“...I wouldn’t leave the hammer down on a live round...”
Exactly...That’s why with a “six shooter” revolver, you load only 5 rounds and leave the empty chamber in the cylinder under the hammer and firing pin...
In modern revolvers, the hammer is blocked from hitting the primer unless the trigger is pulled. They won’t go off even if dropped on the hammer. But I was wondering; couldn’t you see the lead bullet looking at the front of the cylinder? If it were a blank, I wouldn’t want to be struck by a chunk of wax shot out of a .45 revolver (even it it were meant to fragment). As a kid, I shot a .38 blank at a yellow pine board from about five feet. It didn’t go through, but it left a dent.