![]() ![]() Once you have it down, it’s faster than thumb-cocking and you don’t have to break your hold. The lack of single-action capability is dealt with simply by practicing double-action. The double-action-only design of the hammerless becomes a feature, not a bug. This gets all the more scary if the shooter only has the exposed nub of a hammer found on the Bodyguard. Moreover, with a revolver thumb-cocked in anticipation of a critical shot, the situation can resolve itself without a shot being fired, leaving the user to lower the hammer on a live round with a shaky, over-adrenalized hand. It also enables the false accusation an intentional, justified shot was an inexcusable accident! This is why so many police departments made their service revolvers double-action-only. A cocked hammer creates a “hair trigger” effect that under stress can play into an unintentional shot. Don’t take my word for it - try it for yourself, as I did.Īnother advantage comes from the direction of negligent discharge and civil liability protection. The “high horn” of the backstrap allowed the firing hand to get higher on the gun, lowering the bore axis and reducing muzzle rise, thus improving recoil recovery for fast follow-up hits. The single biggest advantage in shooting was less muzzle rise, model for model with the same ammo. It wasn’t necessarily the hammerless profile might be ever so slightly faster out of pocket or ankle holster than a bobbed-hammer Chief or a Bodyguard. It was so timely a reintroduction S&W execs back then told me it quickly became their best-selling J-Frame - of course it is with us today in many forms and chamberings.Īs a kid, I thought the Centennial was stupid too … but as a grownup and a serious shooter, I had to change my mind. In 1990, what since 1957 had been the all-steel Model 40 and the Airweight Model 42 came back with new designations, and without the hated grip safety. Savvy gun guys such as Wiley Clapp and the late Walt Rauch sang the praises of the Centennial and S&W listened. 38 was for emergencies, which meant double-action anyway. It was during this period when shooters figured out a snub. The Bodyguard was seen as “the thinking man’s Chief Special.”įour years before the discontinuance, Joni Mitchell sang “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone,” and it was true of the Centennial. J-Frame buyers found a grip safety on a revolver to be unnecessary or even stupid and wanted the single-action cocking capability of a Chief or a shrouded Bodyguard, the latter being almost as snag-free on the draw. The revived hammerless of 1952 was discontinued for lack of sales in 1974. ![]() Like its predecessor, the Centennial was a lemon squeezer and “hammerless” only in that its hammer was inside, unseen and un-cockable. It was he who famously convinced S&W to manufacture it on the Chief’s J-Frame in the more potent. 38 S&W cartridges into an attacker who wasn’t stopped. Rex Applegate carried one for its small size and sleek, snag-free draw, but was disappointed when he pumped five of its stubby. Gun lore has it the Safety Hammerless was so named because it was meant to be “child resistant” with an extra-heavy double-action-only pull and a grip safety, the latter causing users to nickname it “the lemon squeezer.” Col. This latter revolver is a descendant of the top-break S&W New Departure Safety Hammerless of 1887 and discontinued in 1940. If you’re considering one, you have three basic formats: the conventional spur-hammered Chief Special-series dating back to 1950, the shrouded hammer Bodyguard style introduced in 1955, and the “hammerless” Centennial, so named because it came out in S&W’s hundredth year, 1952. 380s ever, the smallest-frame short barrel double-action revolver still thrives - Smith & Wesson’s J-Frame. In the time of the smallest good 9mms and the best pocket-size.
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