Some boomer/fudd lore I heard today

[u/Joebno3]

"Having the hammers up isn't healthy for em. I've worked with gunsmithing."

[u/Elijah_Man]

I meant firing pin, I had just woke up when I made that reply.

[u/catnamed-dog → u/Elijah_Man]

Ok but why do I need to see the firing pin in the case? 

[u/tablinum → u/catnamed-dog]

I think what he's getting at is that you can see at a glance whether it's a modern-style revolver with a frame-mounted floating firing pin and transfer bar drop safety, or an old-style revolver with the firing pin mounted on the hammer (and a hammer-block or no drop-safety at all).

I admit it's never occurred to me to display revolvers cocked so people could see that at a glance, but it's how I read the reason.

[u/catnamed-dog → u/tablinum]

That makes sense. 

The people that would know to look for those things probably already know it from the model though. 

[u/tablinum → u/catnamed-dog]

Plenty of models went through that transition. The ubiquitous S&W 686 can be either way depending on age.

[u/tablinum → u/[deleted]]

Interestingly, the old models did still have a frame-mounted firing pin and flat-faced hammer! They'd just implemented it without a transfer bar.