Do you carry with the hammer in the safety notch or an empty chamber?

[Dinadan]

This subject comes up occasionally and I just wanted to see what folks say. From posts I have read I expect a majority to pick safety notch. I added the last two options because I have heard of folks carrying on a live round and at half-cock.

[cfsharry]

Unless it has a transfer bar ignition, always on an empty chamber.

[Silentknight]

This is the only revolver in the world that has cylinder safty notches.They are fool proof and 100% effective.If you aren't familiar enough with your weapon to know how to properly use them then get familiar or get another weapon....my 2 cents...

[MR_22]

I feel perfectly comfortable carrying an NAA mini with the hammer in a safety notch. The problem is getting it in there safely! You need to practice.

My only negligent discharge with an NAA mini was attempting to place the hammer into a safety notch. Fortunately, I was at an outdoor makeshift shooting ranch and not at home, but the rule of keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction is PARAMOUNT. I have a whole in the side of my truck bed as a souvenir. (I was using my truck tailgate as a shooting table.)

I kept the .22 Magnum round. There is barely a dent in the rim. I'm surprised the hammer even set off the round with such light strike, but it did. I apparently didn't have the cylinder in the right position. I am much more careful when putting the hammer in a slot not.

I've never had a hammer come out of a safety notch while carrying. Some of the tight holsters, in fact, help with this, especially when the holster is formed with the cylinder flutes in it. If the holster maker knows what he was doing (which they mostly do), then the holster leather should be molded with the flutes in the safety slot position. This helps keep the cylinder from rotating while carrying--and hence the hammer in the safety slot.

[cfsharry]

Silent,
If certitude were wisdom you would be a wise man. It is not.
Nothing made by man is foolproof.
Carrying on an empty cylinder never has been, nor is it now, an improper way to carry a single action revolver. It has nothing to do with familiarity with a particular weapon.
Each to his own.

[crea01]

I use the safety notch and have no problems getting it set this way.  With only 5 shots available, I want to be able to use all 5.  I'm not sure what the problem is with getting the safety notch engaged but with a little practice, it is pretty simple.

[OV-1D]

I feel perfectly comfortable carrying an NAA mini with the hammer in a safety notch. The problem is getting it in there safely! You need to practice.

My only negligent discharge with an NAA mini was attempting to place the hammer into a safety notch. Fortunately, I was at an outdoor makeshift shooting ranch and not at home, but the rule of keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction is PARAMOUNT. I have a whole in the side of my truck bed as a souvenir. (I was using my truck tailgate as a shooting table.)

I kept the .22 Magnum round. There is barely a dent in the rim. I'm surprised the hammer even set off the round with such light strike, but it did. I apparently didn't have the cylinder in the right position. I am much more careful when putting the hammer in a slot not.

I've never had a hammer come out of a safety notch while carrying. Some of the tight holsters, in fact, help with this, especially when the holster is formed with the cylinder flutes in it. If the holster maker knows what he was doing (which they mostly do), then the holster leather should be molded with the flutes in the safety slot position. This helps keep the cylinder from rotating while carrying--and hence the hammer in the safety slot.

  Wow MR22 you gave me a brain fart now listen to this . This devious mind of mine is always churning now we start with the safety notches on the cylinder if the holsters are made to form around the flutes on the cylinder are they formed around it in the safety notch position or in the firing position ? In a world of countless possibilities being tested daily for mostly material gain is it not worth saying the holster is always pushing on the flutes to advance the cylinder if made one way or another thus causing the ability of a unwanted ignition if jostled around and with any hammer movement .  Wheres that lawyer I know ?     

[Dinadan]

crea01 - Welcome to this forum!

For those who carry on an empty chamber, the concern is with the hammer slipping out of the notch, not getting it into the notch. And some folks here started carrying way before transfer bars or safety notches were invented - they carried on an empty chamber seventy years ago and never changed their ways.

[cfsharry]

Seventy-five years.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Dinadan]

Seventy-five years.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You must be almost as old as Uncle Lee!

[RogueTS1]

Single action revolver tradition has always been carry on an empty chamber; at least until you know the poopy is just about to hit the fan, then load that last chamber to give you an edge.

