Why aren't double triggers more popular?

[Creek Henry]

I got my first double trigger SxS last year. I thought i would have trouble using it but shooting it felt very natural. Also, it has been 100% reliable.

So, for competition guns, how come no one ever uses them? Just curious. I know a few O/Us come with them.

[Screwball]

Competition... depends on what you are talking about. For clays,it is faster to just pull one trigger twice than two separate triggers. For doubles, who wants to do all that movement? You know what your gun does, in regards to patterns, so you learn what the first pull does, then what the second pull does. Simple...

I'm looking to get a Coach gun for my collection... but it is going to be for fun, like my PW87 and IAC 97. Probably a Cimarron 1878... exposed hammers, not safety. For something like CAS, two triggers is nice... even for the fact that the gun is a little simpler/easier to fix if it breaks.

[Virginian]

Most Americans began as riflemen. They are afraid of problems adjusting so they avoid them. Everyone I know who has tried them found the transition girt simple. I switch back and forth with no problems.

[Ricklin]

A double trigger slightly changes the LOP, with every 2nd shot.
That's not conducive to shooting clay targets.

Consistency is the key in the clay target games.

[Doyle]

All three of my O/Us have double triggers. I deliberately chose to buy #s 2 and 3 with double triggers because I wanted to be consistent across all of them. If my first O/U had come with a single trigger, then I would have deliberately bought single trigger shotguns on subsequent purchases.

[Lohman446]

I like double triggers. I have never had an issue but when I first started using them I was concerned about an accidental "long" trigger pull engaging both barrels

[Ricklin]

I like double triggers on a field gun. Having the instant choice of choke is an advantage.
Please make it with a straight grip tho. Or at minimum Prince of Wales style. I don't much care for pistol grip and double triggers.

[44 AMP]

I have always been of the opinion that if a firearm has two barrels, it should have two triggers. Rifle or shotgun.

Single trigger doubles are a solution to a "problem" that I never knew existed.

They're "more modern", and "more uniform", newer, better, get one now!

Some single trigger designs were found to have ..issues..

like the ones that use recoil to reset the trigger for the second shot. If the first shot is a very light load, or doesn't fire at all, then you don't HAVE a second shot.

The best single trigger guns have a selector allowing the shooter to choose which barrel fires first. Many do not have this feature.

Do note the large number of heavy double rifles with single triggers intended for dangerous African game.....go ahead, take a look..I'll wait....
....
find many?

WHY do you think that is??

it's because for those guns, a RELIABLE second shot is extremely important.

Not stopping a water buffalo is a much different matter than not stopping a goose, I admit, but the principle still holds. A second trigger, (and lock mechanism) is more reliable for two barrels than a single trigger system.

Todays single trigger guns are quite reliable, but this wasn't always so.

[Ricklin]

While I do like the reliable single trigger the double trigger guns really are simpler.
A double trigger gun is like having two guns welded together, a single trigger has two barrels operated by a common mechanism.

For the clay target sports I do prefer the reliable single trigger. Don't really need a selector as long as the chokes can be swapped around. I do prefer bottom barrel first for less recoil. Most I have seen that don't allow selection do fire the bottom barrel first.

[Screwball]

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

The best single trigger guns have a selector allowing the shooter to choose which barrel fires first. Many do not have this feature.

Most require the gun to be put on safe to change...

Since competition was in the OP's question, my O/U has that feature to select which goes off first. Never change it during shoots, nor do I know of anyone that does it. Even with bird hunting... a bird pops up, are you going to have a thought process and decide which barrel/choke would be best? Nope, bird... safety off... shoot.

In trap, I skip the safety because of the amount of times I've had "misfire" called because I forgot to take it off. Gun open until I'm about to fire, get situated, call, shoot, reload and leave open until I come around again. Changing barrel firing order during the day is like changing chokes during the day... you are having a bad day and are looking for an excuse. I changed barrels when I first started (prefer the top barrel, with the lower for follow up/doubles)... never during the day. If you experiment, change between days so you don't have going from one to another effecting your "outcome."

[Hawg]

Never had a double barrel with a single trigger and don't want one.

[jaguarxk120]

My O/U shotguns have single triggers. BUT the 12 bore O/U rifle has twin triggers!

[FITASC]

Americans are lazy when it comes to double barrel guns - it is easier for them to just pull twice

So, for competition guns, how come no one ever uses them?

Depends - I have seen folks use the DT SxS for competition - but not on a regular basis.

Most require the gun to be put on safe to change...

Not really - Brownings do; SKBs and similar with the selector on the trigger do not, Berettas do not; and even then, you're working it like a stick shift in an older car - no biggie - especially for competition where the targets do not launch until you are ready and call for them.

[Jim Watson]

Do note the large number of heavy double rifles with single triggers intended for dangerous African game.....go ahead, take a look..I'll wait....
....
find many?

Westley Richards is the leading British gunmaker for single trigger express rifles. I recall John Taylor saying they were reliable.

[FITASC]

Heym and Verney Carron - all make theirs with double triggers - and those are used by a large majority pf PHs who use a double rifle for backup.

https://www.heymusa.com/rifles/88b.html

http://www.verney-carron.us/pdf/cata...n-LAtelier.pdf

[Creek Henry]

I wonder if Diggweed switched to a double trigger Perazzi how many competitors would have DT guns a week later

[FITASC]

I wonder how many here even know WHO Digweed is.............

[darkgael]

Digweed.....Looooong shots.
Pete

[dgludwig]

Imo, the double trigger design that was the best idea was the one Browning used for a time on some of their Superposed O/Us and Mauser (Gamba) had on some of their Model 620 O/Us: whichever of the two triggers you decided to pull, a second pull on the same trigger fired the other barrel. A great idea I think but I've read where the executions of the two apparently overly complex designs were fraught with function problems.

[FITASC]

Digweed.....Looooong shots.
Pete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teixm6JMw_k

135 yards...........

[Ricklin]

A safety on a trap gun is quite useless. The way the game is played there is no need for a safety, none whatsoever.

My 1918 LC Smith SBT has no safety at all, it was not manufactured with one. AFAIK all the SBT's from LC Smith have no safety.

Those old boys got a right, over a hundred years ago.

[44 AMP]

A safety on a trap gun is quite useless. The way the game is played there is no need for a safety, none whatsoever.

True, HOWEVER, having a safety on the gun means it can be used;/useful for other situations. Like taking the gun afield, hunting.

My Grandfather's Ithaca (1909) has a 3 position safety. Center is safe, forward is fire, which moves to safe when the action is opened, and all the way back, which is the "off" position, the gun fires, but the safety stays in the off position when the gun is opened. Pulling and holding both triggers, while closing the action, with the safety in its most rearward position lowers the hammers, leaving the gun uncocked, and ready for storage.

[Jim Watson]

I took the safety off my 1100 TA after the report of someone going down the row of trap guns in the rack and applying safeties. A substantial number of shooters did not check and lost their first target.

We had one guy who said a BT99 34" Full would knock a squirrel down out of a tall tree.
He got along without a safety catch.

[jaguarxk120]

All of the auto safety's on my O/U's are now manual.

If the safety is off it stays off till I put it on. It is a pain in the rear at the trap range
when the safety go's on when you open the gun.

[FITASC]

I agree, I have one gun with an auto safety, and it is the one I haven't shot in about a decade..............Not even my S&W Elite Gold SxS field gun has an auto safety....