Shooting double triggers

[calvin humburg]

Whats your posion, 1 or 2 fingers in trigger guard.

[edgarspencer]

one.

[Dave Suponski]

Yes sir....just one. Come to think of it how can you get two fingers in there?

[scott kittredge]

one

[Rick Losey]

can't imagine shooting safely with two in there

[Dean Romig]

One finger only. It's the only way that makes sense.
Generally your finger trips the forward trigger first because most birds flushed fly away from the shooter. If you miss with the first shot your trigger finger moves instinctively to the rear trigger (with the tighter pattern) for the more distant 'going away' shot.

It may sound like a difficult coordination of trigger finger position but it is the simplest thing in the world. About two or three rounds of skeet or sporting clays will get you there in a hurry. Learn to love double triggers.

[edgarspencer]

One finger only. It's the only way that makes sense.
Generally your finger trips the forward trigger first because most birds flushed fly away from the shooter. If you miss with the first shot your trigger finger moves instinctively to the rear trigger (with the tighter pattern) for the more distant 'going away' shot.

It may sound like a difficult coordination of trigger finger position but it is the simplest thing in the world. About two or three rounds of skeet or sporting clays will get you there in a hurry. Learn to love double triggers.

X2.

[Mike Shepherd]

The first time I decided to shoot a two-trigger gun I put two fingers in. Got a painful lesson and a bloody gash in my middle finger. Since then I use one.

Best,

Mike

[edgarspencer]

The only time I ever remember ever using anything but my index finger was because I had a bandage on my index finger. There is no way anyone can convince me that you have the same "feel" with your middle finger, that you would have instinctively developed over time. I did know a guy who lost part of his index finger and learned to adapt using his middle finger, but that would be expected anyway. I'm a lefty, but can't say I have ever noticed anything awkward with the conventional left-right offset on a double trigger gun. Each of the two partridge I got this past weekend in VT were taken with the left, after missing with the right ( Naturally, with a Parker)

[Jeff Mayhew]

Has anyone here ever actually succeeded in firing each barrel separately, under control, with both fingers inserted? I suppose a heavy gun with very light loads might make it possible....:corn:

I've certainly tried... once.

[calvin humburg]

One also, never tried two just read something got me to (no pun intended) wondering. Thanks Yoda's :) ch In case some of you are wondering who in sam hill yoda is he was the all knowing Jedi master. = smart fellow.

[edgarspencer]

I've had a few English guns with articulated (hinged) front triggers, but they were on small bore guns, making it less necessary to begin with.

[Mark Ouellette]

A friend has a nice BH Parker with an articulating front trigger.

[Jack Kuzepski]

The first time I ever fired a Parker was over 45 years ago. It was a Parker Trojan in 12 gauge I was borrowing from a close friend to use hunting. I was in my very early teens and had only been hunting once or twice before with a single shot 20 ga. Being it was the first double I was going to shoot he suggested that I test fire it to get the feel of it before I went hunting. We went out to a vacant field and he gave me a pair of green Remington paper shells and I loaded the gun. So I asked him what I should shoot. He suggested hitting that sparrow flying straight away. So I threw the gun to my shoulder and, not knowing any better, placed two fingers in the triggerguard. After the shot(s) I found myself sitting on the ground, legs out straight, still with the shotgun to my shoulder. To say I was suprised is an understatement but trying to remain somewhat composed, I asked him if I got the bird. After about 15 seconds, he was able to breathe again from laughing so hard to say that he was so suprised to see me going backward that he didn't see the bird.
All of my SXS guns are double trigger guns but I learned a long time ago to use just one finger inside the trigger guard.

Jack Kuzepski

[Michael K. Burnley]

One of my Parker VH's has 30 inch barrels, both full choke so it doesn't matter which barrel I fire first. I have found that I can fire faster pulling the rear trigger and then the front. It just seems that my finger moves from rear trigger to front more easily than front to rear. I also realize that if you are shooting a gun with different choked barrels you need to shoot the correct barrel first for the situation. Mike
P.S. I haven't put both fingers in since years ago for the same reasons everyone else mentioned.

[Dean Romig]

I also realize that if you are shooting a gun with different choked barrels you need to shoot the correct barrel first for the situation.


