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The hammer itself doesn't cause gunpowder to ignite. In modern smokeless powder firearms, it typically works one of two ways. Either the hammer will directly make contact with the rim (in rimfire cartridges) or the primer (in centrefire cartridges), which causes the propellant in either the rim or the primer to ignite. This causes a chain reaction which ignites the gunpowder.

What's more common in modern centrefire firearms is that the hammer will strike a firing pin, and the firing pin will strike the primer.

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13y ago

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