Daryl, the two-piece trigger guard iron is one of those little details where once you notice it, you realize it appears on other guns. I can't list all the times where I've noticed a design or construction feature, thinking it was a new one to me, only to go back to the collection and find it was not so new... And I too thought the two-piece guard was unusual, and I was surprised to see it was in wider use than I had thought. I have no idea of the benefit, if any, of having a two-piece trigger guard instead of the single piece iron. But it was not an uncommon practice in pinfire game guns. In this thread I've illustrated 10 other game guns having this particular quirk, by Barnett, Birkett & Allen, John Blissett, JD Dougall, WW Greener, Harris Holland, William Moore, Theophilus Murcott, CF Niebour, and TJ Watkins. Yep, it's worth going back in the thread and having another look.
Sort of like the the back-lock plate attachment, unless you look at a number of guns you never notice there are several different ways of fixing the plate. In the case of pinfires, how often does one have the luxury of examining several dozen at once? Another reason to continue following this thread!
Perhaps this 'feature' was short-lived, I don't have other doubles to compare to. Does anyone have a later centre-fire hammer gun or hammerless double with a two-piece trigger guard iron?
