Which statement describes a revolver's double-action mechanism?

• A. An action that requires manual cocking of the external hammer before firing
• B. An action in which two triggers are used sequentially
• C. An action in which a single pull of the trigger cocks and releases the external hammer
• D. An action that uses a hammerless design

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is what double-action means: a single trigger pull both cocks the hammer and releases it to fire. In a double-action revolver, squeezing the trigger achieves two things at once—cocking the hammer and letting it strike, while also indexing the cylinder to the next chamber for the shot. This lets you fire quickly without manually cocking the hammer first. The other descriptions don’t fit this mechanism: manual cocking before firing describes single-action, not double-action; having two triggers isn’t how revolvers operate; and hammerless design speaks to the presence or absence of an external hammer, not the action of the trigger itself.