{"id":4871,"date":"2016-05-05T18:41:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T22:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=4871"},"modified":"2021-07-30T10:16:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T14:16:57","slug":"rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/category\/double-action-pistols\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4958 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/da-banner-1.jpg\" alt=\"Double Action Pistols Series\" width=\"750\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/da-banner-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/da-banner-1-600x99.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/da-banner-1-350x58.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><\/p> <p>Some of you guys have noticed and commented on the fact that I&#8217;ve been using a Beretta PX4 Compact in a few recent videos. That might seem like an odd choice for someone previously dedicated to the Smith &amp; Wesson M&amp;P platform. I&#8217;ll be doing a detailed review of that pistol in the near future, including my reasons for the switch. But first I wanted to dig into the broader topic of double action semi-autos in general. The vast majority of new handgun designs today are polymer framed and striker fired. Pistols with hammers are a dying breed. In the video below, I give a quick history of how double action pistols came to be and why their popularity faded.<\/p> <h2><strong>Video: The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto<\/strong><\/h2> <p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/daSYE1PughE?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Full transcript below:<\/p> <hr \/> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you were first introduced to handgun shooting sometime in about the last 10 or 15 years, there\u2019s a very good chance that the majority of your experience has been with striker fired pistols or maybe 1911s. Interest in double action semi-automatics has been declining for a long time now to the point that a lot of newer shooters don&#8217;t even really know how to operate one.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So today I\u2019m going to take a look at how these guns work, where they came from, and why they&#8217;re not so popular anymore.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the sake of clarity, when I talk about double action pistols, I\u2019m referring to what\u2019s often called Double Action\/Single Action pistols or Traditional Double Actions. These guns have a long, heavy, double action trigger pull for the first shot because the trigger has to cock the hammer and release the sear. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But after that first shot, the slide moves to the rear and cocks the hammer for you, so every subsequent shot requires just a short, light trigger pull. When you bring the gun off target, you decock the hammer. The decocking lever blocks the firing pin and lowers the hammer safely without firing another round.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, compared to a modern striker fired pistol where the trigger pull is the same every time and you don\u2019t have all these\u00a0extra controls, a traditional double action pistol might seem needlessly complicated. And compared to a single action pistol, they are definitely more difficult to shoot well. But when they were first developed, double action pistols offered an important alternative to what was available at the time.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first successful double action semi-autos were the Walther PP series, which debuted in 1929, and then about a decade later, the 9mm Walther P38. Prior to that, pretty much all semi-autos were single action, like the Colt 1911. Today, most people carry a 1911 cocked and locked &#8211; that\u2019s with a round in the chamber, the hammer cocked, and the safety on. But back in the 1930s, that was not standard practice. It was usually considered too dangerous. So most of the time, semi-autos were carried with an empty chamber.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is obviously less than ideal, because you&#8217;d have to rack the slide before you could fire the gun that you were carrying. The double action auto was an answer to this\u00a0problem. The first trigger pull is a long and heavy one, you could carry a round in the chamber and it was just like carrying a double action revolver. The gun was always ready to be fired, and\u00a0compared to a single action, there was less of a perceived risk of an accidental discharge. <\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The double action autos got to be pretty popular in the 20th century and various designs were used\u00a0by Beretta, Smith and Wesson, Sig, CZ, and a lot of other gun companies.<\/span><\/p><p><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And you probably know the rest of the story. In the 1980s, the American US military ditched the 1911 and adopted the double action Beretta M9. And then when police departments around the country started switching from revolver to semi-autos in the 80s and 90s, at least at first, most departments\u00a0adopted double action semi-autos.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then a few years later, Glock came along and shook things up. And eventually, cops and armed civilians started switching over to striker-fired pistols, and that got us where we are today where\u00a0a lot of people consider double action autos to be pretty much obsolete. And that&#8217;s understandable.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you consider one of these guns next to something like a Glock or a Smith &amp; Wesson M&amp;P, the striker-fired guns have a lot of apparent advantages. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don\u2019t have a decocker and usually there\u2019s no manual safety to think about so it\u2019s a lot easier to train somebody how to use one.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditional double action autos just\u00a0have a steeper learning curve. First of all, there are two trigger pulls to learn. Trigger control is the most critical component of marksmanship, and one of the most difficult\u00a0to master. So when you\u2019ve got a trigger that\u2019s not the same from shot to shot, it makes that\u00a0even more difficult.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then then there&#8217;s the\u00a0decocking issue.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This is one that a lot of people don\u2019t even think about when they\u2019re shooting at the range, but if you\u2019re running a double action pistol properly, you should be decocking the gun every time the muzzle comes off target.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has to become a reflex, so that if you ever have to use the gun in self-defense, once the threat is gone, you\u2019re not standing there with shaky hands and your finger hovering over a four pound single action trigger. Decocking has to be second nature, and that requires a lot of extra training and practice that most people just don\u2019t want to deal with.