[fistmil]

I carry on an empty chamber. If there is no transfer safety bar, than it's on an empty chamber. To me this all comes down to personal preference and trust. I trust an empty chamber over a notch.

[G50AE]

This is the only revolver in the world that has cylinder safty notches.They are fool proof and 100% effective.If you aren't familiar enough with your weapon to know how to properly use them then get familiar or get another weapon....my 2 cents...

Yeah, what he said. 

[MR_22]

  Wow MR22 you gave me a brain fart now listen to this . This devious mind of mine is always churning now we start with the safety notches on the cylinder if the holsters are made to form around the flutes on the cylinder are they formed around it in the safety notch position or in the firing position ? In a world of countless possibilities being tested daily for mostly material gain is it not worth saying the holster is always pushing on the flutes to advance the cylinder if made one way or another thus causing the ability of a unwanted ignition if jostled around and with any hammer movement .  Wheres that lawyer I know ? 

Hmm. Not quite sure what you said.

ALL of the holsters I have seen that have the cylinder flutes molded into the leather, have those molded flutes in the position with the hammer in a safety slot. It would be BAD for the holster maker NOT to make it that way and I hope they all realize this when making their holsters. So far all of the ones I have seen do it correctly.

[45flint]

Two NAA pistols make getting the hammer in the notch pretty fool proof, thus they were worth the money.

1. The Ranger

2.  The Sidewinder

[G50AE]

3. Every other NAA mini.

[nastruck]

safety notch!!!!

[Uncle_Lee]

I always carry 2 so I should get to vote twice.

I think everyone should carry the way they feel safest.
I don't understand some people with the attitude of "if you don't do it my way, you are doing it wrong".
Personally, I could do without people who think like that.

If someone wants to load just one chamber, heck that's alright with me. I have no right to tell him/her that they are doing it wrong.

[Uncle_Lee]

This is the only revolver in the world that has cylinder safty notches.They are fool proof and 100% effective.If you aren't familiar enough with your weapon to know how to properly use them then get familiar or get another weapon....my 2 cents...

This is the kind of person that I was referring to in my post.

The old Remington model 1858 had the safety notches as has a lot of the old revolvers.

I don't really need your 2 cents because it is not worth that much.......
You sound like a young pup that is still wet behind the ears............

I have made it too many decades without your input.
I don't have time to read and respond you your input so I'll just add you to " the list".

[grayelky]

Wow MR22 you gave me a brain fart now listen to this . This devious mind of mine is always churning now we start with the safety notches on the cylinder if the holsters are made to form around the flutes on the cylinder are they formed around it in the safety notch position or in the firing position ? In a world of countless possibilities being tested daily for mostly material gain is it not worth saying the holster is always pushing on the flutes to advance the cylinder if made one way or another thus causing the ability of a unwanted ignition if jostled around and with any hammer movement .  Wheres that lawyer I know ? 

There is this concept in print communications you need to become more aware of. It would make reading your comments much easier. It is called "punctuation".

[bud]

Definition of safety notch : 
Lock and load. LOL   

[Silentknight]

This is the only revolver in the world that has cylinder safty notches.They are fool proof and 100% effective.If you aren't familiar enough with your weapon to know how to properly use them then get familiar or get another weapon....my 2 cents...

This is the kind of person that I was referring to in my post.

The old Remington model 1858 had the safety notches as has a lot of the old revolvers.

I don't really need your 2 cents because it is not worth that much.......
You sound like a young pup that is still wet behind the ears............

I have made it too many decades without your input.
I don't have time to read and respond you your input so I'll just add you to " the list".

Listen up Lee,this YOUNG PUP is 71 yrs old with 24 years as a LEO and two tours in Nam.You sound like a sanctimonious old fart trying to make everyone think you are a wise old owl instead of a silly old crow.If you still don't know how to fully operate the safety system on the NAA,then learn!Dont badmouth those of us who have enough gumption to do it!Now,how's that 2 cents Pop?

[mdzcpa]

Safety notch.

I really don't understand why you would want to choose to carry on an empty cylinder.  If the hammer can "slip out" of the safety notch, it can almost as easily slip out of the empty chamber. Both require inadvertent hammer movement. It obviously made sense to carry on an empty chamber before the notch as you never want to carry on a live round (in my opinion).  But now with the safety notch, not so much.

