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Well, not quite. If the hammer is struck hard enough, it can crush the rebound slide and/or shear the hammer pin, allowing the hammer to go forward and fire a round. The hammer block prevents the firing pin/hammer nose from reaching the primer no matter how hard the hammer is struck.
FWIW, the purpose of the rebound slide is not to act as a hammer block. It is necessary in a side swing revolver to retract the firing pin from the fired primer to allow the cylinder to open. In the S&W system, that means the hammer has to be retracted.
In the old top breaks, a rebounding hammer was not as necessary, since the opening cylinder was moving the cartridge away from the hammer.
Just to avoid some confusion, S&W did not change their hammer block system when they went to frame mounted firing pins, and the hammer block is NOT a transfer bar.
Both Taurus and Ruger use transfer bars, another way to solve the problem of a blow on the hammer. With that system, the hammer cannot reach the frame mounted firing pin until the trigger moves the transfer bar between them. The firing pin has a retracting spring, solving the problem of swinging out the cylinder without a having a rebounding hammer. I don't think either system is superior; the rebound slide is the more expensive.
Jim
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