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So with all of those disadvantages, it\u2019s really not surprising that traditional double action pistols aren\u2019t all that popular anymore. What some people do find surprising is that anyone is actually still shooting them\u00a0at all. But if you\u2019ve been paying attention, there\u2019s actually been a kind of a small resurgence in the popularity of double action semi-autos.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They aren\u2019t necessarily being embraced by the masses, but they have a strong enough following that some of the big\u00a0gun companies like CZ, Sig, Beretta, and Wilson Combat have been\u00a0offering premium semi-custom versions of their more popular double action designs. There\u2019s definitely still a case to be made for these guns.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So next week I\u2019m going to be looking at the advantages of the double action semi-auto\u00a0and why there are still some people carrying them, and why I have recently become one of them.<\/span><\/p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some of you guys have noticed and commented on the fact that I&#8217;ve been using a Beretta PX4 Compact in &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[277,72,6],"tags":[120,110,275,21,73,17,51],"class_list":["post-4871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-double-action-pistols","category-history","category-toolbox","tag-beretta","tag-cz","tag-double-action","tag-handguns","tag-history-2","tag-self-defense","tag-sig"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lucky Gunner Lounge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lucky.gunner.chris\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-05T22:41:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-30T14:16:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"474\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Baker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Baker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\",\"name\":\"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-05T22:41:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-30T14:16:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/e5f16064c8ef9168e878956da3123dc7\"},\"description\":\"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg\",\"width\":1140,\"height\":474},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/\",\"name\":\"Lucky Gunner Lounge\",\"description\":\"Reliable shooting advice for regular people.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/e5f16064c8ef9168e878956da3123dc7\",\"name\":\"Chris Baker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/chris-profile-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/chris-profile-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Baker\"},\"description\":\"Chris Baker joined the Lucky Gunner team in 2011 and, among other roles, serves as the editor of Lucky Gunner Lounge. Chris has a broad interest in all types of\u00a0shooting activities, but he's most passionate about firearms as tools for personal protection. Prior to working for Lucky Gunner full time, Chris taught basic handgun skills and concealed carry permit classes to a diverse range of clients in his home state of North Carolina. He is a Rangemaster-certified Shotgun and Advanced Handgun Instructor and NRA Handgun Instructor. His ongoing pursuit of knowledge in the shooting world has included over 500 hours of professional firearms and self-defense training from instructors like Ken Hackathorn, Tom Givens, Ernest Langdon, Craig Douglas, Gabe White, Darryl Bolke, Wayne Dobbs, Chuck Haggard, Claude Werner, John Hearne, Jim Higginbotham, Kyle DeFoor, and Randy Cain,\u00a0among others.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lucky.gunner.chris\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/author\/chris\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge","description":"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge","og_description":"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/","og_site_name":"Lucky Gunner Lounge","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lucky.gunner.chris","article_published_time":"2016-05-05T22:41:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-30T14:16:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1140,"height":474,"url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris Baker","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Baker","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/","url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/","name":"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto - Lucky Gunner Lounge","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-05T22:41:21+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-30T14:16:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/e5f16064c8ef9168e878956da3123dc7"},"description":"A look at the trajectory of double action pistols in the mind of American gun owners. Why have double actions turned less popular?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/DA-SA-featured.jpg","width":1140,"height":474},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/rise-fall-double-action-semi-auto\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Rise and Fall of the Double Action Semi-Auto"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/","name":"Lucky Gunner Lounge","description":"Reliable shooting advice for regular people.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/e5f16064c8ef9168e878956da3123dc7","name":"Chris Baker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/chris-profile-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/media\/chris-profile-96x96.jpg","caption":"Chris Baker"},"description":"Chris Baker joined the Lucky Gunner team in 2011 and, among other roles, serves as the editor of Lucky Gunner Lounge. Chris has a broad interest in all types of\u00a0shooting activities, but he's most passionate about firearms as tools for personal protection. Prior to working for Lucky Gunner full time, Chris taught basic handgun skills and concealed carry permit classes to a diverse range of clients in his home state of North Carolina. He is a Rangemaster-certified Shotgun and Advanced Handgun Instructor and NRA Handgun Instructor. His ongoing pursuit of knowledge in the shooting world has included over 500 hours of professional firearms and self-defense training from instructors like Ken Hackathorn, Tom Givens, Ernest Langdon, Craig Douglas, Gabe White, Darryl Bolke, Wayne Dobbs, Chuck Haggard, Claude Werner, John Hearne, Jim Higginbotham, Kyle DeFoor, and Randy Cain,\u00a0among others.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lucky.gunner.chris"],"url":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/author\/chris\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4871"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9656,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions\/9656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}