"You can call them obsolete if you like, but mastering the double action revolver imparts more benefits than many shooters realize. Chris shares some of the ways working with revolvers has made him a better shooter in general."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZaxay1eXks

I agree: That long DA trigger pull is very instructive.

And its a shame that DAK Sigs are considered passé .

I love both my DA Revolvers AND my DAK SIGs.

I LOVE revolvers and I'm not particularly that age demographic and yes a good double action revolver will teach you a lot about shooting everything.

You're preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned. I enjoy shooting my revolvers more than any other handguns, and shoot primarily DA. That's also why I gravitated to DA/SA semi's versus striker-fired models.

Jerry

Mastering double action revolver makes everything else easy.

Plus you don't have to pick up your brass.

It’s funny you posted this. I took out a new Ruger LCR in 22mag yesterday for a test fire. This particular gun has a very heavy DAO trigger, but hits were very easy. This is 4 cylinders from 5,7,10,and 15yds. I only dropped two out of the bull. I don’t shot most of my semi autos this well.

The P250 is the best of both worlds.

quote:

"[B]ut mastering the double action revolver imparts more benefits than many shooters realize."

I preached that for decades about DAO and DAK SIGs. I once conducted an experiment with my agency’s shooters when DA/SA P220s were the mandated handgun. I had them fire a number of shots at speed in the double action mode only and then single action and guess which results were better? Ah, you guessed: Yes, the DA shots.

I also issued DAK pistols to a number of inexperienced shooters who struggled to get better with the DA/SA guns and they did better with the double action only as well. My personal pistols intended for defensive purposes were DAO or DAK for many years, and before that I had discovered that I did better shooting double action only rather than mixing in single action during qualifications with my Army-issued S&W model 10 revolver.

But no, I’m not suggesting we go back to DA/SA or even DAK/DAO pistols rather than our P320s, but I learned a lot about double action shooting in those days.

If it was impossible to convince many shooters that mastering the double action mode of a DA/SA SIG was worth the effort or that the DAK trigger wasn’t something to just hate and dismiss back before the explosion of Glock-like guns, how much more unlikely would it be today? Jeff Cooper reportedly suggested just “throwing away” the first shot with a DA/SA pistol, and one of SIG’s heads of training routinely thumb-cocked his P226 for first shots when demonstrating techniques in the classes he taught later after leaving the company.

At this point when any exposure at all to revolver-like double action triggers is a thing of the past except for us odd few, videos/articles like that are unlikely have any significant effect and are more of the “I’ve got to think of something to say” sort than anything—IMO, of course.

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. I had them fire a number of shots at speed in the double action mode only and then single action and guess which results were better? Ah, you guessed: Yes, the DA shots.

Funny you should say this. I have probably screwed up far more SA shots then DA. Could be because I ALWAYS start a magazine from the DA position and when I shoot revolvers I shoot them DA 98% of the time so I might be “wired” for DA.

I shot a Ruger GP100 for a couple of years in IDPA. Had a blast and it was easy to win my class since there were few revolver shooters.

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Originally posted by hberttmank:
I shot a Ruger GP100 for a couple of years in IDPA. Had a blast and it was easy to win my class since there were few revolver shooters.

Me too! Until they changed the rules a few years ago I enjoyed IDPA with a revolver. I'd either use my 3" GP 100 or my 4" 625 Mountain Gun.

Mastering the trigger on my m1895 Nagant made me a much better overall shooter than I had realized.

Between the 20lbs trigger, the crappy sights, and the weak round, it made me so aware of how every part of the trigger pull is critical to the firing process.

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Mastering the trigger on my m1895 Nagant made me a much better overall shooter than I had realized.

So are you a masochist in all things in life or did you just want to train to shoot Stanley staple guns accurately and at distance.

Both the 1895 and the HK VP70 are on my list of really cool guns that were designed for Quagmire in the Family Guy Episode “Family Goy”.

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Originally posted by cslinger:

quote:

Mastering the trigger on my m1895 Nagant made me a much better overall shooter than I had realized.

So are you a masochist in all things in life or did you just want to train to shoot Stanley staple guns accurately and at distance.

Yeah, I picked it up for free with points back in the day, for a gimmick if nothing else, but after seeing people REALLY struggle with it, I made some snap caps and tortured myself for a bit.
Then I saw improvement with my other guns, and really began to pay attention.

Its a running joke at my range that in order to knock me out of a revolver match, we have to swap guns for a round... I've been called a sadist for that!

quote:

Originally posted by usncorpsman:
It’s funny you posted this. I took out a new Ruger LCR in 22mag yesterday for a test fire.

Heavy DA trigger notwithstanding, I have an LCR in .22LR that I can repeatedly dump all 8 rounds in about 2 seconds center of mass at 10'. The LCR is a fun little blaster, and cheap to feed.

quote:

Originally posted by hberttmank:
I shot a Ruger GP100 for a couple of years in IDPA. Had a blast and it was easy to win my class since there were few revolver shooters.

Yep, me too. I used to win with my M13 3" . Looked like a snub in my largish hands

One of my shooting mentors has preached this for years. In fact, he's been known to bring a DA revolver to the range and make problem shooters use it for a while, and then transition back to their duty guns...and has seen quite a bit of success with this method.

One thing that I've learned, and it's still hard to force myself to practice consistently, is that I get better results if I don't stage the trigger...one smooth pull all the way through. If you can master that, the break will really surprise you, and it will eliminate jerking...which is something that I often catch myself doing with a short SA pull, since I know right when it's going to break.

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Originally posted by 92fstech:
I get better results if I don't stage the trigger ....

We don’t hear much about “staging” the trigger these days, and probably because we don’t hear much about shooting double action revolvers. I hadn’t thought about it in some time. Back when I consciously attempted to do it, it was supposedly easier with S&W revolvers. Much later I learned more about shooting DA revolvers and just stopped the practice. I, however, gave up on striving for the “surprise break” long ago. I won’t claim it has no value in certain disciplines with certain guns, but not for the type of shooting I usually do. Most of the time I want to know as precisely as possible when the gun will fire.

There may be more to it than just the surprise break, although I have found that it helps me. It seems that a long consistent pull lends itself to clean follow-through. It forces the shooter to maintain consistency throughout the full length of travel in order to achieve a steady sight picture the entire time, which just naturally flows right through the break of the shot. A good DA trigger has no real perceptible wall before the break, so the force is consistent throughout.

A short SA or striker trigger, even one without take-up, doesn't provide that consistent travel up to the break...it requires an buildup in force from a set location, and once that force is enough to overcome the resistance, the trigger breaks. There's less consistency throughout, and I also find that Im far more likely to anticipate the break of an SA pull than I am a DA.

Nothing scientific here...just kinda rambling and thinking out loud. This is a good thread...it's making me consider a few things that I hadn't really sat down and thought through before.

An old FBI double action training film.