{"id":420813,"date":"2024-04-08T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/?p=420813"},"modified":"2024-12-27T12:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T18:26:03","slug":"the-hammerless-revolver-still-a-viable-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/the-hammerless-revolver-still-a-viable-option\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hammerless Revolver: Still A Viable Option"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time I asked the folks at Smith & Wesson, I was told that their best-selling revolver was the \u201chammerless\u201d J-frame snubby introduced in 1952 as the Centennial (since that was their hundredth year in business). The gun has a helluva history behind it\u2026and its popularity today is due to solid performance features that went unrecognized for a very long time.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the background first.<\/p>\n

A Brief History<\/h2>\n

In 1887, Smith & Wesson<\/a> introduced their New Departure Safety Hammerless revolver, a five-shot top-break offered in calibers .32 and .38 S&W. The design was quickly copied by Harrington & Richardson, Iver Johnson, and just about any other manufacturer of economy-priced top-breaks.<\/p>\n

\"S&W
The gun that started it all: the S&W New Departure Safety Hammerless of 1887. Photo by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The legend says that one of the company\u2019s founders, Daniel Baird Wesson, was appalled by a case of a child being killed when he got hold of his parents\u2019 conventional revolver. Wesson set out to design a child-proof handgun. The cardinal feature would be a concealed hammer that could not be reached by the user and, therefore, could not be cocked to an easy single-action trigger pull.<\/p>\n

Another feature would be a grip safety which, at least in theory, would require an adult hand to depress before the weapon could be discharged. The grip safety would earn the revolver a nickname with the gun-buying public: the \u201clemon-squeezer.\u201d Finally, the trigger pull would not only be long but heavy, at least theoretically so heavy that a child could not pull it all the way back.<\/p>\n

Legend also says that Mr. Wesson confidently handed a loaded \u201clemon squeezer\u201d to a child and challenged him to fire it and that the kid promptly pumped a round into the floor in front of Wesson.\u00a0 I say \u201clegend\u201d because there\u2019s some question whether or not the story is true. In any case, the New Departure Safety Hammerless proved popular enough to remain in the Smith & Wesson catalog until shortly before World War II.<\/p>\n

Long-Lasting Popularity<\/h2>\n

During those many decades, the gun was popular for concealed carry, primarily because without a protruding hammer spur, it was snag-free when drawn from a pocket or other place of deep concealment. One gun expert who appreciated that feature was Col. Rex Applegate of WWII OSS fame, who became a Smith & Wesson representative in Latin America after World War II.<\/p>\n

In the hot weather there, he carried a Safety Hammerless .38 in an upside-down shoulder rig under his shirt, and the day came when he was attacked by a madman with a machete. He pumped all five .38 S&W rounds into the man who kept coming. According to various accounts, the attacker was finally put down by one of Rex\u2019s colleagues with a .45. The attacker ended up dead, and Rex ended up unscathed and thoroughly disappointed with the anemic performance of the stubby little .38 S&W round.<\/p>\n

When S&W introduced the little J-frame Chief Special in 1950 \u2014 a short barrel five-shot .38 Special<\/a> on a .32 frame \u2014 Applegate used his influence with S&W CEO Carl Hellstrom to convince him to make a variation that was hammerless like the New Departure.<\/p>\n

The Centennial was born, appearing first in Airweight configuration in 1952 with an aluminum frame and subsequently in an all-steel variation. In the late 1950s, when S&W went to numeric designations, the all-steel Centennial became the Model 40 and the Airweight, the Model 42. The grip safety remained, but these guns came with a removable pin inside the grip frame, which the user could insert to disable the grip safety.<\/p>\n

\"Two
S&W Centennial Airweight (later Model 42) of 1952; below, nickel Model 40-1 of the 21st Century, both .38 Special. Photo by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Downfall of the Centennial<\/h2>\n

Within a year of the Centennial’s introduction, S&W introduced their Bodyguard series with a built-in hammer shroud to compete against the bolt-on shroud arch-rival Colt had introduced in 1950. It made the gun snag-free like the Centennial but exposed a tiny nub of the hammer spur that a user could cock to single-action for an easier trigger pull.\u00a0 Remember, this was a time frame when double actions were usually fired single-action in training and on the range, and double-action was seen as \u201csomething for emergencies only.\u201d Centennial sales dropped so badly that in 1974, Models 40 and 42 were discontinued.<\/p>\n

If Smith & Wesson\u2019s decision-makers had a crystal ball, they wouldn\u2019t have done that because it was the time when police and armed citizens alike realized that the only time they\u2019d need a snub-nose .38 would probably be\u00a0<\/em>in a fast-breaking emergency and, therefore, double-action was how a defensive revolver should be shot anyway.<\/p>\n

The now-discontinued Centennials started selling for premium prices where they could be found. Gun writers and influencers like Wiley Clapp brought this to S&W\u2019s attention, and the early 1990s saw the Centennial’s welcome return. The grip safety was gone (though S&W would later make some Model 640-1s with that feature), and Daniel Baird Wesson\u2019s extra-heavy trigger pull would be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Hammerless Smiths can now be found in all steel or aluminum, Titanium, and Scandium and in calibers .22 LR, .22 Magnum, .32 Magnum, .327, .38 Special, 9mm Luger<\/a>, .357 Magnum, and even .356 TSW.<\/p>\n

\"Kimber
A popular hammerless is this 6-shot .357 K6 from Kimber. Photo by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"S&W
Centennials have been produced in many formats, including this 11-ounce Titanium Model 342 .38 Special, which wears Dave Lauck sights and Eagle grips. Photo by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today\u2019s Hammerless Revolver Advantages<\/h2>\n

They\u2019re still snag-free, of course. However, the \u201chammerless\u201d revolver design has other advantages.<\/p>\n

Higher hand placement equals lower bore axis and reduced muzzle rise, improving the ability to hit at speed. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

This will depend upon the grips\/stocks on the gun, of course, and how the shooter grasps it. However, as seen in the photos, if the backstrap of the grip is bare and not covered by stock material, the shooter can get higher hand placement, which does indeed give the shooter more leverage over the revolver and quicker recovery to target after recoil.<\/p>\n

Action smoothness may be greater with the hammerless configuration. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Grant Cunningham is a leading expert on double-action revolvers and has pointed out that the geometry of the parts inside the hammerless S&W lends itself to a smoother and lighter double-action trigger pull.<\/p>\n

\"Ruger
Smooth DAO pull allows groups like these with hammerless Ruger LCR .38 Special. Photo by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thank you, Daniel Baird Wesson, wherever you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time I asked the folks at Smith & Wesson, I was told that their best-selling revolver was the \u201chammerless\u201d J-frame snubby introduced in 1952 as the Centennial (since that was their hundredth year in business). The gun has a helluva history behind it\u2026and its popularity today is due to solid performance features that went unrecognized for a very long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":420815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-insights"],"small_media_thumbnail":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lead-Hammerless-MFA-300x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420813"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440681,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420813\/revisions\/440681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}