Know Your Firearm: Revolver - Gun Safety and Hunter Safety

Firearm safety is your responsibility. Let's take a look at what you need to know about your revolver to handle it safely.

Anytime you handle a firearm, always follow the basic rules of firearm safety:

• Keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
• Keep your finger away from the trigger.
• Make sure it's unloaded.
• Put it on safe.

Cartridge revolvers generally don't have manual safeties, but some newer ones do:

Early single-action designs usually have a safety notch:

Safety-conscious shooters keep an empty cylinder under the hammer. Since most revolvers don't have mechanical safeties, pulling the trigger will fire the gun. Young shooters should always have adult supervision, and many adults often need expert advice about how to safely operate a firearm. There are two basic styles of revolvers: single-action and double-action. A single-action requires that the hammer be cocked manually, while the double-action revolver can be fired from a cocked position or a long pull of the trigger, which will cock the hammer and fire the gun.

For single-action revolvers, the loading gate must be opened to check and see if the gun is loaded or to load it:

The cylinder swings out on most double-action revolvers. On this Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum, the thumb piece must be pushed forward:

This Colt Python has to be pulled to the rear:

There can always be oddities, especially on older designs. The hammer is concealed on this Smith & Wesson revolver, so it's double-action only. It also has a latch at the top, which opens the gun:

This 19th century Smith & Wesson is also a top break design:

The latch on this Smith & Wesson 1 1/2 is at the bottom front of the frame:

Remember firearm safety is your responsibility.

--Larry Potterfield