doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Ithaca Single Triggers

Emil Flues patented a single trigger for Ithaca in 1910 but the first single triggers installed on Ithaca doubles seem to have been the Infallible triggers in 1915 and 1916. By 1926 (maybe earlier) they are offering the Miller trigger and by 1931 the Howland triggers. I've been able to find the Howland non-selective single trigger patent - https://patents.google.com/patent/US1818852A/en - but not the selective one. Like so many things that you think you know, the more you learn the less sure you are. In this case, Harry Howland's personal notes are the cause for my questioning. I have long thought that the non-selective trigger was used on the Lefever and Western Arms doubles and the selective one on the NID. Now I'm not so sure.

Howland was the factory/plant manager from 1923 until his retirement in 1959 and in his notes he writes that during the depths of the depression when Ithaca was running on a skeleton crew he "...personally designed and built a model of the new Ithaca double selection single trigger which we put on the Lefever double and the Western double-barrel guns."

But then later in his "designed, developed and built by Ithaca Gun Co. under my supervision" notes he lists:

"New Ithaca Double Selecting single trigger - 1931"
"Lefever & Western non-sel single trigger - 1931"

I'm wondering if he took the NID selective trigger (which I can't find a patent for) and redesigned it as a non-selective trigger for the Lefever and Western Arms guns.

Does anyone know if this is a correct?

And did Ithaca offer both these single triggers across their three lines of guns or was the selective trigger for the NID and the non-selective one for the Lefever and Western Arms guns?


BTW the above information is collated and condensed from Walt Synder's research with all credit to him.

The SNS triggers I have seen and worked on inclu the above mentioned were all a 'contraption' of stamped metal parts and coil springs.
The metal parts were punch press fabbed & then bent in mfg'r were needed to be formed in those shapes. The main spring is an extension type coil spring, not very heavy.

Simple straight pins held things together. Nothing too precise actually.

The entire mechanism works off of the right hand hammer.
When cocked,,that hammer pushes a Slide Bar to the rear that is centered over the Single Trigger ,,and underneath both sear arm extensions...
That 'slide' has an extension off of it that bears against the upper portion of the back side of the RH hammer and is spring loaded lightly towards the muzzle with that extension coil spring pulling it in that direction tied to frame.

The slide is a simple flat piece of steel stamped out and properly bent to position itself.
At the rear of it are open slots on each edge. One on each side.

When the hammers are cocked, the right hammer has contol of the slide and has pushed it to the rear.
At that point the Open Slot on the left side of slide is positioned under the left sear arm extension.
The opening on the right side of the slide is to the rear of being under the right sear arm..The solid surface of the slide itself is underneath the right sear arm extension.

Pulling the trigger lifts the Slide Bar up.
Being no opening on the Bar under the RH sear,,the bar lifts and fires the RH sear/barrel.
At the same time,,the lefthand side of the Slide BAr is being lifted by the trigger motion,,but,,there is blank/opening in that LH side of the bar.
So the Bar moves upward and past the left sear arm extension w/o touching the sear extension
and the LH sear/bbl does not fire.

Releasing the trigger after the RH bbl is fired lowers the Slide Bar. Now that the RH hammer has pivoted forward,,the slidebar is no longer positioned the way it was with it's extended arm bearing against the upper portion of the cocked hammer.
The extension coil spring powering the Slide Bar pulls it forward a bit to reposition it and ready for the next shot.

In the slide bar repositioning itself forward, now that open slot on the left side of the rear of the bar has moved forward and a solid surface of the bar is now positioned underneath the LH sear arm extension.
As well the solid surface of the slide bar that allowed the RH sear to be fired has moved forward and now the empty cutout slot on the RH side is under the fired sear on the RH side.

The second pull of the trigger lifts the entire Slide Bar again just like the first pull did,,but this time, the LH sear arm is disengaged as the Slide Bar solid surface pushes on the sear arm.
The Left bbl now fires. Your second shot w/the SNS trigger.

The open cut on the RH side misses the already fired RH sear arm, if it's at all in contact, which can add extra trigger pull weight on the trigger. It all depends on if the RH sear kicks out of the way or not upon release.

Opening the gun cocks the hammer(s). The right hammer pivots back and cocks and at the same time pushes the Slide Bar back again and holds it. There the rear slots are in position the fire the RH bbl with the first pull and then the LH bbl with the second pull of the SNS trigger.

This is what I remember them as,,I may have a couple details out of line.

Safety blocks the trigger only, just as most all SxS trigger mechanisms.

They don't look like much, but they work well. Most adjustments are by bending and 'tweaking'. Smoothing up edges from the orig punch press fabrication process helps alot.
If I remember right that Slide Bar was at least lightly case hardened on one or 2 that I worked on.
I can see where these mechanisms could be factory made and then installed without much technical expertise, fitting and problems.

No mention of a single trigger in the 1918, two 1919s, 1920 and 1924 Ithaca catalogs I have. The last Flues era catalog, the big 1925 Ithaca Gun Co. catalog lists a single selective trigger for $25 and also offers a beavertail forearm for the No. 4 and higher.

I don't go inside these things. Actually, I get impatient and bad things can happen, so I leave this to others. I have heard that Howland's selective trigger was a way to get around Miller's patent and essentially it took something that was one piece in Miller is two pieces in the Howland.

The Non-Selective Single Trigger was introduced in the second 1932 Ithaca catalog at $6.50 and at the same time the price of the selective trigger (I'm guessing still from Miller) was upped from the $30 it had been since 1926 to $32.45.



The prices remained the same in the 1933 catalog.

By the 1934 catalog and price lists it appears to me the Selective Single Trigger became the Howland and the price dropped to $21.60 retail.



While the Non-Selective Single Trigger was $6.50 on an Ithaca, it was $4.60 on the 1932 Lefever poster, and on a Western was only $3.50 --

Fascinating, gentlemen. Thank you.