doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Occasional hair triggers on a sidelock

Any idea what would cause an occasional hair triggers on a side lock? I've taken the locks out and looked at them, but I didn't see anything that might cause the problem.

Left barrel is one in every 20-30 shots and the right barrel just had it's first hair trigger

Gun in question is a Rigby side lock

Thanks!

Cocking rods/arms could be worn enough that a light opening of the barrels may not allow for a complete recock, whereas a spirited opening does. You’d probably see firing pin drag in that instance though. Make sure when you open the barrels you are hitting the stop, nothing hard though. Wood contact could be another. A cleaning perhaps?

A.H. Fox guns sears are some of the ones that amateur "gunsmiths" destroy the proper angles on the sear ends from time to time, and through the years I have heated Fox sears in my forge and forged the tips longer and recut the angles and rehardened and tempered the sears---and they are still out in the field working. A.H. Fox sears are particularly problematic if too short as their length is critical to other functions of the gun than just trigger pulls as many of the participants of this site know.

Yes, "sear work is one of those once done cannot be undone" things for so called gunsmiths who do not know anything but part changing.

Are you aware that they must be "play in the triggers" which means that there is a few thousands of an inch gap between the triggers where they contact the sears with the safety disengaged ? With the safety engaged there should be no play. If you are saying that this clearance does not exist with safety disengaged, then you need to determine why this is the case and correct it.

Left bbl,,check the trigger shoe itself inside the guard. Many are set well to the rear and the bottom tip or backside of it may actually contact the inside of the TG bow when the gun opened and the lock is cocked.

The trigger then moves forward a bit as the sear falls into it's cocked position and allows the trigger to also drop a bit.

But if the cocking motion (dropping the bbls) is less than complete (babied),,the sear won't be allowed to drop into place as the trigger is pushed against the bow.
Just enough resistance . That leaves the sear to hammer engagement 'on the edge'. A light touch to the trigger sets it off.

If it is the problem you can often see a light burnished mark, sometimes not very obvious at first glance, where the trigger touches the inside of the guard.

A real oddity is the shooter that pokes their middle finger of the right hand inside the guard as the thumb on the RH is used to open the top lever.
That middle finger can go right up against the rear trigger/left bbl or press up on the usually long bar that is the forward portion of the rear trigger.
Either can hold the trigger back slightly which effects how the sear drops into the hammer notch.
I'd imagine the front trigger could be effected the same way, but both would be a real rarity in handling/function. Only something you yourself could likely diagnose and 'fix'.
It can only make the above problem appear if the gun has a Non-Auto Safe (or an Auto-Safe that is very sloppy in it's engagement with the triggers for the SAFE condition).

It's more likely worn cocking linkage part(s) along with less than complete opening cycle of the bbl's.

Worn sear engagements will generally show the same engagement features with every pull wether very light, heavy, gritty, whatever.