SA and DA differences?

[hoytinak]

I need a simple way to explain the difference in a SA and DA trigger, in the way they work. I'm not a good teacher and I'd just got them more confused.

 

[OldShooter]

sa/da

In double action, a single pull of the trigger will both cock the hammer and release it.

In single action, the hammer must first be cocked, then a pull of the trigger will release it. This requires two separate operations. If the hammer is not cocked, pulling the trigger will do nothing.

 

[Doyle]

Additionally, in an automatic the act of firing either a single-action or true double action will cock the hammer for the next shot. There is another animal called a double-action only (DAO) in which the act of firing does not pre-cock the hammer.

 

[lechiffre]

the simplest answer:

in single action the trigger performs only one action. it releases the hammer

in double action the trigger preforms two actions. it both cocks and releases the hammer.

 

[hoytinak]

Yeah, I'm not very good at explaining things but was able to explain it to were he understood by showing him how they worked with actually handguns last night. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Quentin2]

OldShooter mentioned above that to fire SA the hammer has to be cocked then the trigger is pulled in two separate actions. This is true of course but when you initially rack the slide back to load the chamber the hammer cocks so really it's more like one action, just like DA when you rack the slide to chamber the first round.

DA does not make much difference in the speed of the first shot if you carry a single action cocked and locked. The main reason people and even LE shy away from SA is the cocked hammer, it scares people. If you lower the hammer down on a live round then of course it does require the two step procedure since the SA trigger cannot cock the hammer.

 

[AZAK]

DA does not make much difference in the speed of the first shot if you carry a single action cocked and locked.

And this brings us to another distinction between the two: typically a SA trigger is a lighter and shorter trigger than a typical DA pull.

While some may argue that either is just as fast, the SA is more likely to be on target (DA typically has more poundage to pull through/also typically a much longer pull - both resulting in a more difficult time keeping on target.)