On slip shooting........

[Bob Wright]

Some discussion recently on using the single action for defense and slip shooting was mentioned. The clip shown showed a Cowboy Action Shooter firing off a rapid sequence in which he held the gun in his firing hand and thumbed the hammer back in sort of a fanning action. Thumbing the hammer in this way is not the real "slip shooting" method.

Slip shooting, the old time way, involves a modified Colt Single Action revolver. The trigger is usually removed or tied back, and the hammer spur is lowered and smoothed.

Slip shooting is done one-handed. The shooting hand grasps the gun so that the web of the hand slips down over the hammer spur. The hand rotates on the gun grip so that the skin between the thumb and forefinger brings the hammer back, cocking the gun and rotating the cylinder. The hand continues to "slip" that skin off the hammer, letting it fall and fire the gun. Not target accuracy, but for up close in-your-face-shooting. The hammer never really clicks into the full cock notch, but is released when the hammer is at the full back position.

Elmer Keith, in his Sixguns By Keith illustrates a Colt so set up, a true slip-hammer gun.

Bob Wright

 

[James K]

Hi, Bob,

I have seen and handled a couple of revolvers set up that way and have used one a little. At least as I was shown, the hammer is not brought back by the web of the thumb, but by the thumb itself, which then slips off the left side of the hammer (not the tip). My efforts did not result in any new SA rapid fire records, and only made me more convinced that for speed with accuracy, a DA S&W would beat a slip fired SAA Colt every time.

Jim

 

[rodfac]

Bob, Ed McGivern's old book, "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting" if memory serves, also has a section on SAA and slip shooting, complete with pictures. He's hard to read, very verbose, but that old man knew what it was all about long before today's whiz kids showed up. Rod