Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Speed of shooting DA vs SA revolvers

I’ve been shooting a lot since I retired and a lot of it for speed, because it’s fun and because I spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer in grizzly country. And I know that in grizzly encounters the amount of time you have to defend yourself can vary from not enough to barely enough.

I shoot double/single action and single action revolvers. I’ve spent a lot of time practicing with .22 LRs and .357s with mild loads mainly for cost savings. In those I can shoot a lot faster using DA than I can SA, no surprise.

But lately I’ve been practicing with heavy loads in my .44s and .45s and what I’ve come to realize I shoot about as fast firing single action with both my DA and SA revolvers, and a lot more accurately. It’s easy to have the hammer cocked by the time I recover from recoil and get the front blade back on target.

I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s not much benefit to me for carrying DA over my SA wheel guns when I’m concerned about bear defense. Anyone else feel this way?

Sort of depends on recoil I think. I had some warm 320 grain loads in a 44 Mag. That was a hand full. The revolver was wanting to go way up after each shot. And like you said probably about the same time single or double action. I’ve practiced a bit with the likes of heavy 357 loads and I believe I can shoot double action faster and nearly as accurate. I don’t venture in grizzly country as much as those that live nearer to the mountains. Where I’ve hunted elk in WY, I think grizzly sightings are uncommon and I’ll have a rifle in hand.

Do you have a timer? If not, get one. Believe it or not it’s been one of the most instrumental tools in helping my push to be faster and more accurate. 44s at full tilt or anything heavy recoiling is generally a direction I would avoid.

I have a stop watch and was thinking about getting my wife to time me next time she comes to the range with me. I think I’ll do that. I can guess what the results will be but might be surprised. But I know how the accuracy comparison will go. No matter how much I practice shooting DA I’m just not very good at it.

A not often thought of reason for DA is rapid follow up shots if the bear gets ahold of you. I know that is not a condition you would like to consider but that is why I carry double action .357 or .44 if I think I may not be at the top of the food chain. FWIW, my sister who lives ten miles outside the west gate of Yellowstone Park had a grizzley break into her cabin last week while she was sleeping. It tore up her living room before she got it run back out the window it broke through to get in. Discharge of a .357 sped up the exit motivation.

Either or if you’re proficient. The reload is where the double action is faster

Yeah, no doubt reloading gives DA a big edge although it would probably be a rare backcountry scenario when that comes into play. But who knows? It could.

I guess reliability might be another factor. I wonder if single actions tend to be more reliable? I guess I’ve had so few mechanical issues with revolvers over the years I couldn’t say based on my experience for sure but just last year I had a firing pin break on a model 629, an older one with the pin attached to the hammer.

Leaving out the lions and tigers and bears oh my. The question of which is faster, it's hands down the DA revolver. Ive seen some fast shooting with a SA revolver, some of those cowboy action shooters can sure make the thumbs fly, but if you watch a truely proficient DA revolver shooter, it's easy to see which action type is the fastest.
SA revolver shooting requires several different manipulations of the hands, finger(thumb) and grip. DA revolver shooting is a singular manipulation, rolling the trigger with the index finger with the grip with hands never changing from first shot to last.

If you're not using a shot timer...you maybe don't have great data yet.

DA wins hands down. I got pretty fast running SAs with very wimpy 38 cowboy loads (125gr at 650 fps) but no matter how you slice it, cocking the hammer in SA requires shooting with a compromised grip either with your support hand or your dominant hand.

Also...try getting off 6 shots fast with an SA 44 magnum with one hand.

Just practice more in DA. If you can shoot into an inch at 25 yards in SA, you can probably shoot into 2 inches DA. That's about the relationship for most people I know.

Yep.

There are several components to the question, it's not just a simple "this or that". 1) How fast can you shoot? 2) How fast can you HIT? 3) One handed vs two handed for both questions with any of the 3 types of gun. 4) How much recoil? ... each of those can change the balance outweighing the others.

"Practice makes perfect" is a fallacy. If you're just practicing doing it badly, you're never going to get better. You're not good at it because you're doing it wrong. Maybe you should try getting some formal instruction.

a technique from PPC and steel challenge shooters may help. In shooting a DA a term called "indexing" or pre-timing is helpful.
One of the reasons Smith actions are used so much in these sports. Pull the trigger thru most of its cycle and just before the hammer fall, re-align the sights, then the last little trigger squeeze won't through the shot off.

If you do it enough, it will become automatic.

Thing to remember is that a DA revolver can cycle faster than any auto.

Thats were the IPSC slogan of shooting being an equilateral triangle. Speed-Power-Accuracy

Just a note- a Mobius strip has two sides, just change the contact points, More accurately it is a one manifold topology with boundaries- the same one manifold topology, a Klein bottle, has no boundries and can be contorted to a strip without crossing an axis.

For defense against a grizzly bear. (OP's main concern) How much speed is needed? If speed is required, it may already be too late. Ideally, gun should be in hand and ready before an attack.

I'm getting closer to retirement myself. I have to first slow down flys to be able to swat them. Didn't need to do that when I was young. However, I'm more aware of my surroundings, and attuned to potential danger than I ever was before.

A grizzly isn't a person. It's hard for me to imagine that slightly faster follow up shots will matter.

I would like DA/SA revolver. I have been dreaming about Colt 1909, such a huge glorious weapon. 😍

Yes. For any kind of defense that may involve contact shooting, I'll take a DA.

Just curious, how do you know how good I am at it? Are you one of those guys that knows everything?

I'm just taking you at your word. Interesting that you deleted that passage of yours from the post where I quoted you. To wit....


If you were doing it right, you'd be better at it. Simple logic. Why are you offended?

He didn't say that he wasn't better, he just said he wasn't very good at it.

I didn’t delete anything from my original post, just edited my reply for brevity. It’s true I said I didn’t shoot DA very well but I can shoot SA as well as I need to for my needs, and I can do it about as quickly as I can shoot DA. I was mainly asking for other people’s experience on this.

You gave me advice on shooting DA better which I really didn’t ask for but I didn’t need to snap at you. Sorry, no hard feelings I hope.