But it's still one heck of a lot easier to do than to try to 'select' one barrel or the other with a SST gun in the heat of the moment.

[John Dallas]

I dunno Dean - I think the safety/barrel selector on a 3200 Remington is the best possible system. I'm surprised no one has adapted the same cocept

[Dean Romig]

In my humble opinion John, it isn't as good as double triggers.

A very long association of exclusively shooting double guns with double triggers, for me anyhow, has taken any guesswork, in fact any thought whatsoever, about using an additional mechanical device to select one barrel over the other.

[todd allen]

Two fingers at a time?
I'm not clever enough to be able to do that, so I settle for one finger.

[John Dallas]

Dean - That's why the M3200 is so good - the act of taking the gun off safe selects the barrel. There is no " additional mechanical device to select one barrel over the other".

[Austin W Hogan]

I spent a couple of summers working at Barrow in the 1970's. There was a major " duck camp" at the base of the spit that hosted about 50 hunters , mostly with Browning Auto 5 Magnums, behind sheets of plywood that served as blinds. Eiders rafted on the open water that eddyed on the Arctic Ocean side of the spit.
The hunters would lie down behind the blinds. Two boys with side by sides with triggers taped together, would stalk out the beach to two other blinds. The boys would aim at the center of the flock, and on a signal fire both barrels. The wind was steady, and the flock always flew over the blinds. 50 Auto 5's would be emptied, and occassionally a duck fell.

Best, Austin

[Tom Carter]

Hi Austin,

I had a friend who flew Twin Otters for a seismic outfic that flew over that spit pretty low one day and got peppered. We operated from the NARC at Point Barrow. I think that was 76 or 77. Cheers, Tom

[Dean Romig]

Oh... well that would work for me!

[John Campbell]

Austin:
Just proves that volume of fire does not equal hits. Just ask any VN vet. I'll take two shots and done, thank you. Unless I'm in a fire fight with Charlie.

Best, Kensal

[Austin W Hogan]

Good to hear from you , Tom. I stayed at NARC, and worked from the NOAA observatory just East of the DEW line site.
I have been scratching my head trying to think of the Super Cub pilot's name; quite a guy.

Best, Austin

[Tom Carter]

Hi Austin, We also operated out of Lonely, Umiat, Liberty Lake, and several others I have forgotten the names of as well as the ice cap. A different world and a different time. Our runways were plowed strips on frozen lakes. Runway lights were #10 cans with a roll of toilet paper for a wick fueled by diesel fuel. I think the 130's needed 36" of ice but we needed only about 12" or so. Cheers, Tom

[Austin W Hogan]

Tom; Did you know J.O. Fletcher - "Fletcher's Ice Island"? Joe was first to land at North Pole (C 47) and the first person to visit both poles.
He was a B 17 pilot and squadron leader in WW II . He was assigned, with a B17 and crew to GE Research Lab in Schenectady, where he worked on icing and contrail problems with Vince Schaefer in 1947 - 48. They stayed lifelong friends.
I went to work for Vince when I came home from the service in 1964. I never asked Joe for a favor , but he was my "angel" several times in both Arctic and Antarctic. He began the instrumentation of the remote sensing C130 we used when I was Mission Scientist 1977 -80.
Joe died a little over a year ago at 88

Best, Austin

[Tom Carter]

Hi Austin, I did not know Mr. Fletcher but I believe I have read about him somewhere. Cheers, Tom

[Steve McCarty]

If you can stick two fingers in there when the gun goes off the front trigger will smack into the second finger. Some guns even have a hinged front trigger so it won't do that.

I have shot two trigger guns my entire life and am used to them. I'm not used to a sxs with a single trigger but I own a few. I usually mount the gun with my finger on the front (open barrel) trigger and then move it back to the other if the bird gets up too far away. Or I shoot the first and then move my trigger back to the second, not hard for me to do at all. I have heard guys however, who say flipping triggers is difficult for them and they'll just yank like heck on that front trigger waiting for the closed barrel to fire by itself.

I have never, ever been able to select another barrel on a single trigger gun after a covey rise or when the ducks are coming in. It is THTD (too hard to do). But with a two trigger gun it's a piece of cake.