I have been looking at more traditional muzzleloaders lately (really think I need a .32 or .36 cal) and many of the ones I see have double set triggers. My only experience with set triggers is from a CZ 527 that I was able to handle at a gun show. Are the two triggers simply different breaking weights? Any information or experience would be appreciated.

79

I have a CVA Hawkins that has double set triggers. You can
either pull the back trigger as you normally would to fire
(it pulls rather hard in that manner), or you can pull the
front trigger to set the back trigger. When you do that, you
need to be careful, cuz just TOUCHING the rear trigger will
set it off!

P.S. I would NOT recommend this rifle to my worst enemy. Do
not get the CVA Hawkins -- it's total junk (other than the
trigger).

I have a hawkens that I have owned for years with double set triggers. Only 1 trigger releases the hammer. The other trigger is the "set trigger". It works like this. You can ignore the set and shoot. The trigger will have creep and a weight in the neigbhorhood of 10 lbs. Or you can set the trigger, by pulling the rear trigger. In which case you get a 2lb pull with no creep.

I believe that at one time, in the 19th century, this system was popular with target shooters. I happen to like it myself. It does add another step. But you are not shooting a traditional muzzleloader for speed.

Pete

When I was involved with muzzle loaders it was often the case that unset it was 10 lbs or more and set it was often less than 1 lb. For hunting one way too heavy , the other too light.This may have been a manufacturing thing but a nice 4 lb trigger would have been better. Finely made rifles with set triggers ,single or double are a different story.

Normally the rear trigger is the set trigger and the front trigger fires the gun. Now depending on your trigger setup you can either fire the gun set or unset. This is true of most comercial reporductions. This is not true of some custom or semi-custom rifles but is usually at the request of the person ordering.

Lets assume you can fire the gun set or unset ....

When firing the gun unset the front trigger acts as a simple trigger and the trigger bar contacts the sear bar to lever the sear away from the full cock notch of the tumbler to allow the tumbler to rotate under spring tension and fire the gun. In some cases it is posible to be able to adjust the trigger pull slightly when firing this way.

Now lets talk about what happens when you fire the rufle while using the set trigger. In this case the set trigger actually causes the rifle to fire even though you pull the front trigger to do it. Let me explain. Both the set trigger and the front trigger have trigger bars that will egande the sear bar. When you pull the rear set trigger you actually pull the rear trigger bar down and not up. You are placing it under spring tension and settting under a notch located on the front trigger. THe front trigger also has spring tension (although much less) to hold the noe set rear trigger under the the front trigger set trigger notch. Now when you pull the front trigger you are actually realeasing the rear trigger which is under spring tension. The rear trigger has sored energy from the spring tension. Thus when it is released the trigger bar actually slaps the sear bar allowing the tumbler to rotate and fire the rifle. This happens before the front trigger bar could engange the sear bar. Thus the rear trigger bar actually fires the gun when set. Therefore it is possible to revome the front trigger bar requireing you to fire the gun in the set possition every time. Pushing the rear set trigger forward raises this trigger's bar to engange the sear bar. You can actually fire the gun with the rear trigger by pushing it forward rather than pulling it.

Give it a try.