doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any experts on Ithaca single selective trigger

I have NID 4E with a very confused Ithaca single selective trigger. About two years ago it started to double and in disgust I put in the safe for punishment. It is a beautiful gun with 28 in vent rib mod/mod barrels and beaver tail forearm, 30 inch vent rib f/f barrels with a beaver tailed forearm a 32 in vent rib f/f grade 5 barrels and a Monte Carlo stock.

I took the trigger out and cleaned it although it was not dirty and of course given my marginal mechanical ability things did not improve. I have not shot the gun with loaded ammo due to my fear of doubling causing stock problems I have been using primed shells to evaluate the function of the trigger. At this point the gun will fire the left barrel first whether the gun is on safe, left barrel or right barrel. I had the trigger worked on by the Miller trigger people several years ago and have less than a flat of shells through the gun. My interest in shooting the gun for 5 stand or sporting clays has led to it to be released from the safe. Any constructive comments are welcome.

jlb

An NID 4E is a nice gun - I hope you can get it figured out.

I've owned several guns with complicated or supposedly troublesome triggers:

Two 1931 Browning Superposeds with Twin-Single triggers - both of those were tuned before I got them and I never had any issues with either. One of them is now with a friend in PA who still shoots it, still no issues.

AyA Model 53 with a SNST. No issues, ever, and all it ever really gets shot for is clays. Who knows how many thousands of rounds have been through that gun?

The latest acquisition is a gorgeous William Ford BLE from 1908 with a Baker SST. It works flawlessly so far. It's out for a visit at The Gun Spa, getting refinished, recheckered, cleaned right down to its tiniest bits, and dressed up a little.

Just a thought, don’t assume it’s the fault of the single trigger. The same things that cause double trigger guns to double can cause a single trigger to double. Does it double with either barrel fired 1st?
Are either of the side have light pull?

Good luck!

Hello,

My first suggestion would have been Dan May at Classic Gun Stocks who holds the rights to Miller single triggers, are you saying he has worked on it for you and it is still not working correctly??

I shoot more NID's with single triggers than double triggers only because the Ithaca NID target guns come mostly with Single selective triggers. While I have had an issue or two in the past, most of my experience has been good with Ithaca single triggers. Dan May has worked on an Ithaca single trigger and a Kautsky tigger in the past with good success.

To answer the above questions; I don't know if the doubling continues as the selector does not work and I assume that it is likely going to double if it has the opportunity.

Yes I had Classic stocks work on the gun some years ago. Not only did they work on the trigger but they also glass beaded the stock to increase strength. I am not faulting the work of Classic Stocks as it has been some time and the wood may have shifted or a gremlin taken residence in the gun. I should point out that the ejectors only work on occasion when "dry fired".

I am reluctant to return the gun to Classic Stocks because of the expense and the shipping hassle. That being said I want the gun to be functional as I am long in the tooth and my guns will go to children and mainly grandchildren at my demise. So I expect that I will be contacting Mr. May shortly. In the mean time I am still available for a miracle.

I purchased a beautiful 1928 NID 4E last year for an excellent price because the single trigger was malfunctioning. I sent the gun to Dan May and he did an excellent job of repairing the trigger and correcting some other issues. The gun runs 100% now and is a please to shoot. Good luck.

I agree Dan would be the first choice, esp. since he has previously worked on the trigger.

I appreciate the anxiety shipping the gun however. Phillips might be drivable from your place?
http://www.phillipsgunsmithing.com/about-us.html

Just for grins,,try backing off on the rear tang screw first. A 1/2 turn. You will need to take the TG screw out and unscrew the TG out of the way to get at the rear tang screw.
Then, back off the top tang screw (underneath the Top Lever). Same thing,,1/2 turn.

What this does is relaxes the trigger plate a bit and can actually allow it to straighten some if it was bowed a bit by the tightening of the screws.

This can all allow just a few .000 more room betw the trigger mechanism and the sear arms.
That can let the Trigger Selector move as it should to positions beneath either of the sear arms when selected.

If the selector in the Trigger Mechanism can't completely move side to side , it can be halted in a position where it lifts both sear arms at the same time
no matter which side is selected.,and the gun doubles.


Just a thought to try, It doesn't take much work, remove TG screw and unscrew the TG a bit,,then back off the rear tang screw. Then back off the Top Tang Screw.

Then try the gun and see if the trigger will select properly and fire the selected bbl w/o doubling. Then will it also continue to work and fire the other bbl as normal.

Sometimes those 2 screws can be backed off a bit more and sometimes less to 'make it work'.

The Glass bedding of the action and trigger plate can sometimes affect the trigger position if it's not carefully restricted to keeping the upper and lower tangs separated an exact amount.

Just some thoughts. Single Triggers can be a tough thing to solve. A lot of 'smiths won't even work on them.