Gun Expert Needed

[Jack Getze]

for quickie question: Looking at an online picture of a Sig Sauer P226, it seems to have a hammer that a shooter could thumb back. Is this true? Can pistols and revolvers both be "cocked" with a thumb? If not cocked, what's that called?
Thanks for any help.

[Jude Hardin]

This site explains the various mechanisms pretty well, Jack. A quick Google told me the P226 is available in single/double action, or double action only, so your question would depend on the model your character has.

Revolvers and semi-automatics can both be referred to as pistols, btw.

[Jack Getze]

Thanks, Jude. Went back to the Sig Sauer site, read my character's weapon is a "standard single-action" so I'm thinking, yes, my guy could cock the hammer IF it was the first shot. Nice site. Apologies for you doing my research. Thanks again.

[Jack Getze]

Aure you sure about revolvers and pistols? I'm going by the August/Sept 2003 MWA newsletter, in which John Mullins, 22 years with Army Special Forces, says the #1 "Writers' Mistakes About Guns" is "Calling a pistol a revolver and vice versa." Mullins opening line is "A revolver has a revolving cylinder. A pistol is all else, including semiautomatics..."

?

[Jude Hardin]

Technically, he's correct, although I think modern usage has lessened the distinction. It would be a major mistake to call a semi-auto a revolver, but I don't have a problem with someone calling a revolver a pistol. Like Butch said in Pulp Fiction, "It's not a motorcycle, baby. It's a chopper." :)

[Tom Barclay]

FWIW, Jack, I'd use specific terms. The picture the two words create in the readers' minds is quite different.

Tactically, the two types of handguns have different implications as well.

I recognize your story may not require so much detail.

[Jack Getze]

Thanks, Jude and Tom, for your help. If my character keeps getting assaulted like this, one day I may actually have to learn something about weapons.

[Lee Lofland]

Hi Jack. I'll add my two cents in the form of this eloquent statement. A pistol is a pistol (semi-auto or auto) and a revolver a revolver. They don't look alike, nor do they operate the same way mechanically. To use the terms universally would be like saying a pig is the same as a lion. They're two different beasts. However, I've heard many cops call a revolver a pistol, but never once have I heard anyone call a pistol a revolver.

I carried a Sig Sauer P228 on duty and referred to it as my gun. As in, "Oh &$*!, I left my gun in the lockbox at the jail, again." (I discovered that little error on the side of the road one night during a traffic stop. Not a good feeling).

[Jack Getze]

I was waiting for you to show up, Lee. I bought your book after Deadly Ink, and if I could have found it, I probably wouldn't have had to come on here and beg for help, but the book has gone missing. I think it might be at home, tucked somewhere neatly by my cleaning lady. I will make a new search before asking any more dumb gun questions. Thanks for your eloquent two cents.

[Lee Lofland]

Your question wasn't dumb. In fact, it's a question that's asked quite often.

Perhaps your cleaning lady found a better use for the book. Have you checked to see if it's now a door stop?

[Dennis Leppanen]

Lee, a gun?

In the Army, the mantra was; This is my weapon and this is my gun---one is for fighting and, one is for fun.

[Lee Lofland]

I know. Weapon is the correct terminolgy, and when I taught at the academy or as a FTO (Filed Training Officer) that 's what I used. However, I'm a sucker for slang, so gun it was.

[Jude Hardin]

In crime fiction, you can't go wrong with "gun." It's a metal thing you hold in your hand with bullets in it and you pull the trigger and somebody on the wrong end bleeds.