Clips: Another Colt Single Action Army Safety Mechanism.

[@funkla65]

A cool little mechanism, but I'm not sure how repairable it would be in a frontier shop. I think reliable function was of higher concern than safety back then. And when dealing with an actual threat, reliability IS a safety factor.

[@snappers_antique_firearms]

Hi as a colt collector and engineer. I wanted to test In CAD the strength of the safety notch. In doing so, I found some very interesting data. In my experiences the CAD data is extremely close to real life tests. In my test I used a weak form of steal so that the numbers are conservative. because of the alignment of the trigger to hammer. It takes 900- 1000 foot pounds for a failure. The failure was the trigger pin. Not the safety notch. I also found that if you pull the trigger while it is captured in the safety notch. It does not take much pressure to break the notch on the hammer. It's hard but doable. Remember these are conservative numbers. most SAAs will be stronger then this. The bounce problem you talked about in your last video. I'm guessing, but I don't think this was a problem on original colts. Because how heavy the hammer spring is. But I might be wrong. All This brought me down a rabbit hole. Going threw all the stories like during the government trials. The safety notch broke. So they recommended carry 5 not 6. This is not in the trials at all for what I can find. It list a half notch failure. But it says there was a clear and obvious Manufacturing defect on the hammer. The other story of the man putting a saddle on a horse. The stirrup hit the hammer and broke the safety notch... That's not what happened. The man had his hammer resting on a primer. If you have any information contradicting this please let me know. I have no problem being wrong. I thought you might find this info interesting. Thanks

[@Lomi311]

Finally getting close to the 1911 episode and now he keeps teasing our interest in another famous Colt.

[@user60521123]

So this is another mechanism that prevents a loose hammer from setting off a round if the trigger isn’t releasing it, like was publicly claimed by a certain celebrity.

[@classifiedad1]

Never underestimate the effect of poor firearm maintenance on negating the safety features of a firearm. Given that the investigation found that the set armorers sucked at their jobs and mixed live ammo with blanks and that camera crews were leaving due to unsafe conditions, who knows what other fuckery went down before that fateful day. Said celebrity does however bear some responsibility not because he held the gun and didn't treat the gun as a gun rather than as a prop (which it was), but as a producer which likely was involved in selecting the subpar armorer who got her job through nepotism. Guns for film are handled differently because of the peculiarities of film production which most who have criticized the celebrity for are thoroughly unfamiliar with.

[@jonathan_60503]

Fiddly, but a cool little system

[@RyTrapp0]

Hey Othais - to better help with these demonstrations, why not get a small piece of wood and, when you're going to demo a few parts like this, drive a few nails in to serve as pivot pins for the demo parts. Cheap, quick, easy, and would allow you to better illustrate the action of a mechanism without trying to hold the parts in the correct position by hand while fighting spring loading and such. And, cool mechanism, interesting design!

[@124thDragoon]

The aspect ratio of the hole that they needed to drill down the length of the hammer (if I’m imagining this correctly) really makes me respect the machining skills from that period even more.

[@seymoarsalvage]

This is a modern design made for reproductions.

[@charlesashworth6805]

I'm sure colt would have thought it was unnecessary given the manner in which handguns were handled at that time

[@paulmanson253]

The phrase was,5 beans in the wheel. Simple.

[@classifiedad1]

The designers at Colt believed that the half-cock position would be an adequate mechanical safety mechanism. That the phrase "going off half-cocked" is a phrase which dates back to the flintlock days was clearly not a consideration.

[@bunkstagner298]

the best safety on ANY gun is found between the ears of the person holding the firearm.

[@RVM451]

Friend, I distinctly remember seeing a pair of Colt Single Action 22LR's-forget what they called them-back in the Early '80's. You had to open the Loading Gate; put the Revolver on Half-Cock and push in a Hidden Hammer Block-hidden by the Loading Gate. It was a Push-Button Affair. When you Cocked the Revolver, the Spring-Loaded Cross-Bolt Hammer Block retracted automatically. Everyone at the gunstore who saw them believed that was why Colt halted production on the New Frontier-to introduce these shortly. Nothing ever came of it. No one seems to have heard of this very low-production item-Have You!?!

[@malgremor85]

I hope you get around to reviewing the Pieper revolving carbine sometime. It was a WWI era firearm, but only used by Mexico, as far as I know.

[@oolooo]

The only problem with the SAA is that it is not drop-safe with all 6 rounds .Any design made to fix that is very welcome .

[@Kar-wm5on]

Well, the Ruger Blackhawk is probably the closest thing then, no ?

[@ScottKenny1978]

@@Kar-wm5on Pietta hammer with the floating firing pin?

[@lawrencehudson9939]

This method makes me ask--Does this increase the amount of trigger force to release the hammer all other things being equal?

