Tennessee set triggers

[JCKelly]

Set triggers used in TN, probably upper East Tennessee, possibly western (Not WV) Virginia had the springs arranged differently. From the outside what one sees is the triggers off-set to the shooter's right, rather than being on the centerline of the plate.
The late Robin Hale illustrated this in his Fall, 1970 presentation to the ASAC, below 


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The pair of triggers on the right are conventional design, the two on the left are Tennessee.

I have two Southern rifles with such triggers. One, unmarked, flint conversion, seems to me of Virginia style.



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The other is a long heavy barreled percussion rifle which Dixie Gun Works said was Tennessee, and probably is so.

My question is, does anyone make such triggers for sale? On an earlier post I somewhat Cavalierly suggested to someone that he make his own. Words do come back to haunt, no?
I have an old stock blank machine inlet for barrel, a barrel to fit & a good Roller lock. Of course, with a fantasy of putting together a plain iron mounted rifle in the style of my Virginia/Tennessee rifle. My ambition and gunmaking skills seem to have departed with Gerald Ford and I'd prefer to buy, rather than make, what metal parts I can.
Yes, I'd also like to find someone who custom makes iron trigger guards, to get one to match that old rifle.

But here my real question is about those offset triggers, does anyone make them? The usual supply houses, TOW, Dixie, Log Cabin, Tenn Valley, do not have such.

[Hungry Horse]

Very interesting. I have a set of triggers that I got with a batch of parts that had been through a house fire. There was a percussion Goulcher lock, a Tenn. style brazed  iron butt plate, and these single phase double set triggers. The triggers are offset as you mentioned. I alway puzzled over if the triggers were really part of the set, or just something someone found. I love it when a question gets answered, without generating another question.

                  Hungry Horse

[Bob Roller]

That appears to be a very narrow plate or bar and the offset would be to make room for the long forward trigger tension spring.
The triggers also appear to be the single release bar type that must be set for every shot.

Bob Roller

[Bob Roller]

I might try to make a set and see if I still remember how.It's bee about 50 years since I made a single release DST.
One would think that the release bar would be to the right of center to put it closer to the sear.

Bob Roller

[greybeard]

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I always favor the triggers to the right side to make room for the feather spring.
     Bob








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[C Wallingford]

I always favor the triggers to the right side to make room for the feather spring.
     Bob

That set looks like the ones that Norman Wendell made years ago. I believe that he sold to R. E. Davis and they have evolved into what is currently produced.

[Dennis Glazener]

These are the triggers off a Mathew Gillespie Buncombe county (today's Transylvania county) NC rifle. Note the offset, to the shooters left. Earl Lanning dated the rifle around 1810.

[Bob Roller]

My triggers for both Hawken and longrifles have the slot for the triggers in the middle
so the front trigger tension spring can function.It is a hollow rectangle that gives better
support to the front trigger.

Bob Roller

[JB2]

Dennis, them triggers must be for a left-hand rifle.  

They'd work for the next project waiting in my closet

[JCKelly]

Thanks for the picture, Dennis. Should I have to hacksaw that plate out of solid, well that is when I would become a real fan of 12L14

Just checked my Virginia-ish rifle, with triggers offset to shooter's right. They do function as single bar triggers, must be set to cock the rifle. Likewise for a Stephen P'Pool Kentucky Kentucky, though they are not offset.

Need mull this over. I find single bar inconvenient when trying to slowly lower the cock on a flintlock