I know nothing about firearms.  Can anyone tell me what's the difference between a single action and a double action?  What are the advantages and disadvantages? A friend of mine said that the old pistols were made better than the ones made today.  Is that true?  

ah ha - yes I can (probably)

Single action is one where you cock the hammer by hand and release it with the trigger and double action is where the trigger action both cocks and releases the hammer (or vice versa - I'm never certain which way round it goes)


Quote:

A friend of mine said that the old pistols were made better than the ones made today.  Is that true?

Depends who made it - like everything else. Our mass production is better but their custom made jobs would have been just as good. But like most things it's down to the cost and the maker :-)

One of the most reliable guns ever made is a 1911 design automatic. Still in production and use today.
It's generally down to design for gun reliability.

Nowadays products qualities had degraded though.

LKH9 wrote on Jan 17^th, 2008 at 11:54am:

Nowadays products qualities had degraded though.

Only for what they are, (what I mean is: we have more powerful weapons, but they tend to be made less elaborately and brake faster.)

curious_ardvaark has it essentially correct.     The single-action revolver must be manually cocked for each shot.  Sam Colt's original cap-and-ball revolver, and the subsequent designs including the famous "peacemaker" (Colt Single-Action Army model) were all single action weapons.

Double-action revolvers can be fired by manually cocking the hammer, or by pulling the trigger which raises the hammer and then drops it.

In single-action mode, you get a light, short trigger pull.  The double-action pull is rather long and heavy.

Many think that the double-action is the more "modern" design and didn't come along till much later, but they have been around for a long time.  Billy The Kid favored the Colt "Lightning" model, as I recall.

With the popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting, there is a revival of interest in the single-action, and many fine weapons are being made that follow the old Colt design.

...ugg, city people... OK... a single action revolver is a revolver that the gun does a single action, which is realsing the hammer you cock, a double action revolver does two things, cock the hammer back, and immeadietly realese it.  A single action revolver is a good cop gun because it gives the cops the second thought, not just the pull of the trigger. C_A, when you mentioned the 1911 I thought  *OMG, this is a sumject on the old west not WWII age pistols*.  I would perfer a double action to a single action for target, but if I were a cop, I would want a single action. for that second thought.

JTK wrote on Feb 21^st, 2008 at 9:43pm:

1911 ... WWII ...

:P

Although the M1911 "45 Auto" was adopted in 1911, I don't believe it saw widespread use by the military until WWII.  

At the start of the war, in fact, there was a shortage of these weapons, and the military contracted with both Colt and Smith & Wesson to produce their large-frame revolvers in .45 ACP.  
The .45 ACP (automatic Colt pistol) round is rimless, so it was necessary to incorporate the "half-moon clip" to hold the ammunition so that empties could be ejected properly:  

http://www.oneclickshooting.com/prodimages/26086.jpg" name="post_img_resize_1" alt="" border="0" id="imagecount1" style="display:none" />http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:EuWIpaKh497aPM:http://www.oneclickshooting.com/prodimages/26086.jpg

ugg... again... I wish people wuold read my age before they replie to me, mordichiaj, im 11. not a WW historian

JTK wrote on Feb 24^th, 2008 at 1:13pm:

ugg... again... I wish people wuold read my age before they replie to me, mordichiaj, im 11. not a WW historian

                                                                                                                              That's ok, we will teach you. ::)

How about the Webley revolver in .455. That predates the Colt 1911 but still has tremendous stopping power. Almost like shooting something with a shotgun slug.

bigkahuna wrote on Feb 24^th, 2008 at 8:39pm:

How about the Webley revolver in .455. That predates the Colt 1911 but still has tremendous stopping power. Almost like shooting something with a shotgun slug.

Is that one of those monstrosities that British officers used to carry? They may have been good but they must be the ugliest handguns ever made.

That's the one. Also probably one of the most rugged, strongly made revolvers ever.

For those not familiar:

http://www.firstaif.info/42/images-42/webley_mk6.jpg

These weapons are indeed clunky and rather unattractive, but they have a certain charm...   An intimidating looking thing, eh?   The .455 Webley cartridge had very modest ballistics, a 250- grain projectile at a mere 600 fps or so.  Still, it had an excellent reputation as a "manstopper".

When I was in Germany back in the 60s, we could buy these weapons for about 35.00.  They were WWII issue and had been coverted to .45 ACP, using the half-moon clips just like the Colt and S&W models.
The .45 bullet was slightly undersized for the bore, and thus accuracy was not the best, unless you handloaded properly-sized cast bullets.

jtk - we know you're a kid - so when someone tries to tell you something, education wise - try not to winge too much, attempt instead to learn - like the rest of us :-)
No knowlege is entorely useless (actually that's not entirely true. I can't think of a single instance where pythagoras theorem has even been of any use to me lol)

If is was a cop I'd prefer something along the lines of a shotgun - much bigger intimidation factor, and you're much more likely to hit something than you are with a pistol :-)

Mind you if I was an english cop I'd pretty much only be shooting unarmed kids on the ground anyway.

The pythagorean theorum is actually quite helpful, at least it has been for me. Anytime you're building a structure with a pitched roof, it helps to know at least the basics of trigonometry.

Thanks for the great picture Bikewer!!