[@funkla65]

I suspect the plunger isn't actuated until after the sear breaks and the hammer is falling. If there is any practical effect, it is probably a loss of some of the stored energy in the hammer as it falls.

[@AM-hf9kk]

The original trigger "dingus?"

[@funkla65]

Hammer Dingus.

[@mencken8]

I just had my original Ruger single action updated to their newer transfer bar system (Ruger does this at no cost for the conversion.) Is it safer? Yes, technically, but the danger can start when nimrods and cheechakos start thinking of a gun as “safe.” No such thing.

[@Marin3r101]

Guns are perfectly safe. The user is the problem.

[@kirkmooneyham]

The point of the Ruger transfer bar system is to allow for the safe carry of six rounds in the chamber (inc. one under the hammer) vs only the five rounds in the chamber (empty chamber under the hammer) of the traditional Single-Action Army style mechanism.

[@RyTrapp0]

Pretty cool that Ruger offers that at no charge. I still don't understand why they have a bit of a "lesser" reputation compared to some of the other traditional brands, they really seem to be a rather great company that's always putting out solid product for the money.

[@mencken8]

@@RyTrapp0 Back when I bought my first Ruger (1960’s), they didn’t have quite the fit & finish of some of the “old line” gun manufacturers, and that may have been where that started. Time has pretty much erased those differences. Colt has gone extinct, and a glance at the current products of S&W show some of the same production methods pioneered by Ruger, as well as a lower level of fit and finish in their current products.

[@covefarmdude]

I absolutely would *not* have converted it... But it makes sense from a practicality standpoint.

[@moebeddah2288]

I recently got a Uberti 1873 replica from Taylor that has this firing pin safety.. KZbin is filled with people disappointed that this mod takes away the traditional four click, C-O-L-T cocking procedure. With this, there is only three. Another Italian company, Pieta, mades a similar 1873 replica that conforms to Colt's original 'four click' design. I'm not sure if they have instituted some sort of safety, but I know the older Pietas were in demand with the purists. As far as the 'Rust' tragedy, I recall reading that the firearm was a 13 yr old Pieta, so it would have the fixed firing pin and could ignite the primer buy just releasing the hammer. Although, this would be a very short stroke, and would have to be tested to see if enough force is exerted to fire the round. As far as my Uberti, there's no problem with the floating pin and the normal operation of the firearm. A crisp 2lb pull will do the job.

[@HircineDaWolf]

I believe they must have safeties for import reasons. But on Piettas I am almost certain the first cock is sufficient. On Uberti open tops that only have 3 clicks the safety is in the form of a screw that can be turned with a small screwdriver to make the hammer unable to contact a primer.

[@buneman6944]

I actually have Taylor 1873 SAA with this safety but I removed it with replacement fixed hammer firing pin. The reason? I've noticed when walking around full loaded with 6 shots in the cylinder the firing pin would actually DENT the primers.. Even in a holster that covers the trigger guard/trigger... No good for me since now I have this worry if a strong enough force would actually make it go off (Of course, this is very unlikely but the dents of my primers made me uneasy.) So I decided if I'm going to carry only 5 rounds I rather just replace the "Safety" hammer with a standard hammer. One plus side is the standard hammer has a crisper and lighter trigger pull compared to the safety one. And if you don't hold down the trigger completely when firing it might not even fire from my experience (If you quick draw constantly you'll have it happen since most guys just lightly tap the trigger most of the time. Which is fine with the fixed firing pin but not 100% reliable with the retractable firing pin.) Good to see all these different safeties for sure

[@henrysara7716]

Thy nice overlook

[@paulbingville6485]

Both those mechanical hammer block safeties seem to just modern, complex solutions to a problem most easily solved by loading only 5 rounds and carrying the gun with the empty chamber under the hammer.

[@johnsmith-sp6yl]

if you pull the trigger with the hammer down could it touch off a primer?

[@RabidMortal1]

I would still like to hear some thoughts on how the 1873's first "click" is not considered to be a manually rebound hammer...or maybe it is? Either way it seems that convention was to keep an empty chamber under the hammer, whereas for DA European guns with a manual rebound hammer, it seems expected to load ALL the chambers. Very confusing to me.

[@ionstorm66]

A manually rebounding hammer is just half cock. Rebounding hammer is just one that goes to halfcock automatic when reloading. Common on break action guns, so that if you slam them closed they don't accidentally fire. Older primers could be very sensitive, and the firing pin bouncing off the rim/case then hitting the primer could set the round off.

[@antpassalacqua]

i don’t think that was actually convention at the time

[@mikeblair2594]

@@ionstorm66 Mr. Hunter, have you gone into the guts of a Smith and Wesson model 10? The automatic rebound is certainly not just a half cock notch. A half cock notch will shear with ease, while the rebound makes it impossible for the hammer to go forward. If it were just a half cock notch then it would be useless and therefore would not be used as adding one to an already complicated system would just cost more money.

