Posted on 12/03/2021 12:33:12 PM PST by budj
Baldwin said he pulled the hammer back and released it and the pistol fired without pulling the trigger. The pistol was a replica Pietta, but we don't know now if it had a transfer bar. Assume it doesn't.
Has anyone here ever had that happen, or have known that it happened?
I'm not sure they have the shell casing. It was reported the gun was unloaded by someone on the set before the sheriff's office got to examine it.
Now it makes sense why Baldwin is going in this direction. Spontaneous ignition or ignition by a slight force cannot be ruled out without an examination of the shell casing thar held the bullet that killed the victim. That’s some pretty major evidence tampering uf the shell casing is gone.
A Pietta true repro will have four clicks. Quarter cock for keeping the firing pin off the back of the round, half cock for cleaning and reloading, three-quarters cocked (I don’t know the purpose), and full cock for firing. Some are modernized to have a transfer bar that eliminates the quarter cock.
Wow! Are you kidding me?? What a great find!
“I’ve read that the cinematographer instructed Baldwin to aim at the camera and cock the gun somewhat.”
Have you seen that sourced to anyone OTHER than Baldwin?
Mighty convenient for him to claim the woman he shot to death told him to point the gun at her (and it didn’t occur to him to lower the hammer BEFORE doing so).
That’s my thought too. He’ll walk on the killing but will get nailed on the negligence as producer.
The shop where I work recently had two new Uberti SAA revolvers for sale. Neither of them had the half-cock notch when the hammer was pulled back. I think they may have gotten rid of it...
GOOD TO KNOW. THANKS.
I THOUGHT HE LOOKED BETTER IN “SHREK”.
“The shop where I work recently had two new Uberti SAA revolvers for sale. Neither of them had the half-cock notch when the hammer was pulled back. I think they may have gotten rid of it...” [Galatians513, post 88]
The Uberti arms you encountered may have been marketed as new, but they could have been damaged, worn (represented as new), old stock (before blocks and transfer bars), or tinkered with. Anything can happen in “the trade.”
The hammer of a Colt’s-style Single Action is massive. Driven by very stiff mainspring, in falling it can break off the trigger tip, or snap the overhang on the safety notch and the loading notch, and drive the large rigidly fixed firing pin into the primer of a live round.
The likeliest explanation is that Alec Baldwin reflexively stuck his index finger into the trigger guard when he drew the revolver. It touched the trigger firmly enough to drop the cocked hammer, or to hold it back far enough that the hammer fell from the full-cock position when his thumb turned it loose. Same result.
Thanks to sloppy gun handling shown in scores of films and TV shows, most folks are sure they know how to handle Old West firearms, but they don’t. Fingers slip into trigger guards as if they were born to do it. Reflexes have to be untaught, then re-programmed into the moves that safe safe gun handling. Hence the rule, Keep the finger out of the trigger guard until on target and ready to fire. Constant vigilance in the field, on the range and during classroom instruction is highly recommended.
Not all single actions are made the same. Colt’s percussion revolvers had but two intermediate hammer positions: the loading notch, which lifted the bolt to allow the cylinder to freewheel (forward only), and full cock. “Safety” was handled by tiny pins between chambers, over which a recess in the hammer face could rest, immobilizing the cylinder.
Faced with lawsuits over sloppy handling of their old-style single action revolvers, which operated pretty much like Colt’s Single Action Army, Ruger engineers built in a transfer bar attached to the trigger, and linked the bolt-lift function to the loading gate. Makes for a one-click hammer function: full cock only. It’s been incorporated into all New Model Ruger revolvers. These arms may be safely carried with a full cylinder - six (or seven, eight, or ten as applicable) live rounds, in safety as good as that of any modern double action.
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