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How should I carry a revolver - which empty chamber question?

7K views 22 replies 14 participants last post by  troutwest66 
#1 ·
I'm new to revolver carry. I'm using an outside the waste holster that coverz the trigger in an double action revolver but does not cover the hammer (S&W 686).

When carrying in public, should I leave (1) an empty chamber over the closed hammer, or (2) an empty chamber in the next chamber to be fired when the trigger is pulled in the double action mode?
 
#3 ·
Two new gunz here - S&W 686, S&W 66.

My wife's father was a NYC cop. One day he dropped the service revolver while in the house and it fired into the leg of the wife. This story gets repeated at family gatherings often. Apparently, the police department was not happy also.
 
#5 ·
Unless you are quite old, your father-in-law can't be more than, maybe, 70. If he's 70 or less, his service revolver, in the NYPD, would have been quite safe if dropped.

Therefore, either your in-laws are spinning a yarn, or he had a broken gun long before it was dropped.

Neither the 66 nor the 686 can fire from being dropped. Physically impossible. Even if you cocked it, and dropped it, and the hammer fell off full-cock, the internal hammer-block mechanism would prevent firing, unless the trigger is held all the way to the rear.

But - IF you were carrying a revolver that COULD fire from being dropped, you would carry the chamber under the hammer empty. Carrying it with the "next up" empty would require the hammer to be cocked, which would rotate "next up" into "firing position". Ain't no way to "accidentally" do that.
 
#6 ·
Alpo nailed it. Modern revolvers have a safety transfer bar, or a hammer block, so that the gun can not be fired by dropping it, or striking the hammer.
 
#7 ·
thanks, all.

....my father in-law would be in his mid-90s today. My wife has the NY Times article clipping of the accidental shooting, so I don't doubt this happened. The article says the policeman dropped the gun in his house while he was cleaning it. ....that part is hard to believe, however.

So, I'm good to go with all chambers loaded.....
 
#8 ·
I am a big advocate of safety. If the family is swearing to this story, then maybe having a good gun smith look it over won't hurt, and may save a life if the gun is broken. They claim the story is true, so I would definitely get it looked at. Then everyone will know. An AD while cleaning a pistol might just look like it was dropped, even though the pistol was fired before it hit the floor!
 
#11 ·
Superman!:D
 
#13 ·
I am not a fan of carrying any gun empty in any sense. All guns should be fully loaded and ready to roll. If there is any question about the gun you are carrying not being safe, dont carry it. Get something your comfortable with.
 
#14 ·
One less round, is one less round in favor of the BG. Nobody, IMO, including those who use a weapon at work, are going to enter into a life or death situation in a calm-cool-collected manner. Everybody, again IMO, will freak to some extent. Ever been shot at? How do you think you will react if the BG fires first and misses?

Believe the TV stuff that shows folks falling dead after being shot once? It don't happen. Humans are hard to kill. The will to live in the BG is as strong as yours.

Load it to the max and pray you never have to use it.
 
#16 ·
One less round, is one less round in favor of the BG. Nobody, IMO, including those who use a weapon at work, are going to enter into a life or death situation in a calm-cool-collected manner. Everybody, again IMO, will freak to some extent. Ever been shot at? How do you think you will react if the BG fires first and misses?

Believe the TV stuff that shows folks falling dead after being shot once? It don't happen. Humans are hard to kill. The will to live in the BG is as strong as yours.

Load it to the max and pray you never have to use it.
"How do you think you will react if the BG fires first and misses?"

How do you think you will react if the BG fires first, and doesn't miss? Remember the BG has his gun in his hand. Yours is in your holster, under a shirt, or jacket!
 
#19 ·
I carry a semi-auto on duty but prefer a revolver for off-duty carry.

Not trying to say anything negative to you (or about you), but you say you are new to revolver carry. It sounds like you might be new to revolvers in all aspects?

Nothing (even a knife) should become a "carry" weapon until you know it (its manual of arms) and are capable of safe operation of it basically with your eyes closed and under duress. Maybe many hours at the range getting used to a revolver and building muscle memory is in order before you "carry" it. It is all about safety!

Even after nearly fifty years of shooting, any gun that is new to me in such a way as it operates differently than what I am used to must first be learned until it is "muscle memory" before I carry it. On a new gun if you are still at the point where you have to think through the operation procedures, it is not ready to be your carry gun. That is not to say it is a bad carry gun, just learn it first.
Example; If I had never touched a 1911 style pistol and someone handed me one and said carry that today, that would be a bad idea and a dangerous one because I would not know how to operate it safely. I would need to learn the gun and all its controls and ingrain the operation of the weapon into muscle memory. This would be true for that weapon even if I had been carrying another type of handgun safely for my whole life.
In the eighties when I went through the police academy we had many hours/days of weapons training. Before we even fired the first round (and we fired 2500 rounds before firearms training was over) we spent two weeks with empty guns learning to draw, dry-fire, and reholster safely until our hands were raw. I will testify that a S&W revolver can be dry fired thousands of times with no damage to the gun. Utube has many videos about transfer bar safeties and how revolvers work that explains why no cylinder hole needs to be left empty on modern revolvers Also many good videos on why an old single action revolver must be carried without a round under the hammer because dropping one of those can cause a discharge.

Good luck, Get trained, Go armed
 
#20 ·
Like Twobit said only single action revolvers like Colts and their copies or old Ruger Blackhawk three screws need to have an empty chamber under the hammer because there is no mechanism to stop the hammer from driving the firing pin into the primer if dropped. Any modern revolver like the Smiths are no worry fully loaded. You're good to go. Carry a couple of speed loaders for reloads and practice with some dummy rounds/snap caps. Double action revolvers have to be about the safest handguns to use and carry.
 
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