Regardless of personal opinions on aesthetics
I am still fascinated by this unique rifle. Early on, Feltwad stated that the right barrel’s rifling is fast twist while the left has straight rifling. Also it was noted later that the double set trigger complex fired the left barrel (which was an unepected surprise to me). In my experience searching out original double rifles, virtually all SxS double rifles with one straight-rifled barrel mount the twist-rifled barrel on the right, and use the front trigger to fire it. The recent post showing the locks notes that the right lock has a fly in the tumbler for the double set trigger.
I now assume the front double set trigger combination fires the right twist-rifled barrel as I would normally expect, and the rear “shotgun” trigger fires the straight-rifled left barrel with a lock lacking a fly in the tumbler. Is that correct, Feltwad?
Also, Brent English asked why the straight-rifled barrel is the same caliber as the twist barrel. A detailed discussion of straight rifling was started on March 16, 2014 by smylee grouch and is worth looking up. Many opinions exist about this issue. My take is that the straight-rifled barrel probably fires a patched ball a little more accurately than a smoothbore, and also can shoot shot better than a twist-rifled barrel. It’s convenient to have both barrels take the same size patched ball, and also have a barrel in the same gun for shooting small game shot.
Bill Paton