[@GunsmithSid]

Unrelated to your SAA presentation, but I have a Llama Super Commando 44 that has a unique system where the whole hammer cams down and misses the firing pin unless the trigger is held back. I could loan it to y’all or give you better pictures to help explain.

[@oatshmealp2861]

That's something worth seeing

[@GunsmithSid]

@@oatshmealp2861 It is really cool. Maybe more in line with Forgotten Weapons content than C&Rsenal due to the time period. I’m not really interested in creating content as I work on guns 10 hours every day and I need my spare time to shoot them :)

[@mikeblair2594]

@@GunsmithSid Yeah, I build custom flintlock and percussion firearms and I don't get enough time to go shooting. Its a shame

[@GRMGR1]

Those safety mechanisms show impressive engineering but I doubt Sam would’ve approved. Load it properly with the hammer down on an empty chamber and there’s no way to set it off by dropping it. The danger is certainly there if you drop it with the hammer cocked. I’d bet Mr Colt would probably just tell you to handle your gun properly and not drop it. I think Mr Colt would be surprised that we now feel the need to add the modern changes. I’d also be willing to bet there would be a lot of other things he wouldn’t understand about modern life.

[@isigch]

Is there a similar system for the old model Ruger Single Six? I can't send mine to Ruger to make the modification.

[@NomadShadow1]

Cool

[@josephalexander3884]

Who designed and produced this? I’m curious.

[@laughingdog6010]

Is that a third gen Colt?

[@dr.ryttmastarecctm6595]

Hmm, while this second example is interesting, I also think it's too complex. I don't own any incarnation of the SAA.¹ Does it allow lowering the hammer between chambered rounds? __________ 1) Please don't yell at me, I do own wheel guns.

[@72polara]

The SAA does not allow for the hammer to sit between chambers. Some other designs of single actions do. The Ruger Old Army and NAA mini revolvers come to mind.

[@coltonregal1797]

You can rest the firing pin between the rims of the cartridges, just like the safety pins on colt percussion revolvers, but there's no bolt notch to keep the cylinder from being spun back by your holster, pantleg, etc.

[@mikeblair2594]

No, but I've never understood why. To my knowledge, Sam colt was the invented of of the notch between cylinders. Maybe he was afraid of shearing firing pins, because to make this work the nose pin would have to go into a hole.

[@RubberduckWVU]

"Nice and deep ... good and rigid" othias can be so easily taken out of context sometimes 😬

[@WalterBurton]

👍👍👍

[@thomaslawrence2210]

What is a factoid?

[@jg8263]

But, is it Baldwin proof?

[@ScottKenny1978]

Ain't no such thing.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Is this any simpler than the transfer bar safety? 🤔

[@Coopaloop-gg3kw]

Uberti I believe

[@bobclifton8021]

The old Colt was safe enough as it was. It just wasn't idiot proof. Sadly, idiots will always find a way to hurt themselves, even with something that has been "proofed". That's what idiots do. I've used single actions for almost 70 years and never had any sort of accident. It requires respect for a weapon and care in it's use.

[@mikeblair2594]

Do you know what year that gadget was patented? Its an interesting workaround to make an already established firearm safer. Thanx for showing us.

[@EricDaMAJ]

I seem to recall Samuel Colt never made a double action pistol because he thought they were over complicated. (Though after his death the company held no such prejudice.) I wouldn’t quite trust such a system as a bit of rust or grit up in the firing pin spring could trap the pin in the forward position, disabling the drop safe feature.

[@mkultraification]

It still wouldn't be putting pressure on the primer.

[@EricDaMAJ]

@@mkultraification If it's rusted into the forward position it most definitely will put pressure on the primer.

[@timinwsac]

Gotta wonder what Alec Baldwin thinks of this video.

[@loganosmolinski4446]

Boop

[@thomaszaccone3960]

I don't know. I looks rather complicated mechanically. Complicated mechanisms are prone to failure or early wear.

[@davidjernigan8161]

What company's reproduction is the mechanism from?

[@coltonregal1797]

Uberti has used both of them.

[@merlinwizard1000]

45th

[@davidbrennan660]

A big old wheel gun is soooo this show......

[@biffjohnson34]

Too bad Alec Baldwin didn’t have that one

[@timrobinson6573]

Alec Baldwin could have used one of those hammers because he says he absolutely did not pull the trigger.

[@sidekickbob7227]

That claim can easily be true...

[@GhostOfSnuffles]

There's no amount of safety mechanism you could ever put on a gun that will stop an idiot from hurting themselves or another person and people who know better and are responsible with firearms don't need that kind of stuff in the first place.

[@mikeblair2594]

/O\ - Accidents will always happen. That is the whole purpose of a "Drop safety"! He's not talking about a lock manufactured into the actual firearm.