[Silentknight]

You are exactly correct!

[OV-1D]

Wow MR22 you gave me a brain fart now listen to this . This devious mind of mine is always churning now we start with the safety notches on the cylinder if the holsters are made to form around the flutes on the cylinder are they formed around it in the safety notch position or in the firing position ? In a world of countless possibilities being tested daily for mostly material gain is it not worth saying the holster is always pushing on the flutes to advance the cylinder if made one way or another thus causing the ability of a unwanted ignition if jostled around and with any hammer movement .  Wheres that lawyer I know ? 

There is this concept in print communications you need to become more aware of. It would make reading your comments much easier. It is called "punctuation".

  Yes Miss grayelky , please don't tell the parents . I'll do better next time , here this is for you teacher .

[cfsharry]

The question Dinadan put forth was a good one and the results are about what I expected.
I am suprised, however, by the brain dead orthodoxy of those respondents critical of they who carry in a fashion different from their own. 
In my case I am not about to use two different protocols when carrying, one for my mini and another for my pre-transfer bar Rugers.

[cfsharry]

mdz,
I believe when the safety notch is used the revolver is at half cock and the cylinder is free to rotate. When the hammer is down on an empty cylinder the cylinder is locked and can not rotate unless the hammer is pulled to half cocked.  As Dinadan pointed out in an earlier post the distance the hammer needs to move to disengage the safety notch is quite small, far less than the movement needed to go from a locked cylinder to half cocked.  I am not saying the safety notch is not reliable, just that I choose not to use it.
By the by, I always carry single action autos "cocked and locked".

[Maccab]

I'd carry at half cock, if I had one. Because one would knock up a holster to facilitate this out of metal rods, springs and whatnot as alluded to in another thread once. However now with a modification, a lip on the holster which would fit between the hammer and the frame in this position... Then when I pushed it down to release it from said contraption it would cock.

Goody gum drops.

[Maccab]

Or if I couldn't be bothered, I probably get one of those folding grips personally so I'd go for empty chamber, hammer down... Given the cylinder isn't protected by a holster, as someone mentioned the flutes being grasped four will do and the clip is less hassle won't never have it.

[Maccab]

On one pug with normal sights as my carry gun.

Then like you guys i'd get more with fancy grips holsters etc, etc because they are cool.

I like the Guardian, but my main priority would be having a gun on me as much as possible, just in case it comes in handy so smallest lightest simplest easiest for me.

[Maccab]

Is there any gap between the end of the chamber and the tip of the bullet out of interest, because if there is you could make a safety if folk are so concerned a rod which goes up the barrel into said gap, from the bottom of the holster thus preventing any turn whatsoever when inserted with a top strap behind the hammer which is resting in a safety groove.

[Maccab]

For the cylinder to turn you'd have to half cock it right, how hard is the thumb back seems very unlikely to slip out of that notch to me.

[Silentknight]

It wont slip out and if it does just remember that NAA RECOMMENDS that you carry in that way(safety notch)in writing.So if it goes off they would set themselves up for some huge lawsuits.Look at the genius that went into producing this weapon...these folks aren't stupid.

[Dinadan]

I expected that most folks would use the safety notch. I did not expect the discussion to grow so heated!

To elaborate on Cfsharry's point: when the hammer is down on an empty chamber, the cylinder bolt is engaged in a cylinder notch, which prevents the cylinder from rotating until the bolt is released by pulling the hammer back about six millimeters.

When the hammer is in the safety notch the cylinder bolt is not aligned with a cylinder notch, so the only thing keeping the cylinder from rotating is the hammer. Pulling the hammer less than one millimeter releases the cylinder to rotate.

I am not trying to change anyone's mind or habits, I am just talking about how these little guns work. Please do not take my comments as a criticism of the minis or your carry method!

Interestingly, I do have a revolver cylinder which has a safety notch for the cylinder bolt instead of the hammer. Not a NAA, of course.

[TwoGunJayne]

If we're going "old school" with an empty chamber as the first click past hammer down... aren't you supposed to roll up the biggest cash bill that you have and insert it into those chambers?

AKA
"Burying money," also known as "Pass the bill."