Understanding Double/Single Action Handguns

Let's take a look at a double-action, single-action, semi-automatic defensive handgun and understand exactly how they work. Now, this is a mid twentieth century technology. This is a modern gun by all reports, this is one that someone's gonna look at and say, okay, this is a contemporary firearm. A lot of military's, in fact, the United States military uses this type of firearm. It's a firearm that's known for its reliability, it's known for its accuracy, it's known for its ability to perform under a variety of adverse conditions. But of course, like any other type of firearm, whether it's striker fired, single-action, revolvers, there are going to be good and bad examples within brands, within models, obviously some of them are going to be designed to fit different hands, different people. But, let's look at some of the general characteristics of the double-action, single-action firearm and then you can decide if it seems like the appropriate choice for you in terms of personal defense or home defense. Now, the first thing that we're gonna see with most of your double-action, single-action firearms is it's going to have an exposed hammer. Alright, double-action, single-action firearms are going to be hammer fired guns, which means that the hammer is actually going to move back and forth when you're in the double-action mode. Now right now this firearm is completely empty. Dry, there's no magazine, there's no round in the chamber. I'd show that to anyone else that were here in the environment if wee wanted to go ahead and dry fire it. And what I wanna show you here is the hammer is now cocked. The hammer is in single-action mode. The trigger is also back very close to the frame. When I decock the gun, and you'll see this lever move, because this firearm happens to have an ambidextrous decocker, so there's a lever on both sides of the firearm. When I push it with my strong side thumb, which is the digit you should use to actuate any of your decockers on a double-action, single-action firearm. When I press down you'll see this lever move and you'll see that the hammer falls and the trigger springs back away from the frame. Now, the firearm would not have gone off, even though the hammer did go forward, the firearm would not have gone off because I used the decocking lever. I did not pull the trigger to lower the hammer. That's not a practice that you wanna get into. Now, some guns are designed in a double-action, single-action mode without a decocker. I strongly suggest that you avoid those types of firearms in your collection, and certainly you don't want to have one of those types of firearms for personal defense. With those types of firearms you actually have to guide the hammer down with a trigger press so that it softly falls and won't strike the firing pin and set off the round that's inside the chamber. Now, you could of course clear the gun, empty it and lower that hammer and then you'd be in a much safer condition, but it's still a very cumbersome way to operate the firearm. So whenever you look at double-action, single-action guns I strongly advise that you only consider ones that actually have decocking levers, which you can use to quickly and efficiently get that hammer back into the double-action mode, but remember, that doesn't mean the safety is on. So let's take a look at what happens when we fire the gun in double-action mode. And again, this firearm is still empty, I'm gonna touch the trigger, which is at it's foremost position, forward travel position. I'm gonna pull back, you're gonna see the hammer move back and then at some point it's gonna come forward. When it comes forward that's when the gun would fire. The internals would reset, the hammer would stay back and now as you can see the trigger is that close to to frame again and I have a much shorter, crisper trigger press to fire that follow up shot. And all follow up shots will again be in single-action mode, until I decide to stop shooting, at which point I'll take my finger off the trigger and I'll use my strong side thumb to press down on the decocking lever and that will send that hammer forward safely and reset the gun back into a double-action mode. Now, these are the basic fundamentals of a double-action, single-action firearm. When it comes to operating one in a defensive context what we're gonna be looking at is carrying the firearm with no safety engaged, but with the gun in double-action mode. It's gonna be in a holster, and now if I do have a situation where I need to use the firearm I'll present, I'll touch the trigger and then I will go through that long, heavy double-action trigger pull to set the first round off, the gun will cycle and all subsequent rounds will be shot in single-action mode. At the end of my string of fire when the threat has been taken care of I'm gonna pull the firearm back into my ready position and as I do I want to decock the firearm. The principle here is that anytime the firearm is in the ready position we want it to be in the same condition it's in when it's in the holster. So we go from the holster, we drive out and shoot, as we come back in we decock so that the firearm is in double-action mode just like it would be if it would be if it were in the holster. Now, if this gun had a safety, if it were a single-action gun with a manual safety lever that principle would still hold true. Safety is on in the holster, we drive out, safety off and shoot, come back in and we put the safety back on. So the principle works across all types of firearms. This way I have a consistent first shot every time I present the firearm, whether it's from the ready position, or from the holster I'm gonna be pulling through that long, heavy double-action trigger pull. Now another thing that you're gonna notice about your double-action, single-action firearms is that the bore axis, where the bore is relative to your hand is actually relatively high, and that of course is to accommodate this hammer. Whether it's an internal hammer or an external hammer you're still gonna see that trait inside of all of your double-action, single-action firearms that are designed this way. The double-action, single-action firearm can be very efficient to get into a fight, but you do have to deal with that long, heavy double-action trigger pull. After you've pulled that trigger you now have to decock the gun, bring it back into the ready position or continue to shoot with the single-action trigger pull. That essentially means there's two different trigger presses you have to learn with the double-action, single-action firearm. It's a relatively complicated process. Understanding these guns, using them safely is something that anyone can learn to do, but when you decide to choose your firearm for personal defense you might wanna look for something that's a little more efficient. Let's take a look and see what happens now as we go through the same manual of arms, but now we're gonna actually load the gun. I've got my ear protection and eye protection on. I'm gonna load the firearm and at this point whenever we're doing defensive orientated training we wanna after loading the gun, decock it, because there's no point in getting our string of fire started with a single-action trigger press. Remember, we're in the ready position so the gun should be decocked and in the double-action position. So from here I'm simply gonna drive out and fire that first double-action shot. At that point I'm in single-action mode and I fire a single-action follow up shot. Bring the gun back in and decock. I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna drive out, I'm gonna fire two shots. The first one will be double-action, the next one will be single-action. And decock. Now there's a dramatic difference between that first shot and the second shot. And what that really means is I've got to take more time, effort and energy to control the trigger press on that first shot. So this time I'm gonna slow it down and then I'm gonna take two or three rapid shots afterwards in the single-action mode. Now that's a bit of an exaggeration, obviously. You could fire that first shot faster, but by firing that first shot faster you're going to induce more deviation into the firearm because of that double-action trigger press. Now simply to unload the gun, I'm gonna run this slide a few times, I'm gonna look inside, I'm gonna push up on the slide lock level, which is up here in front of the decocker is where you're gonna find that on almost every design with a double-action, single-action firearm. The gun is now unloaded and I can go ahead and put it away or clean it, or go ahead and reload my magazines and get ready for my next training drill. Double-action, single-action firearms are an option when it comes to personal defense, but make sure you understand the operation and you are operating the gun properly if you choose to own one.