Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Fanning the Hammer.

I know its bad to fan the hammer of a single action gun but, is it ok to thumb the hammer in quick fashion while holding the trigger down? Any info would be appreciated.

Not much of a problem as long as the sear is COMPLETELY disengaged, not the most accurate way to shoot either.

Somewhere around here I have a book that was around the house when I was a kid that has a picture of a "working cowboy's rig" that features a Colt SA with no trigger. The explanation is that it was fired either by fanning or thumbing the hammer. I remember thinking the first time I saw it that it seemed like a really, really dumb idea.

The Colt SSA wasn't made for that kind of treatment and I don't think "fanning" was a concept back in the day. The silver screen brought all that to be and IMHO, it has no practical application. Those that practice "fanning" have guns altered to withstand the abuse. You NEVER see that at cowboy action shoots. It would be frowned upon to say the least.

A "working cowboy rig" would not be so fancy and the gun would NOT be altered for fanning. Lot of their equipment, from what I've seen, was pretty rudimentary and basic. They were not a flashy bunch, but were hard working hands.

DF

DF

Not fanning but "slip shooting" where the trigger is held back and the hammer brought to full cock alowing the thumb to slip off of the spur was used in the times past, Elmer Keith makes mention of it in writing....

I think I remember Elmer writing about that. I've never tried it and don't think it's something I'd want to do. Here is a photo of my cowboy action Colts. I'm sure not fanning or slip firing these.

DF

Slip shooting is much easier on the SA lockwork than fanning. Generally speaking, the hammer is not operated any faster than a typical vigorous thumb cock for regular SA firing.

Obviously it would be more difficult to achieve target accuracy at any distance with the slip firing technique, and the possibilty of an accidental discharge is increased.

One problem that could be encountered is if the shooter attempting to slip fire an SAA allowed the thumb to slip off the hammer before the cylinder was fully rotated...then the weapon could fire with an unlocked cylinder and an off-center primer hit. There could be quite a bit of lead spitting at the frame/cylinder gap and accelerated wear on the revolver.

However, as long as you are simply pulling the hammer FULLY back with your thumb and allowing it to slip off to fire the revolver, there shouldn't be any severe mechanical issues.

This Colt SAA belonged to Bass Outlaw (yes, that was his real name!) and was customized for slip shooting. He was an infamous Texas Ranger that turned bad & died in a shoot out with Texas Rangers.

Here are two stories of Bass Outlaw's demise:
http://www.theoutlaws.com/outlaws4.htm
http://www.gtt-gonetotexas.com/bassoutlaw.html

Pretty sure fast draw and fanning are against the rules in CAS.

Slipping the hammer is as close as you can get.

I attend quite a few shoots every year and many if not most of the top competitors slip hammer. I shoot both ways and slip hammer is almost always faster. I go to pulling the trigger on the more difficult targets.

I'm definitely not the fastest draw around and CAS looks like fun. However, I will not use my Colt saa's that way under any circumstance.

Slipping and fanning are quite different.

+1000

Gunner

Fact of the matter is if you were a "fast"gunfighter in the 1880's or a top shooter in Cowboy shooting today, you would be a slip shooter. That is also the difference between working guns and vanity guns such as them fancy Colts