Not only is some of the recoil taken up in working the mechanism in the former pistol but the recoil is softer.
The recoil of a revolver can be likened to a blow with the fist, whereas the recoil of the automatic pistol is like a hard push with the open hand. The recoil first having to work the mechanism loses its sudden sharp stinging blow.
I find I can shoot a heavily charged military automatic pistol longer than I can a revolver which has much less recoil. There is none of the jar and strain on the wrist in an automatic pistol which a revolver with the English Regulation cartridge gives.
Cocking the revolver by trigger-pull is tiring to the hand, and a very few rounds entirely paralyses the trigger finger for the time being.
It is a very unnatural strain to draw back the weight of the spring to raise the hammer and revolve the chamber with the trigger finger. It tires the finger very soon.
With the automatic pistol there is none of this strain. Therefore a man can fire a hundred shots rapidly with the automatic pistol, when he could not fire twenty-four rounds with a double action revolver, using the double action, without his trigger finger giving out.
I merely mention this as a matter of interesting ancient history. Revolvers are obsolete, but it is as interesting to understand how they were used as it would be if we knew all such lost details concerning the ancient cross bow, or Bushman’s long blow tube.
When one thinks of the unhappy men who were forced in their training to shoot heavy military revolvers with alternate hands working the double action trigger, it is extraordinary more of them did not dislocate their trigger finger or sprain their wrists.
Let any one take one of these relics and work its double action for ten minutes without stopping, and when added to this each shot drives the wrist upwards with great force, he will no longer wonder why men used to shirk “revolver practice.”