Set the trikkers b/4 shouldering her??

[Daryl]

For the rifle men that have the habit of setting those porcupine dbl setts before they shoulder the piece.   Lemme: relate an incident that occured a weekend or so ago...

A shooter was on the line on the paper range and had the rifle cradled in his left elbow with his left hand against the flintlock.  He apparently bumped the hair trikker and the rifle fired burning his thumb it's full length and part of his palm.  Some grease and bandage later he related that his habit was to set the trikkers before shouldering the rifle.  I'm quite certain he has or will change his methods.  I happen to set those trikkers as I shoulder the rifle.  Things seemed more natural that way.

Just a word to the readers out there.  

Hmm- re-read the above and sounds familiar. The person pulled the cock to full cock, primed, pulled the frizzen closed and the gun went off, burning his hand, just about exactly the same as Roger described above, due to the hand being opposite the vent when the gun went off- ie: just had closed the pan.  He may or may not have set the trigger before pulling the frizzen back

[volatpluvia]

I hate set triggers of any type.  I put davis double levers on my first custom build.  The gun never was right so after about six years I completely rebuilt it.  By that time I had read of the simple trigger pinned high in the wood with the pin close to the lever on the sear.  I tried it and have done it ever since.  I like the travel inherent and the let off when the sear breaks being almost unnoticable. 
I don't like southern guns so I don't have to have set triggers.  I didn't even put them on my yeager.
volatpluvia

[Mike R]

DPeck........you are a little confused about set triggers.   First off, there are double lever set triggers, and single lever set triggers.   With a double lever trigger, the cock can be released with the front trigger, without setting it...........assuming the
gun was assembled properly.   With the single lever trigger, you cannot release the sear with the front trigger, unless it is
set.   If you have a gun where you must set the trigger before you can cock the lock, the gun was not assembled properly, by
that I mean the trigger was not installed properly.    As for setting the trigger, for safety purposes, it is best to set the trigger
while shouldering the gun, or right after you have it shouldered.................Don

OK, you have got my attention...I have an old rifle with a Cochran lock and triggers.  Willie Cochran himself told me that I must set the triggers before cocking--after I had already damaged the lock internals by doing the reverse [setting then cocking].  Is that a condition of his lock/triggers or was the trigger unit installed wrong?

[northmn]

I remember the Cochran locks but not he triggers.  The single lever triggers we were discussing have to be set to deactivate the lock.  They only have one lever.  The double levers were designed to be able to use either set or unset and have a distinct advantage where one is utilizing the gun in the field where you may want to release the half cock or full cock without settting a trigger.  Set triggers also can if set to strong, break sear engagements either at the half cock or the sear itself.  A whole tutorial could be made on installing and adjusting set triggers.  In my opinion, which I admit is personal, set triggers are an abomination in the field.

DP

[jeager58]

well weather your  gun has set triggers or a single trigger or its a cartridge rifle
treat a loaded firearm  with respect and care and never point the business end anywhere you  don't want the round  to go off in.....phil

[Leatherbelly]

For the rifle men that have the habit of setting those porcupine dbl setts before they shoulder the piece.   Lemme: relate an incident that occured a weekend or so ago...

A shooter was on the line on the paper range and had the rifle cradled in his left elbow with his left hand against the flintlock.  He apparently bumped the hair trikker and the rifle fired burning his thumb it's full length and part of his palm.  Some grease and bandage later he related that his habit was to set the trikkers before shouldering the rifle.  I'm quite certain he has or will change his methods.  I happen to set those trikkers as I shoulder the rifle.  Things seemed more natural that way.

Just a word to the readers out there.  

I do the same . Set the trigger as I shoulder.Not when it's shouldered. New to me about setting the trikker,then cocking the cock.. Not in my practice.Yikes.

[greybeard]

These are the single lever set that I made and used in my last build and they are installed and set upso you can cock the gun with the trigger unset. You can see in the pic that a bit of material hah been stoned of the top of the trigger and I also had to stone some off the hook on the spring to lower the trigger enough so I could cock without setting.
    It takes a little time but I can see no reason to have to set the triggers in order to cock the hammer.
[

[Daryl]

You should be able to hold the cock back, and push the trigger forward, then let the cock down, not having to set it and catch the hammer to let it down.
I recall my doublt set, single throw trigger on my first longrifle had to be 'set' to get the cock to lock in full cock position. In removing the triggers, it was obvious a small amount of metal removed off the rear trigger's 'throw' would have allowed it to cock, without first setting it.

Setting the trigger before cocking is all wrong to me. You wouldn't do it with a bolt action rifle and I won't do it with a ml either. I replaced the trigger with double set, double throw.

[northmn]

That is a nice job on the single lever trigger and they can be used as Daryl says so that you do not need to set them for half cock or full cock.  You still have to set them to release form either, whcih I find irritating.  They are not all bad on a target range and I used the double lever on my little squirrel rifle. 

DP

[roundball]

In my opinion, which I admit is personal, set triggers are an abomination in the field.

First, note I put your disclaimer in  bold, so you'd know this is not intended to debate your personal choice...only to make a similar but different point.

I literally shot thousands of shots over many years using T/C Hawkens double set/double lever triggers...and their front trigger was so poor in my opinion, so heavy, and differed so much from one to another, that I quickly learned to discount them and use all my MLs in the set trigger mode.
The result for hunting was that using the set trigger had become so ingrained and automatic in managing my Flintlocks that I continued right on using set triggers, including the current longrifles I've transitioned to with no problems, at least for the type of hunting that I do (deer, squirrel, turkey).

When hunting, my steps are:  Hammer stall on, Half cock, Prime, Close frizzen, Full cock.
If a shooter approaches / gets in range, I set the trigger, slip off the hammer stall, take the shot using the set trigger.

I guess its whatever we get used to and the kind of hunting involved...

[Daryl]

Harumph - (HA!) I've wanted to say that for a long time.

As RB says, it depends on what you're accustomed to. Some folks just can't get used to sets, or get too excited when game is near, to even think of using sets and that's OK.  I always practise on the trail walk using the triggers set and not set. I find it easy to switch from gun to gun, sets to single- doesn't matter to me, but being comfortable and instantly familiar with your triggers is manditory when hunting.

As an aside, I find if I'm flinching, I'll try a few shots without setting the trigger - that way I don't know when it's going to go off and the result is a hit, virtually every time.