In my office, I had the duty belts I’d worn over the years hanging vertically on a wall. They were in chronological order. The display was trapezoidal. It was level across the top, but slanted on the bottom. For some reason, the gun belts got longer as I got older.
This Category is more than just a handgun memoir. Although I occasionally wax nostalgic, it focuses on the different types of triggers on duty handguns I have carried, starting with the Double Actions (DAs):
Selective Double / Singles (DA/SAs)
Double to Singles (DA->SAs, or DA to SAs)
Double Action Onlys (DAOs), and
Double Action Kellermans (DAKs)
We discuss their advantages and disadvantages, along with some lessons I have learned about manipulating them effectively.
Remember, “Guns don’t kill people. Sight alignment and trigger control kills people.”
If you wish to learn about these in roughly chronological order, you should start from the bottom of this Category and work your way up.
The development and combat history of the GI .45 (and its clones) has been exhaustively addressed elsewhere. This article mostly focuses on specific aspects of manipulating single action 1911 pattern pistols, with some of the safety feature engineering and lore thrown in for context. It wraps with my own experiences and lessons from carrying and shooting the M1911A1.
This article explains the Double Action to Single Action auto pistol trigger concept. It also gives specifics about a gun that in many ways pioneered concepts adopted by the modern breed of polymer framed pistols.
This article discusses firing techniques, methods of manipulation, historical data, little-known esoterica, and some few memories of the Smith & Wesson revolvers, particularly those used by US airmen and naval aviators during the Cold War.
This article examines how American military close-combat at the end of the 19th through the first part of the 20th centuries greatly influenced the evolution of handgun trigger actions. In particular it delves into the US experience in the Philippine Islands. It also lists different US military revolvers of the era.