Firearms for Formulators of Fiction—Revolvers

This week we’re going to try something a bit different.  Yes, it’s handgun week, and during this time we’re going to discuss a device that is frequently used in storytelling, yet which far too few novelists understand well enough to make believable.

First, there are 10 kinds of people in this world:  Those who understand binary, and those who do not.

As for novelists, the vast majority of them fall into one of two categories:  Those who’ve used handguns in their stories, and those who will use handguns in their stories.  The problem is that too many novelists are functionally illiterate when it comes to handguns.  You don’t want to be one of those.  If you’re going to use a handgun in your story, make it believable.

And, just as most novelists fall into two categories, so too do most modern handguns:  Revolvers and semiautomatics.  The revolver still has a following, but it’s rapidly losing popularity to the more versatile, higher capacity, easier to reload semiautomatic.

The modern revolver is a descendent of the six shooter from the old West—a gun that held six bullets in a cylinder that rotated as the hammer was thumbed back into firing position, thus bringing the next unfired cartridge into firing position.

And, continuing in today’s number theme, there are two basic categories for revolvers:  Single-action, and double-action.

With a single-action revolver (again using the wild West six shooter as an example), the hammer must be thumbed back into firing position, where it locks into place until the trigger is pulled.  When the trigger is pulled, the hammer snaps forward under spring pressure.  The firing pin contacts the primer (a small explosive charge used to set off the much larger charge that propels the bullet), and if all goes well, the bullet leaves the barrel of the gun on its way toward dispatching either a victim or a bad guy from your story.

Most double-action revolvers can act in one of two ways:  The hammer can be thumbed back into position, converting the revolver into a traditional single-action weapon; or, the trigger can be pulled back and the internal mechanisms of the double-action revolver will cause the hammer to move back until the trigger trips the release (seer) and the hammer falls under spring pressure onto the cartridge primer.  The advantage to a double-action revolver is that it eliminates the need to manually thumb the hammer back into firing position before discharging the weapon.  That’s fine for close range, but there’s a problem that affects the shooter’s accuracy beyond just a few yards.  This downside to double-action is that the trigger is very, very stiff.  That’s a consequence of the trigger having to overcome the tension of the hammer spring to bring the hammer back into firing position.  But, as previously noted, most handguns of this type can revert to single-action mode, thus nullifying this disadvantage.

Be aware that some double-action revolvers cannot be placed into single-action mode, but these are the exception, and most of these have internal hammers that cannot be thumbed back anyway.  These “double-action only (DAO)” revolvers are made for close-up self-defense.

There are three basic mistakes gun novices use when writing novels containing revolvers:

• First, don’t have your character carry a revolver with the hammer cocked.  It’s dangerous, dumb, and may very well result in your character accidently blowing a hole in his foot or, worse, some other part of his body.  If your male character carries his “cocked” revolver tucked into the front of his pants, you’d better be doing a story involving sex change, because if that hammer trips, the gun won’t be the only thing that is suddenly decocked, if you catch my drift.
• Second, don’t have your character disengaging the “safety” on the revolver after drawing it, or engaging the “safety” prior to holstering it.  This gives readers in the know one of those rolling-of-the-eyes moments that every author should strive to avoid.  Yes, there are revolvers that were made with safeties (some Webley revolvers come to mind), but again, these are the exception.
• And, finally, do not have your character put a suppressor (silencer for the uninformed—suppressors don’t “silence” anything; they merely suppress the noise but do not eliminate it) on his revolver.  The barrel is not where most of the sound comes from on a revolver; it comes from the gap between the cylinder and the frame/barrel.  As such, a suppressor just won’t do much more than look stupid.  How many times have you seen Hollywood make this mistake? And it’s really aggravating when they do.   Again, there are exceptions, but revolvers designed to take suppressors are a very rare and specialized breed.

Next Up:  Firearms for Formulators of Fiction—Semiautomatics Part 1