doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com New Dickinson SXS

Triggers were 8+ (off the scale of my gauge) on the double trigger Dickinson 20ga I borrowed from Cabela's for a field test and review. I thought, like the S&W's I'd tried out previously, that it was a well-made gun for the money--other than the triggers. The first S&W I tested had a single trigger that was very heavy. The second one was DT and it was fine. When I returned the Dickinson 20 to Cabela's, I checked the other two that store had in inventory. Both DT guns, both also heavy--although I did not have my gauge with me. Recently visited another Cabela's, tried a Dickinson 20 with DT, and that one felt pretty good. So I'd say hit or miss, DT or not. Try before you buy. Heavy triggers may not bother some people as much as others. But if you can hang a gun by the trigger, safety off, and the hammer doesn't drop . . . that's heavy. Trigger pull weight should not exceed the weight of the gun. Seems to be a recurring problem on Turkish guns. Not all of them, but enough that I wouldn't order one sight unseen.

The Motor Mouth Speaks again....LOL......Motor Mouth said the same thing over and over again in his eleven (11) posts on the thread I linked to on page one about Akus Dickinsons and Akus Smith and Wesson Gold Elites............and that was ONE AND ONE HALF YEARS AGO.....ROFLMAO......he loves to repeat himself...........

You have anything of substance to contribute, Doug . . . or just more of the usual BS?

Something I find really funny: Gun writers usually take a hit because, after all, everyone KNOWS we're in cahoots with the gunmakers, and all we do in our articles is pimp for them. Then someone like me, or Bruce Buck (who also made reference to the heavy trigger pulls on some of the early S&W sxs) tells it like it is. Then what happens? The guys who've bought those guns get all defensive . . . like there's nothing to the heavy trigger pull stuff. Well, my gauge doesn't lie. Have you put a gauge on yours, Doug? Put a gauge on other DT Dickinsons out there? The fact that MOST of the trigger complaints may relate to the ST guns doesn't do much to help the poor guy who buys a DT gun with 8 pound plus pulls, does it? And since I found 3 out of 3 (ALL DT and ALL with heavy pulls) at just one Cabela's store, I doubt that I found all of them.

You ought to be permanently relegated to misfires. A misfire is what happens when you go off half-cocked . . . which probably has more than one meaning in your case.

Do you build guns Larry? Doug does. He rebuilt three of them for me to a state of perfection. When it comes to my locks, stocks, and barrels I'll listen to the man who builds them rather than a gun writer. After Elmer Keith and Jack O'Conner died there is no such thing as a gun writer. Anyone who tries to fill their boots is just pissing in the wind.

I could care less what Doug builds or doesn't build, JRB. Trigger pull is trigger pull, and you don't need to build guns to measure it. All you need is a gauge; maybe not even that. I go by what my gauge tells me. Or, if I don't have it with me, put in snap caps, take the safety off, hang the gun from my finger on the trigger. If the hammer doesn't drop without bouncing the gun, that's obviously too heavy.

By the way, re gun writers where shotguns are concerned: Jack O'Connor stated in "The Shotgun Book" that LC Smith didn't make any .410's. Jack was around back when Elsies were still being made, so that's a mistake he really shouldn't have made. But goes to show we ALL make them--even dead heroes.

Do you build guns Larry?

Nope. Do I need to build guns in order to read a trigger pull gauge?

Looked back at what I wrote previously about the Dickinson. I was a pound or so off. Triggers were both between 7-8, by my gauge, on the gun I borrowed from Cabela's, which weighed less than 6 1/2. Gave the other 2 they had in inventory the "finger" test--and the hammers didn't break when I dangled them from my finger with the safety off. So, pulls heavier than gun weight on 3 out of 3 at that particular Gun Library, all DT guns.

I'd note that in my review of the Dickinson, everything except the triggers (and the choke tube tool they provide, which others have also mentioned) was very positive. You get one with good triggers, or find a gunsmith who will adjust them to your satisfaction, I'd say a Dickinson is a good buy. I've found enough trigger pull issues with Turkish guns, across the board--Huglu, CZ, S&W, Dickinson--that it's my recommendation to potential buyers to get the gun in their hands and try the triggers before they buy. You think that's unreasonable, JRB? And if you think I'm the only person who's found heavy triggers on Dickinsons, you need to reread this thread.

Just makes me wonder why modern day gun writers parrot what the builders and smiths say. That's why I read and listen to the guy in the trench doing the dirty work. Relegate Doug to the misfires???? You must be dreaming.

JRB,

Some of us modern shotgun writers not only are not content to parrot what the makers say, but have put in many manhours on the bench learning to file flat and make intricate parts, design and prototype new action types and refurbish old shotguns.

However, not many of the reading public give a damn about the workings of shotguns. In a post above I mentioned the machining approach taken by AKUS in forming their action (subject of this thread). The round bar, the trigger plate action, in conjunction with the name Dickinson is an obvious allusion to a classic double gun action. No one noticed what is politely stated and a warning to the consumer in my post.

Ironically one of the features of the original round action were excellent trigger pulls! The whys and wherefores have been well documented by gunwriters, but not many noticed.

Who's parroting what anyone says, JRB? I had the gun in my hands. Put in snap caps, tested it with a trigger pull gauge. That's called an "objective measurement". If I have a gun built for me by "the guy in the trench doing the dirty work", I'm darned well going to specify trigger pulls in terms of weight. I'd fully expect him to measure them with a gauge. Not going to trust a "guy in the trench" who tells me that they're "fine" without giving me pull weights.

And I'd note that in a fairly short, 2 page thread, 3 other posters also refer to heavy trigger pulls--in one case so heavy it doesn't work for him. Are they also disqualified from expressing their experiences, just because they don't build guns? Guess somebody needs to tell Dave that he should change the name of his website to doublegunbuilder.com . . . no others need comment.