridge is fed, chambered, and locked, the hammer/striker remains down or forward. The hammer/striker is then cocked only in conjunction with each trigger pull, thus the hammer/striker moves rearward until the sear disengages and then is sent forward to strike the firing pin or the primer. Double Action firearms tend to require long and heavy trigger presses. Auto loading pistol - Uses the energy of the fired cartridge to cycle the action of the firearm and advance the next available cartridge into a position for firing How double action pistol works - First round is manually loaded into the chamber by pulling and releasing the slide mechanism. After the trigger is pulled and the round is fired, the recoil operation automatically extracts and ejects the shell casing and reloads the chamber. How single action pistol works - Weapon must be cocked by operating the slide or bolt or if a round is already chambered, you must cock the hammer manually. Derringer - A generic term applied to variations of small one, two or even four shot pistols using both percussion caps and cartridges. Single shot pistol - Firearms holding one round of ammo and must be reloaded after each shot Auto loading rifle - Self loading rifle that fires a single round each time the trigger is pulled.