Development
Legend has it D.B. Wesson developed the Safety Hammerless model in a night-long session after hearing that a child had accidentally been hurt by cocking and pulling the trigger on one of the Smith & Wesson Double Action Revolvers. This legend cannot be substantiated, since factory records show a methodical development of the revolver. D.B. Wesson was a sensitive person and perhaps after hearing of this accident was inspired to work very closely with his son Joe to develop a revolver with the safety on the handle and a strong trigger requiring a long pull, making it impractical for a child to pull through and fire.
The development of this style also stems from the law enforcement officer’s requirement to draw his revolver from his coat pocket without the exterior hammer catching in the pocket lining. The development of the handgun was given to Joe Wesson as one of his first projects while working at the draft board. Joe Wesson had much of his father’s inventiveness, and on February 15, 1882, he completed his first drawings for a .38 Hammerless revolver. This revolver is strictly a double-action revolver in which the hammer was completely enclosed by frame. The design also included a floating firing pin rather than a firing pin located on the hammer.
That first revolver design was not accepted by D.B. Wesson and subsequently, in 1884, Joe Wesson designed the .38 Safety Hammerless revolver which had a lever along the back of the grip strap. Unless this lever was pressed positively by the gripping hand, the hammer was blocked from moving. This design was finalized in 1886.
Roy Jinks says: “When the revolver was developed in 1886, plans were made to produce it in three calibers: .32 S&W, .38 S&W and .44 S&W Russian. In fact, the first advertisement stated the revolver was soon be produced in all of these calibers. After producing a prototype of the No. 3 Hammerless, as the .44 caliber model was called, all production plans were stopped and it was only produced in the other two calibers.”
The .38 Safety Hammerless would go through five models and over 250,000 revolvers from 1886 until 1940, with models available in barrel lengths from 2″ to 6″ as well as blue and nickel finishes. Two years after the arrival of the .38 Safety Hammerless, Smith & Wesson introduced a slightly smaller .32 Safety Hammerless and just under 250,000 were produced by 1937.
All of these revolvers are not only known as the Safety Hammerless Model but also as the New Departure. In addition to the Safety Hammerless version, Smith & Wesson also produced over 500,000 .38 Double Action Models with an exposed hammer, and nearly one-third of a million .32 Double Action Models. Adding up all the production figures of the Top-Break revolvers from Smith & Wesson shows just how prevalent Smith & Wesson revolvers actually were. And remember this was in the day before CCW permits, so it’s obvious thousands of people carried in grandfather’s time.