Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply.
Thanks to everyone who answered, much appreciated.
Muse
Some require cocking, like a single action revolver. Most double action revolvers can be manually cocked, but simply pulling the trigger will perform that chore, rotate the cylinder, and drop the hammer on a live round.
Most single action semi-auto pistols can be manually cocked, but that already has happened once the slide has been cycled to chamber a live round - one must lower the hammer (gently, I'd recommend) to be in the position to re-cock.
Most double action semi-auto pistols can be manually cocked as well, if the hammer has been lowered after cycling the slide.
Admittedly an over-simplified explanation, but it does reflect the basic reality.
Thanks for the information, ironmikezero.
The short answer is yes, you can cock the hammer of many revolvers and semi-auto handguns.
There are handguns where you don't; but unless you need the details, you can have it as mentioned.
Short and to the point, alleycat, just what I needed.
Thank you.
As others have said, most handguns can be cocked, but don't need to be. Other sources of noise could be working the slide to chamber a round (you can carry a chambered round, but it's considered unsafe practice) or even just the safety being disabled (nothing more than a click).
Trigger mechanisms are as follows, compare with the guns you're considering:
Single-Action: First shot must be cocked, but the recoil recocks after each shot.
Double-Action: First shot can be cocked, but doesn't need to be. If not cocked the strong trigger pull can throw off an aimed shot.
Double-Action-Only: Cannot be cocked. Strong trigger pull makes accidental discharge almost impossible, popular with police as a result.
Some great info. Thanks, NeuroGlide.
More common and more telling as a warning would be somebody racking the slide (Pulling the top piece of the pistol back and releasing it so a spring snaps the slide back to the front and loads a round from the magazine into the chamber at the same time) on a semi-automatic to chamber a round. People don't carry single-action guns very often anymore.
Jeff
I’ve been thinking of cocking and racking a slide as the same thing.
(I did say my ignorance was startling.)
First is a correction. Single action revolvers have to have every single round cocked, hence the term single action. Dual actions (double action) can be done either way.
Some double action revolvers now are actually hammer less firearms, and you can only fire them by pulling the trigger.
Semi-auto handguns really depend on the person carrying them. There are hammer less variants as well, thus, no pulling the hammer back.
Some people carry them with a round chambered, hammer down. They'll have to cock the hammer for the first round, but that is significantly faster than chambering a round via the slide.
Thanks for the correction, benluby. It sounds like the noise of racking will work for what I need in my WIP.
As a general rule the preferred way to carry a handgun for law enforcement or anyone trained in the defensive use of a handgun is with the chamber loaded. That is the way the pro's do it.
However, people with no training, including criminals, often carry with an empty chamber due to their fear of having an accidental discharge. In that case to fire they first have to pull the slide back and release it to chamber the first round. ("Racking the slide.")
That does make a very distinctive noise and would be something that someone could overhear to tip them off that someone is going to be shot.
To be honest, having a criminal character rack the slide because they carried with an empty chamber, and having someone overhear that, makes more sense than having them manually cock the hammer and having someone overhear that. There is very little reason (or no reason) to manually cock the hammer on the majority of modern handguns and, cocking the hammer does not make as much noise as racking the slide.
I think I will need to change the working in my WIP from cocking to racking – now that I understand the difference.
One thing, the gun belongs to an ex-military gent but was stolen by the bad guy. In that case a round would already be chambered so the baddie wouldn’t need to rack the slide. Hmmmm.
What would happen if you racked the slide with a round already chambered? Is it even possible to rack a slide if a round is chambered?
Hi Muse --
I found a few YouTube videos that might be helpful for you in terms of what this sounds like.
The first shows someone racking the slide on a semi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbayNc6D9HY
And here's one that starts with a guy cocking a revolver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdVHJIUwSFo
Thanks so much for the links, vangough, they helped me realise the difference between cocking a hammer and racking a slide.