Double Trigger O/U

Dear Technoid:

Great web site. I sure hope you guys never get tired of answering stupid questions like the one that follows.

I have become intrigued with the looks of an O/U, double triggers, straight stock, and even fixed chokes. ( I’m a bit of a traditionalist wouldn’t you say?) These guns seem to be in short supply and pricey. Is it possible to convert a single trigger gun like a straight stocked Browing Citori to double triggers for a reasonable amount of money?

Your thoughts please. And thank you for entertaining another of my silly questions.

Len

Dear Len,

Not a dumb question at all. It’s a pretty good one. Double triggers have many advantages in the field and I have often though that the double triggered O/U was a very practical approach. Why should SxSs have all the fun?

I generally choke my upland bird guns for first barrel efficiency at 20 yards and second barrel at 30 yards. For most of the upland hunting I do (grouse, woodcock, quail, pheasant) this is about right. I very much like the ability of instantly going to my tighter choked barrel when a bird flushes at distance. Double triggers make this easy. I’ve never been able to instantly work a little barrel selector like they have on the Brownings, or even the little Model 21-style trigger buttons. I’m sure that others can do it, but I can’t. With double triggers I can select in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, while it is quite possible to convert your Citori to double triggers, it won’t be economically practical. It would cost you about as much to do the work as the gun cost new. Maybe more. Maybe lots more. You would literally have to redesign the way the action functions and then hand-make the parts. It’s quite common to convert from double triggers back to single triggers on an O/U, but going the other way is seldom done.

Over the years I have seen a number of double trigger O/Us. I remember a very nice Perazzi game gun with DTs. It was selling for a very low price because no one wanted an O/U with two triggers. If I only knew then what I know now. The Germans and Austrians to a lot of double trigger O/U stuff. Merkel, Simpson, Sauer all make or used to make DT O/Us. The actions are high and not particularly graceful.

The Belgian Browning used to come with a neat “Double/Single” trigger back in the 30s before WWII. It had two triggers with with a difference. The front trigger worked the bottom barrel and the rear the top barrel as you would expect, BUT you could also fire the top barrel by pulling the front trigger a second time just like a single trigger gun. I have always felt that this was a marvelous feature and am surprised that it never caught on. Perhaps there was a difficulty in the design which affected cost or reliability.

Now, if you could accept a SxS configuration, then double triggers would be easy. Go try a few SxS guns. Perhaps your friends at the gun club could bring a few to show you. You may find that you enjoy handling them. They are even more traditional for field use thana DT O/U is.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC
(Often in error. Never in doubt.)