Other drop safety systems besides transfer bar?

[twoblink]

I have a Ruger SP101, I know the safety is done via a transfer bar that rises only when the trigger is at the very rear.

It's the only revolver I have, so I wanted to know what other systems of drop safety are there aside from the transfer bar system?

What does S&W use? What about the old Colt Pythons? Do they have a drop safety at all?

Albert

 

[Jim Watson]

S&W and older-type Colts - Python, Detective Special, etc. - have hammer block safeties. The firing pin is either on the hammer nose or is in the frame and is struck directly by the hammer. Their hammer blocks rest between the hammer and the frame below the firing pin EXCEPT when the trigger is pulled. A drop or blow to the hammer will just push it against the block. They also have rebounding hammers. This provides some safety and some old guns have nothing else.

Harrington and Richardson introduced the transfer bar as is now used in Ruger and post-1969 Colt designs. Iver Johnson had an eccentric pivot for the hammer. Their hammer rested against the frame above the firing pin when at rest. Pulling the trigger not only cycled the hammer, it lowered it in line with the firing pin.

 

[4V50 Gary]

British Enfield break top revolver had a manual safety which was a block that slid from one side of the frame to the opposite side. It blocked the hammer's movement.

Back in the '80s, there was a gunsmith who modified the S&W revolver such that the cylinder release operated as a safety. One pushed the cylinder release up (?) to engage it and down to release it.

 

[James K]

I am nost sure this meets the category, but many of the old percussion revolvers had safety systems of some kind. The Colt had safety pins, the Remington had safety cuts, the Manhattan, Starr and several others had a second set of cylinder notches.

When the cartridge era came along, the makers went to saftey notches in the hammers, a system which proved useless if the gun was acually dropped on something hard and hit on the hammer. Hence the oft-repeated warnings about lowering the hammer on an empty chamber.

But in fact, the old timers didn't do that, or put a $20 bill in one chamber for "buryin' money". (Most never saw $20 all in one place; it would have been the equivalent of $800+ today, and cowboys made $.50 per day.)

Instead, they dropped the hammer between rounds, a good system in the .44 and smaller, and OK with the .45 as long as the firing pin was pointed as they were at that time.

Jim